Failure and fracture in polyethylene pipes: Overview, prediction methods, and challenges

Due to the superior properties of polyethylene (PE) pipes, their applications covered a broad range of urban and engineering demands. Currently, one of the crucial issues in highly developed pipe line systems is the life and failure prediction in distribution network. Since PE pipes have been employed in gas transmission systems, the safety issue has been considered precisely. This aspect is directly related to the service life and occurrence of failures on the PE pipes. In this research, we comprehensively reviewed previous studies and investigations which have been carried out to predict the life time or mechanical failures in different PE pipes. The existing works are analyzed and discussed in details concerning the mechanical tests, artificial intelligence approaches, failure rates and time to failure in PE pipes. The aim of the present study is to classify and analyze the obtained results from previous researches to describe details of the employed techniques, tests, and models in this field. Analysis and discussion presented in this review, indicates advantages, limitations and research gaps in this area. Finally, perspectives and future research directions are presented.