Environmental Stress Cracking Of High Density Polyethylene Pipe Materials: A Review

Résumé: The phenomenon of Environmental Stress Cracking (ESC) is one of the leading causes of damage of buried pipes constructed using high density polyethylene (HDPE) material. Several factors influence both initiation and propagation of a crack, including the nature of the chemical agent, its concentration, the intensity of service stresses, temperature, exposure time and material surface quality as obtained from manufacturing processes. Generally, there are investigations which consider the impact of degradation of HDPE pipes during service life while other studies focus on manufacturing processes aimed at optimizing operating conditions from extrusion to installation of pipe networks. It is important to explore the experimental and modeling studies aimed at evaluating the degradation of pipes in service under the effect of internal factors as well as the evolution of their physicochemical properties from DSC, MEB and X-Rays analyses. The aging phenomenon should be considered under the effect of external environmental factors (agressiveness, temperature, pressure, UV rays...).

Publié dans la revue: Synthèse