Reliability assessment of buried pipelines based on different corrosion rate models

► Five corrosion rate (CR) distributions are derived from different pitting growth models. ► These distributions are used to perform reliability analyses of underground pipelines. ► The results of reliability analyses carried out using synthetic and real-life data are compared. ► Considering the age, depth, and time evolution of corrosion pits is shown critical to CR modelling. ► The Markov chain-derived CR distribution is the only one that fully meets these requirements.