[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 153 (Tuesday, August 10, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43421-43422]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-20538]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Research and Special Programs Administration
Quarterly Performance Review Meeting on the Contract ``Detection
of Mechanical Damage in Pipelines'' (Contract DTRS-56-96-C-0010)
AGENCY: Research and Special Programs Administration (RSPA), DOT.
ACTION: Notice of meeting.
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SUMMARY: RSPA invites the pipeline industry, in-line inspection
(``smart pig'') vendors, and the general public to the last quarterly
performance review meeting of progress on the contract ``Detection of
Mechanical Damage in Pipelines.'' The meeting is open to anyone, and no
registration is required. This contract is being performed by Battelle
Memorial Institute (Battelle), along with the Southwest Research
Institute, and Iowa State University. The contract is a research and
development contract to develop electromagnetic in-line inspection
technologies to detect and characterize mechanical damage and stress
corrosion cracking. The meeting will cover a review of the overall
project plan, the status of the contract tasks, progress made during
the past quarter, and projected activity for the remainder of the
contract.
DATES: The last quarterly performance review meeting will be held on
Monday, August 30, 1999 beginning at 1 p.m. and ending around 5 p.m.
ADDRESSES: The quarterly review meeting will be held at The Antlers
Adam's Mark Hotel, 4 South Cascade Avenue, Colorado Springs, CO 80903.
The hotel's telephone number is (719) 473-5600.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Lloyd W. Ulrich, Contracting Officer's
Technical Representative, Office of Pipeline Safety, telephone: (202)
366-4556, FAX: (202) 366-4566, e-mail: lloyd.ulrich@rspa.dot.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
RSPA is conducting quarterly meetings on the status of its contract
``Detection of Mechanical Damage in Pipelines'' (Contract DTRS-56-96-C-
0010) because in-line inspection research is of immediate interest to
the pipeline industry and in-line inspection vendors. The research
contract with Battelle is a cooperative effort between the Gas Research
Institute (GRI) and DOT, with GRI providing technical guidance. The
meetings allow disclosure of the results to interested parties and
provide an opportunity for interested parties to ask Battelle questions
concerning the research. Attendance at this meeting is open to all and
does not require advanced registration nor advanced notification to
RSPA.
We specifically want that segment of the pipeline industry involved
with in-line inspection to be aware of the status of this contract. To
assure that a cross section of industry is well represented at these
meetings, we have invited the major domestic in-line inspection company
(Tuboscope Vetco Pipeline Services) and the following pipeline industry
trade associations: American Petroleum Institute, Interstate Natural
Gas Association of America, and the American Gas Association. Each has
named an engineering/technical representative and, along with the GRI
representative providing technical guidance, form the Industry Review
Team (IRT) for the contract.
The original objective was to open each quarterly performance
review meeting to the public. The first quarterly meeting was conducted
on October 22, 1996, in Washington, DC. However, preparing for a formal
briefing each quarter takes a considerable amount of time and resources
on Battelle's part that could be better used to conduct the research.
Therefore, Battelle requested and RSPA concurred that future public
meetings would be conducted semi-annually. Conducting public meetings
semi-annually will provide all interested parties with sufficient
update of progress in the research. Only the IRT and RSPA staff
involved with the contract will be invited to the quarterly performance
review meetings held between the public semi-annual meetings.
Another objective is to conduct many of the semi-annual meetings at
the same location and either before or after a meeting of GRI's
Nondestructive Evaluation Technical Advisory Group to enable
participation by pipeline technical personnel involved with
nondestructive evaluation. This meeting is being held in Colorado
Springs the day before a meeting of the GRI Nondestructive Technical
Advisory Group. Each of the semi-annual
[[Page 43422]]
meetings have been announced in the Federal Register at least two weeks
prior to the meeting.
II. The Contract
The Battelle contract is a research and development contract to
evaluate and develop in-line inspection technologies for detecting
mechanical damage and cracking, such as stress-corrosion cracking
(SCC), in natural gas transmission and hazardous liquid pipelines.
Third-party mechanical damage is one of the largest causes of pipeline
failure, but existing in-line inspection tools cannot always detect or
accurately characterize the severity of some types of third-party
damage that can threaten pipeline integrity. Although SCC is not very
common on pipelines, it usually appears in high-stressed, low-
population-density areas and only when a limited set of environmental
conditions are met. Several attempts have been made to develop an in-
line inspection tool for SCC, but there is no commercially successful
tool on the market.
Under the contract, Battelle is evaluating and advancing magnetic
flux leakage (MFL) inspection technology for detecting mechanical
damage and two electromagnetic technologies for detecting SCC. The
focus is on MFL for mechanical damage because experience shows MFL can
characterize some types of mechanical damage and can be successfully
used for metal-loss corrosion under a wide variety of conditions. The
focus for SCC is on electromagnetic technologies that can be used in
conjunction with, or as a modification to, MFL tools. The technologies
to be evaluated take advantage of the MFL magnetizer either by
enhancing signals or using electrical currents that are generated by
the passage of an inspection tool through a pipeline.
The contract includes three major tasks. Task 1 evaluated existing
MFL signal generation and analysis methods and established a baseline
from which today's tools can be evaluated and tomorrow's advances
measured. Then, improvements to signal analysis methods were developed
and verified through testing under realistic pipeline conditions.
Finally, it built an experience base and defect sets to generalize the
results from individual tools and analysis methods to the full range of
practical applications.
Task 2 evaluated two inspection technologies for detecting stress
corrosion cracks. The focus in Task 2 was on electromagnetic techniques
that have been developed in recent years and that could be used on or
as a modification to existing MFL tools. Three subtasks evaluated
velocity-induced remote-field techniques, remote-field eddy-current
techniques, and external techniques for sizing stress corrosion
cracks.1
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\1\ The report summarizing the work conducted under tasks 1 and
2 can be found from viewing the RSPA home page, http://ops.dot.gov.
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Task 3 is verifying the results from Tasks 1 and 2 by tests under
realistic pipeline conditions. Task 3 is (1) extending the mechanical
damage detection, signal decoupling, and sizing algorithms developed in
the basic program to include the effects of pressure, (2) verifying the
algorithms under pressurized conditions in GRI's 4,700 foot, 24-inch
diameter Pipeline Simulation Facility (PSF) flow loop, and (3)
developing techniques to measure stress and determine the severity of
mechanical damage and cracks.
A drawback of present pig technology is the lack of a reliable pig
performance verification procedure that is generally accepted by the
pipeline industry and RSPA. The experience gained by the pipeline
industry and RSPA with the use of the PSF flow loop in this project
will provide a framework to develop procedures for evaluating pig
performance. Defect detection reliability is critical if instrumented
pigging is to be used as an in-line inspection tool in pipeline
industry risk management programs.
The ultimate benefits of the project could be more efficient and
cost-effective operations, maintenance programs to monitor and enhance
the safety of gas transmission and hazardous liquid pipelines. Pipeline
companies will benefit from having access to inspection technologies
for detecting critical mechanical damage and stress-corrosion cracks.
Inspection tool vendors will benefit by understanding where
improvements are beneficial and needed. These benefits will support
RSPA's long-range objective of ensuring the safety and reliability of
the gas transmission and hazardous liquid pipeline infrastructure.
Issued in Washington, DC.
Richard B. Felder,
Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety.
[FR Doc. 99-20538 Filed 8-9-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-60-P
