Assessment of Stress Intensity Factor for buried cast iron pipeline using finite element analysis

Suborno Debnath, Ashutosh Sutra Dhar

In the proceedings of: GeoSt. John's 2019: 72nd Canadian Geotechnical Conference

Session: Pipelines

ABSTRACT: Cast iron pipelines were widely used as water mains that were installed in the early last century. Most of the cast iron water mains are on the verge of their service life. Replacement of these old pipelines all at once is not an economically viable solution for the municipalities. It is preferred to utilize the pipes that are still in the workable condition and prepare a replacement/repair plan based on the remaining strength of the pipes. However, an acceptable method is currently not available for the remaining strength assessment of cast iron water mains subjected to corrosion and/or stress corrosion cracking. The commonly applied method of continuum modelling of soil-pipe interaction was not successful in predicting the failure mechanism observed in the field. Researchers are now focusing on applying fracture mechanics in the failure assessment of water mains. However, a method for the assessment of stress intensity factor (SIF) for fracture mechanics-based assessment is currently not available for buried pipes subjected to corrosion and/or stress corrosion cracking. In this paper, finite element modelling using Abaqus is performed for assessment of SIF for buried cast iron water mains considering soil-structure interaction. Computational challenges and the numerical techniques employed in the FE analysis are discussed in the paper. The numerical analysis reveals that the defect shapes and the location of defects significantly affect the SIF of buried water mains.

RÉSUMÉ: Les conduites en fonte étaient laune solution économiquement viable pour les muniméthode acceptable n'est actuellement disponible pour l'évaluation de la résistance restante des conduites d'eau principales en fonte soumises à la corrosion et / ou à la fissuration par corrosion sous contrainte. La méthode couramment appliquée de modélisation du continuum de l'interaction sol-tuyau n'a pas permis de prédire le mécanisme ur d'intensité de contrainte (SIF) pour une évaluation basée sur la mécanique de la rupture n'est actuellement disponible pour les tuyaux enterrés soumis à la corrosion et / ou à la fissuration par corrosion sous contrainte. Dans cet article, la modélisati-structure. Le document traite des problèmes de calcul et des techniques numériques utilisées dans l'analyse FE. L'analyse numérique révèle que les formes et l'emplacement des défauts affectent de manière significative le SIF des conduites d'eau enterrées.

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Cite this article:
Suborno Debnath; Ashutosh Sutra Dhar (2019) Assessment of Stress Intensity Factor for buried cast iron pipeline using finite element analysis in GEO2019. Ottawa, Ontario: Canadian Geotechnical Society.

@article{Geo2019Paper378,author = Suborno Debnath; Ashutosh Sutra Dhar,title = Assessment of Stress Intensity Factor for buried cast iron pipeline using finite element analysis ,year = 2019}