The North American Society for Trenchless Technology (NASTT) defines pipe splitting as a replacement method for breaking an existing pipe by longitudinal slitting. Simultaneously, a new pipe of the same or larger diameter may be drawn in behind the splitting tool (NASTT 2008). Pipe splitting is used to replace ductile material pipes, which do not fracture using other bursting techniques. The system has a splitting wheel or cutting knives that slit the pipe longitudinally at two more lines along the side of the pipe. An example of splitting head is shown in the figure below.
Pipe splitting head (PIM Corporation 2007)