Abstract
Water pipes are supposed to deliver the predetermined demand safely to a certain point in water distribution system. However, pipe burst or crack can be happened due to so many reasons such as the water hammer, natural pipe ageing, external impact force, soil condition, and various environments of pipe installation. In the present study, the reliability model which can calculate the probability of pipe breakage was developed regarding unsteady effect such as water hammer. For the reliability model, reliability function was formulated by Barlow formula. AFDA method was applied to calculate the probability of pipe breakage. It was found that the statistical distribution for internal pressure among the random variables of reliability function has a good agreement with the Gumbel distribution after unsteady analysis was performed. Using the present model, the probability of pipe breakage was quantitatively calculated according to random variables such as the pipe diameter, thickness, allowable stress, and internal pressure. Furthermore, it was found that unsteady effect significantly increases the probability of pipe breakage. If this reliability model is used for the design of water distribution system, safe and economical design can be accomplished. And it also can be effectively used for the management and maintenance of water distribution system.