Assessment of Fracture Propagation in Pipelines Transporting Impure CO2 Streams

Running fractures are considered as most dangerous catastrophic mode of failure of high-pressure transportation pipelines. This paper describes methodology for coupled modelling of an outflow, heat transfer and crack propagation in pipelines. The methodology is validated and applied to investigate the ductile fracture propagation in pipelines transporting impure CO2 streams to provide recommendations for the fracture control. To assess the propensity of pipelines to brittle fractures, the temperature distribution in the pipe wall in the vicinity of a crack is simulated for various conditions of heat transfer relevant to both overground and buried pipelines. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.