Reliability of pipelines has been considered assuming different probability continuous distributions of demand and capacities. These distributions in reality can be truncated at the tails by physical constraints such as pressure relief valves (demand truncation), and hydro-testing (capacity truncation). This paper describes the effect of truncations on the reliability of pipelines. The effect of truncation by relief valves on the demand distribution is studied first; the effect of truncation by hydro-testing on the capacity distribution is studied second; and last, the combined effect of truncation on demand and capacity is studied. A comparison and analysis of results is presented to assess the importance of truncated distributions of demand and capacity on the reliability of pipelines. The results show that truncated distributions can have large effects on the reliability and should be accounted for, since they can alter significantly inspection and management policies.
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