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International audienceThe presence of chlorine in drinking water supplies in many countries creates the undesirable side effect of causing a relatively under investigated degree of polymer degradation in the polyethylene pipes used for transport. In order to predict pipe lifetimes and ensure safe water supplies, a kinetic model using data for the degradation rates of polyethylenes immersed in chlorine solutions, was developed. In order to replicate phenomena that normally occur very slowly at low concentrations of chlorine, accelerated ageing studies were necessary. These were carried out at high chlorine concentrations under well-defined experimental conditions (70, 400 and 4000 ppm). Results showed that, for the chlorine concentrations studied, a chain scission process associated with carbonyl formation is occurring. It was also shown that the rate of this degradation does not depend on the presence of stabilizer. A kinetic model, taking into account the chlorine concentration, is proposed in order to simulate the molar mass changes occurring. This will facilitate the prediction of the degree of polyethylene embrittlement and ultimately the lifetime

a b s t r a c tIn order to characterize the mechanical behavior of HDPE pipes, the ASTM D 2290-04 standard recommends carrying out tensile tests on notched rings, cut out from the pipe. This very simple test is also utilized to investigate the aging effect of the pipe by determining the strain at failure. Comparison between full ring and notched ring mechanical responses are discussed. Constitutive modeling including strain rate effects was performed by finite element analysis. This allowed a better understanding of the stress state in the cross section perpendicular to the loading direction. Additionally, the influence of a thin layer of oxidized HDPE in the inner wall of the ring was studied in the light of the finite element results.