REVIEW article
Front. Built Environ.
Sec. Geotechnical Engineering
Multifactorial Analysis of Drill Pipe Failure in Horizontal Directional Drilling: A Review
Provisionally accepted
Aslam Abdullah M*
Harishwaran R- Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, India
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Drill pipe failure during horizontal directional drilling is a common occurrence nowadays. Drill pipe, a common tool in the drilling process, plays an important role in the uninterrupted production and supply of oil and gas. Drill pipes are subjected to various types of loads and operate under diverse environmental conditions. The drill pipe failure is caused by decarburization, washout, grain boundaries, fatigue, bending moment, fracture, piercement, galling, axial forces, torque, torsional vibration, axial vibration, wear, and corrosion. These conditions can occur individually or in combination as a consequence of reducing the lifespan of drill pipe. The paper aims to examine the reasons for drill pipe failure and the methodology adopted to explore the same. Different aspects of each factor have been studied and discussed. This review leads to the conclusion that the failure is due to twelve major factors, and recommendations have been made to analyze them, depending on the type of failure.
Keywords: corrosion, Drill Pipe Failure, Fatigue, Horizontal Directional Drilling, wear
Received: 15 Dec 2025; Accepted: 10 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 M and R. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Aslam Abdullah M
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