Residual life and reliability assessment of underground RC pipelines under uncertainty

Because of scare financial resources and the abundance of urgently needed pipeline maintenance and repair projects, the prioritization of funding to these projects is a major issue that municipalities encounter everywhere, especially in Region 6. One way to optimize the limited resources allocated to operation and management of sanitary sewers is to consider probabilistic performance assessment, which provides a complete characterization of performance of structural elements and systems. The most widely employed probabilistic performance indicator is reliability, a measure of probability of failure relative to a particular limit state (e.g., ultimate strength or serviceability). Reliability methods can be used to identify which pipeline sections within a particular system require the most urgent inspection or repair. In order to apply the proposed approach to the RCPs in the city of Houston, the research team will work intensively with the Center for Structural Engineering Research/Simulation and Pipeline Inspection at UTA to obtain filtered, LIDAR data. From this filtered LIDAR data, a probability distribution representative of wall thickness loss at the time of inspection will be calculated. Next, this derived probability distribution will be integrated within a serviceability limit state that defines failure as the complete loss of concrete cover. Considering this limit state and a prescribed probability of exceedance threshold, a reliability-based prediction of the remaining service life will be determined. Advanced statistical techniques will also be used to convey the confidence of these predictions. Finally, an asset management report that outlines the location of the most vulnerable pipeline sections, will be created. The asset management report will provide decision makers crucial information regarding the current state of their city’s pipeline network. Although the approach developed can be applied to any municipality’s pipeline network, the capabilities of developed methodology will be elucidated through its application to Houston-area sanitary sewers.

• Record URL:
  https://transet.lsu.edu/research-in-progress/
• Supplemental Notes:
  • 20STUTA25

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Completed
• Funding: $ 112001
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3551747106

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Transportation Consortium of South-Central States (Tran-SET)

  Louisiana State University
  Baton Rouge, LA  United States  70803
• Project Managers:

  Mousa, Momen

• Performing Organizations:

  University of Texas at Arlington

  Department of Civil Engineering
  Box 19308
  Arlington, TX  United States  76019
• Principal Investigators:

  Sabatino, Samantha

• Start Date: 20200801
• Expected Completion Date: 20220201
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Asset management; Corrosion; Laser radar; Reinforced concrete pipe; Reliability; Service life; Sulfides; Uncertainty
• Geographic Terms: Houston (Texas)
• Subject Areas: Maintenance and Preservation; Materials; Pipelines;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01757533
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Consortium of South-Central States (Tran-SET)
• Contract Numbers: 69A3551747106
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Nov 10 2020 8:20PM