Safety, reliability and risks associated with water, oil and gas pipelines: [proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Safety, Reliability and Risks Associated with Water, Oil and Gas Pipelines, Alexandria, Egypt, 4 - 8 February 2007]

Pipes are of major importance for transport of liquids and gas mainly for water, natural gas and oil. The total length of gas pipes in the world is estimated at one million kilometres for gas transport (pipes with a diameter of 80 to 1000 mm). Pipelines remain the least expensive transcontinental means of transport compared to rail-bound or terrestrial transport. It has become increasingly paramount to ensure the safe utilisation of such plant in order to prevent economical, social and ecological losses. From a technical point of view, pipelines are complicated three dimensional structures tha