Impact of Leak Size, Pipe Wall Thickness, Water Pressure, and Leak Orientation on Autogenous Metallic Pipe Leak Repair

The effectiveness of autogenous metallic (iron and copper) pipe leak repair as a function of leak size, pipe wall thickness, water pressure, and leak orientation was examined at water pressures up to 60 psi. The time to repair for carbon steel pipe leaks statistically increased with leak size to the power of 0.89 to 1.89, and decreased with pipe wall thickness to the power of −1.9 to −1.0. Additionally, water pressure and leak orientation did not influence the time to or likelihood of self-repair of galvanized iron coated pipe leaks, but leak size was a limiting factor as the repair likelihood decreased with the ln of leak size with a slope of −0.65. In contrast, the time to repair 150 μm leaks in copper statistically increased with water pressure to the power of 1.7.