Identification of Repair Coatings on Pipelines Using In-Line Inspection Technologies

Author(s):  
Andrew Greig ◽  
Jörg Grillenberger

One of the major issues in the pipeline industry is coating disbondment. A very large percentage of external corrosion and SCC is observed under disbonded coatings that shield Cathodic Protection (CP). This has been an ongoing issue with coated and cathodic protected pipelines since the initial use of these two protection methods. The various coating types and their typical failure scenarios, under various harsh environmental conditions, as well as their compatibility with cathodic protection when disbondment occurs, play a major role for recoating programs and selection of the coating type used for repairs and re-coating programs. With the continued development and improvements of the “Electro-Magnetic Acoustic Transducer” (EMAT) in line inspection technology it is possible to locate disbonded coatings, without the need of exposing the pipeline. This way operators can assess the condition of the coatings applied to their pipeline systems at a comparable low cost. Inline inspection tools equipped with the “EMAT” technology are also capable of identifying the various coating types and coating conditions.1 The coating type identification process is not limited to coating types applied to whole joints. Field applied coatings covering the girth weld area or coating changes within a joint such as repairs can be identified as well. In the presented case study, the challenge was the identification of different coating types used as repairs or for re-coating procedures, within the 60 year history of the inspected pipeline system. At the beginning of the project the main coating types and obvious repairs were identified based on EMAT in line inspection data. In a combined effort, operator and in line inspection vendor compared the initially identified coating types with the known repair history of this pipeline system. Based on this shared combined information the coating type analysis could be finetuned and additional areas could be identified as repaired or re-coated. The paper will outline different coating repair methods described by the operator and subsequently identified by the EMAT tool. This paper will also describe for each coating repair method the associated risks for the pipeline integrity.

Author(s):  
Miaad Safari ◽  
David Shaw

Abstract As integrity programs mature over the life of a pipeline, an increasing number of data points are collected from second, third, or further condition monitoring cycles. Types of data include Inline Inspection (ILI) or External Corrosion Direct Assessment (ECDA) inspection data, validation or remediation dig information, and records of various repairs that have been completed on the pipeline system. The diversity and massive quantity of this gathered data proposes a challenge to pipeline operators in managing and maintaining these data sets and records. The management of integrity data is a key element to a pipeline system Integrity Management Program (IMP) as per the CSA Z662[1]. One of the most critical integrity datasets is the repair information. Incorrect repair assignments on a pipeline can lead to duplicate unnecessary excavations in the best scenario and a pipeline failure in the worst scenario. Operators rely on various approaches to manage and assign repair data to ILIs such as historical records reviews, ILI-based repair assignments, or chainage-based repair assignments. However, these methods have significant gaps in efficiency and/or accuracy. Failure to adequately manage excavation and repair data can lead to increased costs due to repeated excavation of an anomaly, an increase in resources required to match historical information with new data, uncertainty in the effectiveness of previous repairs, and the possibility of incorrect assignment of repairs to unrepaired features. This paper describes the approach adopted by Enbridge Gas to track and maintain repairs, as a part of the Pipeline Risk and Integrity Management (PRIM) platform. This approach was designed to create a robust excavation and repair management framework, providing a robust system of data gathering and automation, while ensuring sufficient oversight by Integrity Engineers. Using this system, repairs are assigned to each feature in an excavation, not only to a certain chainage along the pipeline. Subsequently, when a new ILI results report is received, a process of “Repair Matching” is completed to assign preexisting repairs and assessments to the newly reported features at a feature level. This process is partially automated, whereby pre-determined box-to-box features matched between ILIs can auto-populate repairs for many of the repaired features. The proposed excavation management system would provide operators a superior approach to managing their repair history and projecting historical repairs and assessments onto new ILI reports, prior to assessing the ILI and issuing further digs on the pipeline. This optimized method has many advantages over the conventional repair management methods used in the industry. This method is best suited for operators that are embarking on their second or third condition monitoring cycle, with a moderate number of historical repairs.


Author(s):  
Amal Elsisi ◽  
Winston Y. W. Lee ◽  
Pushpendra Tomar ◽  
Dan Williams

Abstract Gas transmission pipeline operators increasingly rely on Electro-Magnetic Acoustic Transducer (EMAT) technology to reliably detect, identify and size stress corrosion cracking (SCC) anomalies in their pipeline system. However, scheduling EMAT in-line inspection (ILI) on every pipeline in the system is not always practicable or achievable in an expeditious manner. A means of conducting a preliminary assessment of the SCC threat on pipelines without EMAT ILI data in an objective and quantifiable manner is useful for understanding the threat level and for prioritizing or deciding on outstanding EMAT inspections. A wealth of system-specific SCC field data from historical integrity excavations across the pipeline system typically exists in a pipeline operator’s dataset and can be readily leveraged for quantitatively estimating the SCC threat reliability in other, similar (“like-in-kind”) parts of the pipeline system. This system-specific data, based on actual SCC findings from integrity excavations, is an improved and more granular alternative to applying industry-wide SCC statistics to estimates of SCC reliability levels on pipelines without EMAT ILI data. This paper presents a robust and direct limit state approach for estimating the SCC reliability level in pipelines that have not yet had an EMAT ILI completed by leveraging system-wide SCC field findings from historical integrity excavations.


Author(s):  
Zoran Kuljis ◽  
Bob Lisowyj

Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC) consists of two stages, an incubation stage followed by a crack propagation stage. The crack propagation stage can be tracked fairly accurately by using Arrhenius energy values. However, the incubation stage can take a long time (20 years is not uncommon), and is far less predictable with no indication of its development. SCC is also localized making it difficult to detect, and is often only found when cracking has gone through-wall and produced a leak. Welds are known to be areas where SCC originates. Any manufacturing repairs to weld locations produce augmented levels of residual stress in the weld area and increase the probability of SCC. Manufacturing effects also alter the electro-magnetic property of a material, and by monitoring the changes in electro-magnetic property it is possible to characterize material conditions that contribute to the SCC process. Evaluation of these manufacturing effects on several Reactor Vessel nozzles with Dissimilar Metal Butt Welds (DMBWs) has found electro-magnetic property changes, which can characterize, define and produce images of localized repairs, and also show where lack of adequate stress relieving heat treatments exists. This electro-magnetic property methodology can predict the development of SCC in the incubation process, and can directly confirm where any initial fabrication repairs were performed, or when lack of proper stress relieving exists. A full material characterization history enabling prediction of the future susceptibility to SCC has been achieved. This complete, material characterization history of Alloy 600 components and stainless steel components was the goal of this research. Eddy Current Testing (ECT) was chosen as the NDE technique of choice, because it is sensitive to surface changes and can detect electro-magnetic property changes. Using an imaging process, which detects electro-magnetic property changes, has successfully characterized the complete history of the investigated materials.


1943 ◽  
Vol 3 (S1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Curtis P. Nettels

One influence of war has repeatedly asserted itself in the past—an effect on the costs of production and on the competitive position of the industries and firms of victorious or neutral nations. This subject needs more study, but certain facts suggest a hypothesis, of three parts. First: war expands some industries or concerns, increases their efficiency, enables them to operate, at the end of the struggle, on a comparatively low-cost basis, intensifies their competitive advantages, and improves their position in relation to foreign competitors. Second: war—for the duration—bolsters up some high-cost units by enabling them to sell at a profit all they can produce. The end of the war places such high-cost units at a disadvantage in the process of absorbing the shocks of the transition to a peacetime economy. Third: the history of postwar periods usually exhibits a sharp contest between such low-cost and high-cost enterprises. While “low cost” and “high cost” may refer to the relative positions of units within the same country, in most of this discussion, the terms will be applied to the producers of one country (either victor or neutral) to mean that their costs are low or high in comparison with those of their foreign competitors.


1987 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-25
Author(s):  
P Gilbert

The transmission and distribution system operated by British Gas plc is the largest integrated pipeline system in Europe. The whole system comprises a national transmission system which carries gas from five terminals to the twelve gas regions. Each region in turn carries the gas through a regional transmission system into a distribution grid and thence onto its customers. The national, regional and distribution system all present the instrument engineer with different technical challenges because of the way in which they have been built and are operated, however, it is simplest to characterise them by their process conditions. The operating pressure is highest in the national transmission system being up to 75 bar, in the regional transmission system the pressure is usually less than 37 bar, and in the distribution grid it is less than 7 bar. In general, the pipe diameters decrease from the national system downwards, and the measured flowrates are lowest in the distribution grids. This paper is concerned only with instrumentation on the national transmission system. The discussion will cover current technology which is typical of that being installed at present, and concentrates on the more commonly found instrumentation. The paper begins with a brief history of development of the national transmission system and a description of how it is operated. This is followed by a discussion on the application of computers to the control of unmanned installations. A section concerning the measurement of pressure and its application to the control of the system comes next. The main part of the paper contains an analysis of high accuracy flowmetering and the paper concludes with some comments on developments in instrumentation and their application to changing operation of the national transmission system.


Author(s):  
Jai Prakash Sah ◽  
Mohammad Tanweer Akhter

Managing the integrity of pipeline system is the primary goal of every pipeline operator. To ensure the integrity of pipeline system, its health assessment is very important and critical for ensuring safety of environment, human resources and its assets. In long term, managing pipeline integrity is an investment to asset protection which ultimately results in cost saving. Typically, the health assessment to managing the integrity of pipeline system is a function of operational experience and corporate philosophy. There is no single approach that can provide the best solution for all pipeline system. Only a comprehensive, systematic and integrated integrity management program provides the means to improve the safety of pipeline systems. Such programme provides the information for an operator to effectively allocate resources for appropriate prevention, detection and mitigation activities that will result in improved safety and a reduction in the number of incidents. Presently GAIL (INDIA) LTD. is operating & maintaining approximately 10,000Kms of natural gas/RLNG/LPG pipeline and HVJ Pipeline is the largest pipeline network of India which transports more than 50% of total gas being consumed in this country. HVJ pipeline system consists of more than 4500 Kms of pipeline having diameter range from 04” to 48”, which consist of piggable as well as non-piggable pipeline. Though, lengthwise non-piggable pipeline is very less but their importance cannot be ignored in to the totality because of their critical nature. Typically, pipeline with small length & connected to dispatch terminal are non-piggable and these pipelines are used to feed the gas to the consumer. Today pipeline industries are having three different types of inspection techniques available for inspection of the pipeline. 1. Inline inspection 2. Hydrostatic pressure testing 3. Direct assessment (DA) Inline inspection is possible only for piggable pipeline i.e. pipeline with facilities of pig launching & receiving and hydrostatic pressure testing is not possible for the pipeline under continuous operation. Thus we are left with direct assessment method to assess health of the non-piggable pipelines. Basically, direct assessment is a structured multi-step evaluation method to examine and identify the potential problem areas relating to internal corrosion, external corrosion, and stress corrosion cracking using ICDA (Internal Corrosion Direct Assessment), ECDA (External Corrosion Direct Assessment) and SCCDA (Stress Corrosion Direct Assessment). All the above DA is four steps iterative method & consist of following steps; a. Pre assessment b. Indirect assessment c. Direct assessment d. Post assessment Considering the importance of non-piggable pipeline, integrity assessment of following non piggable pipeline has done through direct assessment method. 1. 30 inch dia pipeline of length 0.6 km and handling 18.4 MMSCMD of natural gas 2. 18 inch dia pipeline of length 3.65 km and handling 4.0 MMSCMD of natural gas 3. 12 inch dia pipeline of length 2.08 km and handling 3.4 MMSCMD of natural gas In addition to ICDA, ECDA & SCCDA, Long Range Ultrasonic Thickness (LRUT-a guided wave technology) has also been carried out to detect the metal loss at excavated locations observed by ICDA & ECDA. Direct assessment survey for above pipelines has been conducted and based on the survey; high consequence areas have been identified. All the high consequence area has been excavated and inspected. No appreciable corrosion and thickness loss have observed at any area. However, pipeline segments have been identified which are most vulnerable and may have corrosion in future.


Author(s):  
Carlos A. Garcia ◽  
Esteban X. Castellanos ◽  
Jorge Buele ◽  
John Espinoza ◽  
David Lanas ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Simon Perreault ◽  
Philippe Cardou ◽  
Cle´ment Gosselin

We propose a new class of pantographs, i.e., of mechanisms that allow the reproduction of the displacements of an input link, the master, with an output link, the slave. The application we envision for these devices is the telemanipulation of objects from small distances, at low cost, where magnetic fields or other design constraints prohibit the use of electromechanical systems. Despite the long history of pantographs, which were invented in the 17th century, the class of pantographs proposed here is new, as it relies on parallel cable-driven mechanisms to transmit the motion. This allows the reproduction of rigid-body displacements, while previous pantographs were limited to point displacements. This important characteristic and others are described in the paper. One important challenge in the design of the proposed systems is that the cables must remain taut at all time. We address this issue by introducing nonlinear springs that passively maintain a minimum tension in the cables, while approximating static balancing of the mechanism over its workspace. Approximating static balancing allows the forces applied at the slave to reflect more accurately at the master, and vice versa. As a preliminary validation, a two-degree-of-freedom parallel cable-driven pantograph is designed. A prototype of this apparatus that does not include approximate static balancing is built, which demonstrates the working principle of these mechanisms.


Author(s):  
Suelen Dos Santos Silva ◽  
Paula Marcelly Alves Machado ◽  
Wagner Da Silva Terra

Resumo: O Ensino de Química no Brasil nos dias atuais segue, predominantemente, um modelo tradicional, sendo verificada a utilização de metodologias pedagógicas repetitivas de baixo potencial de aprendizagem. Nesse contexto o presente trabalho teve por intuito elaborar um plano de aula diferenciado que envolvesse conteúdos químicos, dados históricos e discussões filosóficas a partir do tema “Ares”, utilizando a demonstração investigativa como recurso didático para propiciar uma maior motivação e envolvimento dos discentes. Para se alcançar o objetivo proposto, foi realizado um conjunto de quatro experimentos, utilizando materiais de baixo custo e fácil aquisição, a saber: Peso do flogisto; Síntese do Ar Fixo (CO2); Síntese do Ar Inflamável (H2); Síntese do Ar Desflogisticado (O2). A análise qualitativa dos dados obtidos demonstrou que o formato de aula utilizado é aplicável ao Ensino Médio, tornando a aula mais dinâmica, sendo, portanto, apreciada pela maior parte dos discentes, o que possibilitou uma maior motivação desses.Palavras-chave: Experimentação Demonstrativa; História da Química; Recursos no Ensino de Química. The history of chemistry through the “airs”: an experimental contribution to chemistry teachingAbstract: The Chemistry teaching in Brazil nowadays follows, predominantly, a traditional model, being verified the use of repetitive pedagogical methodologies with low learning potential. In this context, the present work aimed to elaborate a different lesson plan involving chemical contents, historical data and philosophical discussions based on the theme “Airs”, using investigative demonstration as a didactic resource to provide more motivation and involvement of students. To achieve the proposed goal, a set of four experiments was carried out, using low-cost and easy-to-acquire materials, namely: Weight of phlogiston; Synthesis of Fixed Air (CO2); Flammable Air Synthesis (H2); Synthesis of Dephlogisticated Air (O2). The qualitative analysis of the data obtained showed that the class format used is applicable to high school, making the class more dynamic, being, therefore, appreciated by most of the students, which enabling a greater motivation.Keywords: Demonstrative Experimentation; History of Chemistry; Chemistry Teaching Resources. 


2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Won-Bae Na ◽  
Tribikram Kundu ◽  
Yeon-Sun Ryu ◽  
Jeong-Tae Kim

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document