A study on the corrosion evaluation and lifetime prediction of fire extinguishing pipeline in residential buildings

Abstract

This study is conducted for the evaluation of corrosion and lifetime prediction of fire extinguishing pipelines in residential buildings. The fire extinguishing pipeline is made of carbon steel. Twenty-four samples were selected among all the fire extinguishing pipelines in a building; the selection was based on specimenspositions, pipeline diameters, and pipeline thickness. Analysis was conducted by using the results of visual inspection, electrochemical potentiodynamic anodic polarization test, pitting depth measurements, and extreme value statistics with the Gumbel distribution. The maximum pitting depth and remaining life were statistically predicted using extreme value statistics. During visual inspection, pitting corrosion was observed in several samples. In addition, extreme value statistics demonstrated that there were several pipelines that were very sensitive to pitting corrosion. However, the pitting corrosion was not critical in all the pipelines; thus, it was necessary to change only those pipelines that were severely corroded.