Pipeline Integrity Assessment

India has huge 100’s of Km’s Pipeline Laid Underground for oil and Gas Transportation. Many of the Pipelines have been very old and require proper assessment. Since being Underground the pipelines are not inspected regularly and are also subjected to internal corrosion due to highly corrosive material being transported through them.

IRC has now developed a methodology to assess the Pipelines for its integrity. IRC shall carry out the assessment in three steps:

1. ADVANCED NDT: Firstly IRC shall carry out the assessment using LRUT. Since LRUT has capabilities to scan the Pipeline 50 meters on both sides, it shall prove to be of great value for our assessment. We shall be able to inspect a very lage area of the Pipeline for its Thickness by digging only on a particular location. This will help us in getting a quantitative result.
   We may also perform Phased Array and Time Of Flight Diffraction Method on Weld joints if the Pipeline or Critical Piping is above ground and the weld joint is accessable for inspection. These inspection methods will get us the exact size of the defect which can then be used for Life Assessment.
2. Stress Analysis: IRC has a separate team in case of Power Plants for there Critical Piping. IRC can perform inspections such as Stress Analysis and has carried out a number of such jobs which are used for Hanger Design Check. We have procured Caesar software. We have carried out such jobs in NTPC TANDA, NTPC FARAKKA etc. We look forward to carry out these assessments together with ADVANCED NDT Inspection since this will help us to get closer to life estimation.
   Since a lot of Piping have become very old it becomes a necessity for us to inspect where all the stresses are more due to long operational life.
3. FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS: IRC has two such softwares ANSYS, and Crackwise which help us in estimation of life of the defects. A detailed investigation is done by our team, and data like operational data, and plant running history is taken. IRC NDT team then gives the data for the size of cracks or any other kind of defects, these details when inserted in the software a life is estimated. These softwares are widely recognised and are based on many years of mathematical research.

IRC is looking forward to create value for the Pipeline Industry as such assessments shall help in stopping failures which lead to losses which could be monetary as well as life.