Reliability of corroded pipelines
- British Gas plc, Northumberland (United Kingdom). On Line Inspection Centre
- British Gas plc, Newcastle upon Tyne (United Kingdom). Engineering Research Station
Corrosion in on and offshore pipelines is an increasing problem world-wide. The pipeline operator requires a strategy for future safe operation of a corroded pipeline. A pressure test cannot guarantee the future integrity of a corroded pipeline. Pipeline operators are increasingly using internal inspection by high resolution magnetic pigs to detect and size corrosion as the basis for defining a future safe operating strategy. Using inspection results British Gas has successfully developed and applied a ``realistic`` deterministic analysis for corroded pipelines. It involves the identification of, and the calculation of the failure pressure and time to failure of, those corroded pipe spools with the highest risk of failure. This paper describes the subsequent development of a reliability based methodology which allows the failure probability with time to be determined for corroded pipelines. Examples are presented of the application to actual corroded pipelines. It is highlighted that the methodology allows the pipeline operator to evaluate appropriate future safe operating strategies including, de-rating, re-inspection and/or pipeline replacement and the necessary scheduling.
- OSTI ID:
- 55800
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-940230--; ISBN 0-7918-1265-0
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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