New laboratory test facility developed to investigate the leak-before-break window of large-diameter cast iron water pipes

It was reported that the leak-before-break (LBB) concept has potential merit for use as a tool for large-diameter pipe failure prevention in the water industry. For this purpose, a detailed understanding of pipe failure mechanisms and the LBB time window between leak initiation and failure is essential. Controlled laboratory experiments can provide valuable information to address this research question. Therefore, this paper presents a new fully automated laboratory test facility that was developed to investigate the time window between leak initiation and final burst (during fatigue crack growth with variable internal loading including pressure transients) in large-diameter cast iron water pipe. The new setup will be used to validate the application of LBB and to quantify the LBB time window for proactive pipe monitoring for failure prevention. A full-scale pipe test conducted using the new test facility is presented to demonstrate the capability of the new test facility.