Detection of Crack Initiation Based on Repeat In-Line Inspection

Author(s):  
Michael Palmer ◽  
Christopher Davies ◽  
Markus Ginten ◽  
Roland Palmer-Jones

As Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC) and other cracking related issues become a more recognised hazard or threat that can be monitored by in-line inspection (ILI), there have been high expectations for the pipeline inspection industry to produce a reliable solution for identifying and sizing cracks. The current leading ILI technologies provided for pipeline crack detection are Ultrasonic (UT) and Electromagnetic Acoustic Transducer (EMAT). The introduction of EMAT In-Line Inspection technologies has provided a proven solution for crack detection that can be used in gas pipelines without having to introduce a liquid couplant into the pipeline. With the development of these technologies worldwide pipeline regulators are putting more pressure on the industry to monitor integrity issues relating to cracking. For example USA pipeline operators are required by the Office of Pipeline Safety to inspect and assess their pipelines that operate within high consequence areas for integrity issues, such as SCC, and repair or replace affected pipe. The inspection options for this include the use of Inline inspection tools — “smart pigs”. These regulations in combination with the majority of pipeline incidents relating to SCC occurring in gas pipelines have led to a significant increase in the use of EMAT ILI technology in recent years. With repeat EMAT ILIs now being conducted on some pipelines there is the option to compare data sets to identify any changes between inspections. Due to the complexities of the EMAT measurement principle and the volumes of data recorded, the process of directly comparing raw signal data from two runs is still in its infancy and cannot currently be used to confirm or discount evidence of crack growth, such as the industry has seen with estimation of corrosion growth based on Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) technology signal comparison. However the comparison of EMAT data sets can aid the identification of crack initiation. This technical paper presents a method for identifying the initiation of crack growth (the development of newly detectable cracks) based on repeat EMAT ILI, using feature matching and comparison of raw EMAT inspection data. The implications for integrity management of the identification of newly detectable SCC are discussed, and possible future improvements are outlined. The paper includes a case study that illustrates some of the issues.

Author(s):  
Neil Bates ◽  
David Lee ◽  
Clifford Maier

This paper describes case studies involving crack detection in-line inspections and fitness for service assessments that were performed based on the inspection data. The assessments were used to evaluate the immediate integrity of the pipeline based on the reported features and the long-term integrity of the pipeline based on excavation data and probabilistic SCC and fatigue crack growth simulations. Two different case studies are analyzed, which illustrate how the data from an ultrasonic crack tool inspection was used to assess threats such as low frequency electrical resistance weld seam defects and stress corrosion cracking. Specific issues, such as probability of detection/identification and the length/depth accuracy of the tool, were evaluated to determine the suitability of the tool to accurately classify and size different types of defects. The long term assessment is based on the Monte Carlo method [1], where the material properties, pipeline details, crack growth parameters, and feature dimensions are randomly selected from certain specified probability distributions to determine the probability of failure versus time for the pipeline segment. The distributions of unreported crack-related features from the excavation program are used to distribute unreported features along the pipeline. Simulated crack growth by fatigue, SCC, or a combination of the two is performed until failure by either leak or rupture is predicted. The probability of failure calculation is performed through a number of crack growth simulations for each of the reported and unreported features and tallying their respective remaining lives. The results of the probabilistic analysis were used to determine the most effective and economical means of remediation by identifying areas or crack mechanisms that contribute most to the probability of failure.


Author(s):  
Mark Slaughter ◽  
Kevin Spencer ◽  
Jane Dawson ◽  
Petra Senf

Ultrasonic inline inspection (ILI) tools have been used in the oil and gas pipeline industry for the last 14 years to detect and measure cracks. The detection capabilities of these tools have been verified through many field investigations. ILI ultrasonic crack detection has good correlation with the crack layout on the pipe and estimating the maximum crack depth for the crack or colony. Recent analytical developments have improved the ability to locate individual cracks within a colony and to define the crack depth profile. As with the management of corroding pipelines, the ability to accurately discriminate active from non-active cracks and to determine the rate of crack growth is an essential input into a number of key integrity management decisions. For example, in order to identify the need for and timing of field investigations and/or repairs and to optimize re-inspection intervals crack growth rates are a key input. With increasing numbers of cracks and crack colonies being found in pipelines there is a real need for reliable crack growth information to use in prioritizing remediation activities and planning re-inspection intervals. So as more and more pipelines containing cracks are now being inspected for a second time (or even third time in some cases), the industry is starting to look for quantitative crack growth information from the comparison of repeat ultrasonic crack detection ILI runs. This paper describes the processes used to analyze repeat ultrasonic crack detection ILI data and crack growth information that can be obtained. Discussions on how technical improvements made to crack sizing accuracy and how field verification information can benefit integrity plans are also included.


Author(s):  
William F. Ranson ◽  
Reginald I. Vachon ◽  
Gregory L. Hovis ◽  
Jerrell A. Nardiello ◽  
Robert D. Fidnarick ◽  
...  

Results are presented for crack initiation detection and crack growth monitoring using DMI SR-1 Strain Gages and DMI SR-2 Reader in two Northrop Grumman aluminum test coupons subjected to cyclic loading. Results demonstrate the utility of the technology to detect cracks and crack growth in holes. The DMI SR-1 strain gage is applied so that it frames the hole in the test coupon. This results in strain measurements at tangents to hole and associated shear strains. A differential strain reading between gage lengths on parallel and opposing sides of a hole, resulting from discontinuities in the material surrounding a hole, indicates crack initiation and as the crack grows the differential reading increases.


2019 ◽  
Vol 121 ◽  
pp. 04014
Author(s):  
M.M. Kantor ◽  
V.V. Sudin ◽  
K.A. Solntsev

The work describes the features of stress corrosion cracking (SCC) on Russian gas pipelines. The influence of metal parameters of pipelines on the propagation of SCC is described. The main diagnostic features of SCC used for identification of this type of fracture, the stages of crack growth and the effect of microstructural metal parameters on their propagation are described. Accounting methods for main features crack initiation and growth in order to improve the resistance of the main pipelines metal to SCC are proposed


2002 ◽  
Vol 124 (3) ◽  
pp. 139-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Garbatov ◽  
C. Guedes Soares

The present paper adopts a Bayesian approach to update some of the parameters of the probability distributions governing the reliability assessment of maintained floating structures. It is based on a time dependent fatigue reliability formulation presented earlier but the description of the time to crack initiation, crack growth law and probability of crack detection are updated using the information from the inspections. Its performance is demonstrated with a simulated example.


Author(s):  
Hani Habra ◽  
Maureen Kachman ◽  
Kevin Bullock ◽  
Clary Clish ◽  
Charles R. Evans ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
pp. 99
Author(s):  
Christian Overgaard Christensen ◽  
Jacob Wittrup Schmidt ◽  
Philip Skov Halding ◽  
Medha Kapoor ◽  
Per Goltermann

In proof-loading of concrete slab bridges, advanced monitoring methods are required for identification of stop criteria. In this study, Two-Dimensional Digital Image Correlation (2D DIC) is investigated as one of the governing measurement methods for crack detection and evaluation. The investigations are deemed to provide valuable information about DIC capabilities under different environmental conditions and to evaluate the capabilities in relation to stop criterion verifications. Three Overturned T-beam (OT) Reinforced Concrete (RC) slabs are used for the assessment. Of these, two are in situ strips (0.55 × 3.6 × 9.0 m) cut from a full-scale OT-slab bridge with a span of 9 m and one is a downscaled slab tested under laboratory conditions (0.37 × 1.7 × 8.4 m). The 2D DIC results includes full-field plots, investigation of the time of crack detection and monitoring of crack widths. Grey-level transformation was used for the in situ tests to ensure sufficient readability and results comparable to the laboratory test. Crack initiation for the laboratory test (with speckle pattern) and in situ tests (plain concrete surface) were detected at intervals of approximately 0.1 mm to 0.3 mm and 0.2 mm to 0.3 mm, respectively. Consequently, the paper evaluates a more qualitative approach to DIC test results, where crack indications and crack detection can be used as a stop criterion. It was furthermore identified that crack initiation was reached at high load levels, implying the importance of a target load.


2004 ◽  
Vol 126 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanyao Jiang ◽  
Miaolin Feng

Fatigue crack propagation was modeled by using the cyclic plasticity material properties and fatigue constants for crack initiation. The cyclic elastic-plastic stress-strain field near the crack tip was analyzed using the finite element method with the implementation of a robust cyclic plasticity theory. An incremental multiaxial fatigue criterion was employed to determine the fatigue damage. A straightforward method was developed to determine the fatigue crack growth rate. Crack propagation behavior of a material was obtained without any additional assumptions or fitting. Benchmark Mode I fatigue crack growth experiments were conducted using 1070 steel at room temperature. The approach developed was able to quantitatively capture all the important fatigue crack propagation behaviors including the overload and the R-ratio effects on crack propagation and threshold. The models provide a new perspective for the R-ratio effects. The results support the notion that the fatigue crack initiation and propagation behaviors are governed by the same fatigue damage mechanisms. Crack growth can be treated as a process of continuous crack nucleation.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-319
Author(s):  
F. Van den Abeele ◽  
M. Di Biagio ◽  
L. Amlung

One of the major challenges in the design of ultra high grade (X100) gas pipelines is the identification of areliable crack propagation strategy. Recent research results have shown that the newly developed highstrength and large diameter gas pipelines, when operated at severe conditions, may not be able to arrest arunning ductile crack through pipe material properties. Hence, the use of crack arrestors is required in thedesign of safe and reliable pipeline systems.A conventional crack arrestor can be a high toughness pipe insert, or a local joint with higher wall thickness.According to experimental results of full-scale burst tests, composite crack arrestors are one of the mostpromising technologies. Such crack arrestors are made of fibre reinforced plastics which provide the pipewith an additional hoop constraint. In this paper, numerical tools to simulate crack initiation, propagationand arrest in composite crack arrestors are introduced.First, the in-use behaviour of composite crack arrestors is evaluated by means of large scale tensile testsand four point bending experiments. The ability of different stress based orthotropic failure measures topredict the onset of material degradation is compared. Then, computational fracture mechanics is applied tosimulate ductile crack propagation in high pressure gas pipelines, and the corresponding crack growth inthe composite arrestor. The combination of numerical simulation and experimental research allows derivingdesign guidelines for composite crack arrestors.


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