Behavioral Analysis of High-Density Polyethylene Gas Distribution Pipes Under Load

Abstract With a view to sustainable development, the safe supply of natural gas necessary for food preparation and home heating is a priority issue. The natural gas industry is a competitive market that requires high-performing assets that can be translated into high operational availability, production efficiency, reliability, and maintainability of all assets. The quality of natural gas supply systems is the basic indicator of the economical energy industry. Reliability being, along with other technical and economic indicators, is a component of quality, it must be in the attention of all the factors that determine the good running of the company. Following the technological developments in the field of plastics, in the last decades, the pipes made of polyethylene are more and more frequently used in the realization of the natural gas distribution systems. The use of high-density polyethylene pipes is due to the fact that the service life, corrosion resistance, flexibility, and resistance to dynamic stress are superior to steel pipes. However, this material also has some disadvantages. High-density polyethylene pipe is easily affected by ultraviolet light. In addition, the mechanical strength of high-density polyethylene pipe is lower than that of steel. Due to the increase in the number of vehicles in urban areas and the degradation of asphalt on roads, the rate of damage to polyethylene pipes has increased rapidly. In view of the problems encountered in the operation of high-density polyethylene pipes installed underground in the roadway, an analysis of these problems is necessary. This type of analysis is based on the assumption that pavements are subjected to static loads and that paving materials, supports, and pipes are linearly elastic materials. In reality, the pavements are subjected to both static and dynamic loads, the asphalt mixtures are viscoelastic materials, and the clays have plasticity. So, for simplicity, static loads are applied on a road section with properties of linear elastic material. The paper deals, by numerical methods (finite element method), with the deformation modulus and the stress state of high-density polyethylene pipes subjected to the loads resulting from the movement of vehicles on an asphalt road. This paper examined the application of QuickField software on an asphalt pavement at different vehicle positions and the responses of high-density polyethylene pipes to these loads. These analyzes help to position high-density polyethylene pipes in the roadway directly from the design.