Amidst global scarcity, preventing pipeline failures in water distribution systems is crucial for maintaining a clean supply while conserving water resources. Numerous studies have modelled water pipeline deterioration; however, existing literature does not correctly understand the failure time prediction for individual water pipelines. Existing time-to-failure prediction models rely on available data, failing to provide insight into factors affecting a pipeline's remaining age until a break or leak occurs. The study systematically reviews factors influencing time-to-failure, prioritizes them using a magnitude-based fuzzy analytical hierarchy process, and compares results with expert opinion using an in-person Delphi survey. The final pipe-related prioritized failure factors include pipe geometry, material type, operating pressure, pipe age, failure history, pipeline installation, internal pressure, earth and traffic loads. The prioritized environment-related factors include soil properties, water quality, extreme weather events, temperature, and precipitation. Overall, this prioritization can assist practitioners and researchers in selecting features for time-based deterioration modelling. Effective time-to-failure deterioration modelling of water pipelines can create a more sustainable water infrastructure management protocol, enhancing decision-making for repair and rehabilitation. Such a system can significantly reduce non-revenue water and mitigate the socio-environmental impacts of pipeline ageing and damage.

Buried pipelines are essential for the safe and efficient transportation of energy products such as oil, gas, and various chemical fluids. However, these pipelines are highly vulnerable to ground movements caused by geohazards such as seismic faults, landslide, liquefaction-induced lateral spreading, and soil creep, which can result in potential pipeline failures such as leaks or explosions. Response prediction of buried pipelines under such movements is critical for ensuring structural integrity, mitigating environmental risks, and avoiding costly disruptions. As such, this study adopts a Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) approach, integrated with a transfer learning technique, to predict structural response (e.g., strain) of both unreinforced and reinforced steel pipes subjected to Permanent Ground Displacement (PGD). The PINN method offers a meshless, simulation-free alternative to traditional numerical methods such as Finite Element Method (FEM) and Finite Difference Method (FDM), while eliminating the need for training data, unlike conventional machine learning approaches. The analyses can provide useful information for in-service pipe integrity assessment and reinforcement, if needed. The accuracy of the predicted results is verified against Finite Element (FE) and Finite Difference (FD) methods, showcasing the capability of PINNs in accurately predicting displacement and strain fields in pipelines under geohazard-induced ground movement.

Impact from falling objects can easily cause the local deformation of pipeline, which threatens the safe and stable operation of pipeline. In order to study the dynamic response behavior of impacted buried pipelines in cold regions, the buried pipelines, frozen soil and falling objects are taken as the object. Considering the nonlinearity of pipeline material, the contact nonlinearity between pipeline, falling objects and frozen soil, a double nonlinear dynamic analysis model of buried pipeline in cold regions is established by explicit dynamic analysis method. The rationality of the model method is verified by comparing the curves in this paper with those from the experiment. Furthermore, the changing laws of dynamic response of pipeline influenced by different factors are discussed. The results show that: when the buried depth of pipeline is 2 m, the deformation and residual stress of pipeline increase with the increase of pipeline's diameter-tothickness ratio, the impact velocity of falling object and the water content of frozen soil, and the impact velocity of falling objects influences the dynamic response behavior of pipelines most significantly, followed by the diameter-thickness ratio of pipelines and the water content of frozen soil; When the diameter-thickness ratio of the pipeline is 58, the deformation and residual stress of pipeline decrease with the increase of buried depth by 75 % and 88 % respectively. Among the four influencing factors, when the impact velocity of falling objects is 10 m/s and the buried depth of pipeline is 3 m, the deformation amplitude of pipelines caused by falling objects is the smallest. It is suggested that in the high-risk regions of falling objects, the diameter-thickness ratio, buried depth and the water content of frozen soil can be reasonably controlled under the condition of predicting the maximum potential impact velocity of falling objects, so as to improve the ability of the pipeline to resist external impact damage, which provides theoretical basis and quantitative control standards for the impact design of pipeline engineering in cold regions.

Safety assessment of ductile iron (DI) pipelines under fault rupture is a crucial aspect for underground pipeline design. Previous studies delved into the response of DI pipelines to strike-slip faults, but all existing theoretical methods for DI pipelines under strike-slip faults are not suitable for normal fault conditions due to the difference in soil resistance distribution. In this study, analytical solutions considering asymmetric soil resistance and pipe deflection are developed to analyze the behavior of DI pipelines under normal faulting. Results indicate that DI pipelines with a longer segment length are more vulnerable to pipe bending damage, while exhibiting a lower sensitivity to joint rotation failure. For the conditions of pipe segment length L = 1.5 m at all burial depths and L = 3 m at a shallow burial depth, when the fault-pipe crossing position shifts from a joint to a quarter of the segment length (rp = 0 similar to 0.25), DI pipelines are more prone to joint rotation failure. However, in the cases of L = 3 m at a moderate to deep burial depth and L = 6 m at all burial depths, the most unfavorable position is rp = 0.75, dominated by the mode of pipe bending failure.

This paper experimentally investigates the wave pressure and pore pressure within a sandy seabed around two pipelines under the action of random waves (currents). The experiments revealed that when the random wave plus current cases are compared with the random wave-only case, the forward current promotes wave propagation, whereas the reversed backward current inhibits wave propagation. Furthermore, the wave pressure on the downstream pipeline decreases as the relative spacing ratio increases and increases as the diameter increases. However, alterations in the relative spacing ratio or dimensions of the downstream pipeline exert a negligible influence on the wave pressure of the upstream pipeline. Moreover, the relative spacing ratio between the pipelines and the dimensions of the pipelines considerably influence the pore pressure in the sand bed. When the relative spacing ratio remains constant, increasing the downstream pipeline diameter will increase the pore-water pressure of the soil below the downstream pipeline.

This study focuses on the behaviour of buried gas pipelines subjected to surface loading. The study is oriented towards an experimental campaign carried out on small-scale pipelines, with three different wall thicknesses, both in monotonic and cyclic conditions. Pipes have been instrumented with strain gauges and inner displacement sensors, allowing to record deformations, stresses and ovalisation of the pipe, in addition to the load-settlement relationship at the soil surface. Results show that the presence of the pipe affects the global soil response (stiffness and bearing capacity). Analysis of the strain distribution and pipe deformed shape indicate that the pipe response is complex, with no symmetry along the horizontal axis, and a heart-shaped deformation pattern. The pipe rigidity affects the local behaviour at the pipe level (displacement pattern, evolution of stresses during cyclic loading and increasing lateral support). Classical pipeline design theory has been assessed based on the experimental observations, invalidating several underlying hypotheses.

Buried steel gas pipelines are increasingly facing safety challenges due to the escalating traffic loads and varying burial depths, which could potentially lead to hazards such as leakage, fire, and explosion. This paper investigates stress mechanisms in buried steel gas pipelines subjected to vehicular loading through integrated analytical approaches. Theoretical modeling incorporates three key components: dynamic vehicle load characteristics, soil-pipeline interaction pressures, and stress distribution angles across pipeline cross-sections. Stress variations are systematically quantified under varying soil conditions and load configurations. A finite-element model was developed to simulate pipeline responses, with computational results cross-validated against theoretical predictions to establish stress profiles under multiple operational scenarios. Additionally, this paper employ fatigue accumulation damage and reliability theories, utilizing Fe-Safe software to evaluate pipeline reliability, determining fatigue life and strength coefficients for various loads and burial depths. Based on these analyses, this paper develop risk control measures and protective methods for buried steel gas pipelines, validated through finite-element and fatigue analyses. Overall, this paper offers insights for preventing and controlling risks to buried steel gas pipelines under vehicle loads.

Acoustic emission (AE) offers the potential to monitor and interpret soil-pipe interaction behavior by sensing particle-scale interactions. However, application of AE is limited by gaps in understanding related to how particle-scale interactions influence AE activity. Discrete element method (DEM) simulations of buried pipe uplift with energy tracking were performed and compared with experimental mechanical, displacement, and AE measurements, to ensure realistic behavior was captured by the modeling approach. A parametric investigation was then performed to evaluate the influence of pipe displacement direction and pipe diameter on plastic energy dissipation, and hence AE. Trends of dissipated plastic energy and measured AE with stress level (via burial depth) and pipe velocity were analogous. Relationships were quantified (R2 ranging from 0.74 to 0.98) between AE, dissipated plastic energy, and pipe velocity. Measured AE and dissipated plastic energy were linked with a general expression, comprising increments of friction (sliding and rolling), damping, and damage energies. Sliding friction energy accounted for >80% of the total dissipated energy on average during buried pipe deformation. Exemplar relationships were established between dissipated energy, pipe movement direction, embedment ratio, and mobilized soil volume (R2 values ranging from 0.92 to 0.97). A conceptual framework for interpreting buried pipe behavior using AE monitoring was presented.

Due to the unobservable nature of underground construction and the destructive nature of horizontal directional drilling rigs with high power, this type of construction has become one of the most important causes of failure of long-distance natural gas pipelines. In recent years, horizontal directional drilling construction has caused pipeline accidents frequently. Once the accident occurs, the normal operation of natural gas pipelines cannot be ensured. Therefore, studying the damage mechanism of buried natural gas pipelines under horizontal directional drilling loads is important for the safe operation of pipelines. This paper combines the construction characteristics of horizontal directional drilling and the actual situation of natural gas pipelines to explore the relationship between horizontal directional drilling and pipelines. The force situation of pipelines after contacting directional drilling bits is analyzed by the drill bit-soil-pipe finite element model created in the ABAQUS software. The Johnson-Cook ductile damage model was utilized to determine the pipe's damage condition. The sensitivity analysis results show that he order of the impact of key parameters on the dynamic response of the pipe is bit thrust > wall thickness > bit diameter > pipe diameter > bit speed > number of bit teeth > pipe operating pressure. Therefore, priority should be given to controlling the size of the drilling thrust and the speed of the drill bit to reduce the damage to pipelines by horizontal directional drilling construction. In addition, appropriately reducing the pipeline operating pressure can also reduce the risk of the pipeline being damaged by horizontal directional drilling construction.

Localized soil subsidence can cause pipeline failures, yet relevant studies remain limited. This research uses 1 g scaling tests to explore granular soil behavior over a subsiding area with a crossing pipeline, employing Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and pressure sensors beneath trapdoors. Results reveal various failure mechanisms impacting load on pipelines, especially due to water-drop-shaped slip surfaces above the pipeline. The long side of the rectangular subsidence zone exhibited stronger load transfer compared to the short side. Neglecting the three-dimensional soil arching effect risks underestimating the pipeline load, particularly when the pipeline axis aligns with the long side of the subsidence. Greater distances between the subsidence zone and pipeline improve protection, though very close proximity can also be beneficial. The study suggests that inducing controlled soil failure above the pipeline may help reduce additional load, providing insights into mitigating pipeline damage from subsidence.