Car crash model predicts pipeline breaks

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug. 15 (UPI) -- Computer models used to test automobile crash-worthiness could predict how pipes may fracture in offshore drilling accidents, U.S. researchers say.

Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say their simulations of material deformation in car crashes could also be of use to the oil and gas industry.

The researchers used their model to simulate the forces involved in the deadly 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico that led to the world's worst off-shore oil spill, and found that their model accurately predicted the location of cracks in a portion of pipe connecting the surface drilling platform to the seafloor, an MIT release said Monday.

Their reconstruction closely resembled an image of the actual fractured pipe taken by a remotely operated vehicle shortly after the accident occurred, the researchers said.

"We are looking at what would happen during a severe accident, and we're trying to determine what should be the material that would not fail under those conditions," Tomasz Wierzbicki, professor of applied mechanics at MIT, said. "For that, you need technology to predict the limits of a material's behavior."