Strength prediction of a steel pipe having a hemi-ellipsoidal corrosion defect repaired by GFRP composite patch using artificial neural network

Abstract

Local stress concentration occurs when faults are present in pipelines under pressure. An example of such defects is the problem of corrosion caused by the environment in the field of pipeline installation. In the first part of this paper, we attempt to model the corrosion in the hemi-ellipsoidal form in order to study the locations of stress concentration in the specimens by several experimental cases and their influence on the stress resistance. The Gurson-Tvergaard-Needleman (GTN) mesoscopic damage model is used to simulate the specimens with good accuracy. In the second part, the investigation is extended to a pipe under static pressure with and without the presence of a glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite patch. The maximum stress and percent stress reduction in a defected pipe with a hemi-ellipsoidal defect are determined using a 3D finite element model. This part examines the impact of the geometry of the composite patches on the percentage reduction of the maximum stresses in a section of pipeline subjected to static pressure. In the third part, the stresses and the percentage reduction in the maximum stresses are predicted using an artificial neural network (ANN). An inverse problem using ANN and Jaya algorithm is proposed to predict the group level of different sizes of defects under composite patches based on the maximum stress and percentage reduction of stress that the pipe withstands. The new method relates directly to real-world pipeline construction and repair applications. It could be also used for structural safety monitoring.