WHITE PAPER

RESIDUAL LIFETIME
ASSESSMENT OF
PE PIPELINES
–
How can a pipeline
owner determine the
Dr. Predrag Micic
remaining life of a pipe
(Product Development Executive) that has been in service
August 2016 for many years?
–

ADVANCEMENTS IN THE MOLECULAR DESIGN OF PE

MATERIALS HAVE IMPROVED THE DURABILITY AND SLOW
CRACK GROWTH RESISTANCE OF PE PIPELINES. THE
INCORPORATION OF ANTIOXIDANTS INTO THE PIPE MATERIAL
PROTECTS PE PIPE FROM OXIDATIVE DEGRADATION.
A study conducted by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research
Organisation (CSIRO) and the American Water Works Association noted that the
average failure rate of PE pipes at 3.16 per 100 kilometres was significantly lower
Polyethylene pipes are tough, than the many other pipe materials:
durable and have a design life of up to • Asbestos cement (16)
100 years. How can a pipeline owner
determine the remaining life of a pipe • Ductile Iron (5.28)
that has been in service for many • Iron (20.1)
years? An assessment of the current
• P VC (7.32)
state of a pipe combined with a view
on the ongoing service conditions • Steel (11.14)
provides the information that enables The life expectancy of a PE pipeline system is highly dependent on the prevailing
the residual lifetime to be estimated. service conditions such as temperature, pressure and exposure to chemical
This type of assessment allows the agents. Pipelines may be exposed to conditions beyond the design parameters and
owners of pipeline assets to optimally this can lead to a variation in the expected lifetime of the pipes. An assessment of
plan pipeline maintenance and the condition and the residual lifetime of a PE pipeline can provide the asset owner
replacement and avoid unexpected with valuable information, potentially preventing costly and unnecessary
failures. maintenance or alerting of the risk of a potential failure.

THE FAILURE MODES OF PE PIPES

Ductile failure
A PE pipe that is operated beyond its pressure rating may experience ductile
failure.
PE pipes are assigned a pressure rating classification that is associated with the
material from which the pipe made. The PE100 classification specifies a Minimum
Required Strength (MRS) of 10 MPa at 20°C after 50 years. This is the maximum
stress at which the pipe can operate without risk of ductile failure.
The Hydrostatic Design Stress (HDS) is the stress at which the pipe has been
designed to operate. The HDS will be lower than the MRS as a down-rating occurs
to reflect the use of safety factors that account for concerns such as the proximity
of the pipe to the urban environment. The HDS is incorporated into the calculations
which determine the pipe wall thickness.
A pipe that is in good condition and operating within conditions that are consistent
with its service design will not experience a ductile failure.
 THE LIFE EXPECTANCY OF A PE CONDUCTING THE RESIDUAL LIFETIME
PIPELINE SYSTEM IS HIGHLY ASSESSMENT – PIPE MATERIAL
DEPENDENT ON THE PREVAILING The likelihood of brittle failure is the important consideration in
SERVICE CONDITIONS SUCH AS the residual lifetime assessment of an existing pipeline.
TEMPERATURE, PRESSURE AND The first step in the residual lifetime assessment is to verify that
EXPOSURE TO CHEMICAL AGENTS. the pipe resin was manufactured in compliance with AS/NZS
4131. This standard specifies the physical properties that the
PE resin must achieve in order to be suitable for pressure pipe
applications.
Brittle failure While AS/NZS 4131 applies to the polyethylene resin performance,
Environmental factors such as excessive heat, pressure and AS/NZS 4130 dictates requirements for the pipe’s physical
chemical agents in the medium being conveyed can lead to characteristics. This standard ensures that a particular pipe is
degradation in the strength of PE pipes. Processes which lead designed to be capable of withstanding pressures inherent in
to the oxidation of the polyethylene, can negatively impact the the service conditions.
polymer’s structural integrity.
A certified PE testing laboratory such as the Qenos Technical
This type of degradation is known as brittle failure. Pipe resin Centre will carry out several tests to enable it to estimate the
manufacturers actively work to counter this form of failure by residual service life expectancy of an installed PE pipe:
incorporating antioxidants into the material. The amount of
antioxidant contained within the pipe resin is finite and will • O
xidative induction time (OIT) is a measure of a compound’s
eventually be consumed in the presence of oxidising factors. thermal stability, and indicates the level of antioxidant
Once the antioxidant has been consumed the polyethylene in remaining in the pipe. The remaining antioxidant is able to
the pipeline can start to oxidise leading to a decrease in the protect the pipe resin from oxidative degradation.
overall crack resistance of the pipe. This will eventually lead to • F
ourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) is an
the initiation and propagation of cracks within the pipeline. analytic technique used to quantify the amount of oxidative
Pipes made from older generations of PE resin are more likely degradation that has already occurred in the pipe.
to undergo brittle failure, as the latest generations have • M
elt flow rate (MFR) is a technique that links the viscosity of
significantly improved slow crack growth resistance properties. melted polymers to their physical size. This measure informs
the laboratory on the toughness of the material.
THE FRAMEWORK OF A RESIDUAL LIFETIME
ASSESSMENT CONDUCTING THE RESIDUAL LIFETIME
There is no set amount of time which a PE pipe should last. ASSESSMENT – OPERATING HISTORY
Engineers design pipe networks to last 50 years or longer and Miner’s rule is one of the most widely used cumulative damage
even after 50 years of service, the product may still perform at models for failures caused by fatigue. It states that if there are k
the level it did at the beginning of its lifetime. different stress levels and the average number of cycles to
A PE pipe’s expected residual lifetime is heavily dependent on failure at the ith stress, Si, is Ni, then the damage fraction, C, is:
the service conditions. Brittle and ductile failure modes are
associated with the pressure, temperature, UV exposure and k
ni
the presence of oxidative agents. ∑—
N =C i
i=1
The residual lifetime assessment requires analysis of the
current condition of the pipe material as well as the operating where:
history of the pipe. ni is the number of cycles accumulated at stress Si.
C is the fraction of life consumed by exposure to the cycles
at the different stress levels.

Polymer* In general failure occurs when the damage fraction reaches 1.

The above equation can be thought of as assessing the
Aggressive Additives* proportion of life consumed at each stress level and then adding
agent the proportions for all the levels together.
ISO 13760:1998 describes the method using Miner’s rule for the
calculation of cumulative damage for plastic pipes used for the
conveyance of fluids under pressure. This approach is used by
the material testing laboratory to calculate a PE pipe’s expected
Applied Pipe
Dimensions residual lifetime.
Stress
In assessing the residual lifetime the laboratory will need
access to the reports describing the original service conditions
of the pipe. Miner’s rule can then be applied to account for the
Medium /
Fluid
Temperature cumulative impact of changes in parameters such as
operational temperature, pressure and disparate environmental
factors and to calculate the impact that these parameters will
have on the residual lifetime.

PE Material Pipe Design Service Conditions

*Pipe extrusion can impact these factors

2 Qenos White Paper – Residual Lifetime Assessment of PE Pipelines

ACCESSING PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE
The science of the molecular architecture of polyethylene and
the factors that induce degradation is complex. Experience in
interpreting analytical tests such as OIT, FTIR and MFR is critical
in assessing the residual lifetime of a pipe.
The Qenos Technical Centre in Melbourne has an extensive
suite of state of the art analytical and physical testing
instrumentation complemented by commercial and semi-
commercial polymer processing equipment and NATA
accreditation for a range of specialised polyethylene tests.
Qenos has amassed years of experience in producing
polyethylene for pressure pipe applications and brings a strong
advisory presence to the pipeline industry including in the
assessment of residual service life of PE pipe.

3 Qenos White Paper – Residual Lifetime Assessment of PE Pipelines

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