On the Use of Surrogate Models in Reliability-Based Analysis of Dented Pipes

Pipeline dents lead to changes in the stress/strain state of the pipe body, making it more susceptible to integrity concerns. This susceptibility is especially prevalent in cases where additional stress risers such as crack and/or corrosion features interact with the dented region. While some guidance is available in codes, regulations, and industry best practices, there is substantial room for innovation and improvement to ensure pipeline safety. Existing explicit models are primarily based on experimental correlations and historical findings using simple parameters such as dent depth and location on the pipeline. Moreover, these models are subjected to a substantial uncertainty in both accuracy and precision. This paper presents a state-of-the-art methodology for analyzing dents and dents associated with stress risers through the use of finite element method (FEM) as a mechanical model and reliability analysis to address uncertainties associated with input variables. FEM is used to model the full geometry of dents and any interacting stress risers reported by inline inspection (ILI) to be incorporated into calculations of the internal stresses/strains within the feature. Theoretically, FEM and reliability analysis can be integrated through reliability-based stochastic finite element methodologies due to the absence of closed form mechanical models of dented pipes. However, these methodologies are computationally prohibitive and not suited/designed for frequent integrity analysis. This study aims at further advancing such integration by combining FEM with reliability science to account for pipe properties and measurement uncertainties in order to determine the probability of failure under different operating conditions using surrogate models. This provides the opportunity to more accurately assess the risk posed by ILI reported dent features. Herein, surrogate models refer to the response surface method (RSM) which is considered as a valuable tool for obtaining insight into the behavior of structural random systems at low computational costs. The proposed approach was applied focusing on a plain dent, a dent interacting with a corrosion feature, and a dent interacting with a crack feature. First Order Reliability Method (FORM) is used to evaluate the probability of failure/reliability using the resulting RSM non-linear limit states for each dent feature.