Burst Tests on Pipeline Containing Long Real Corrosion Defects
Long defects are one of the various corrosion-damage geometries that may occur in oil and gas pipelines. Long internal defects appear in general at the bottom of the pipe, around 6 o’clock position, due to the presence of water at this place. Long external defects are caused in general by faults in the protective coating. The words “long defect” are being used herein to mean a corrosion defect longer than 20Det. In this paper the burst tests of five end-capped tubular specimens containing a single internal real corrosion defect are presented. In these tests the tubular specimens were loaded with internal pressure only. The specimens were cut from five longitudinal welded tubes made of API 5L X46 steel with an outside diameter of 457.2 mm and a wall thickness of 6.35 mm. The tubes are corroded pipe segments that were removed from service as part of a rehabilitation campaign. Each one of the five tubes contains a long and complex shaped internal defect. Measurements were carried out in order to determine the actual dimensions of each tubular specimen and its respective defect. Tensile specimens were tested to determine material properties. The failure pressures measured in the laboratory tests are compared with those predicted by two Level-2 assessment methods: the RSTRENG Effective Area method and the DNV RP-F101 method for complex shaped defects. Comparisons between the measured failure pressures and the failure pressures predicted by three Level-1 assessment methods (the ASME B31G method, the RSTRENG 085dL method and the DNV RP-F101 method for single defects) are also presented.