This report reviews and summarizes the current state of knowledge and practice related to mechanical damage in natural gas and hazardous liquid steel pipelines, with particular focus on transmission pipelines. The report addresses several issues associated with mechanical damage including:
- understanding mechanical damage in pipelines
- prevention
- detection, identification and characterization
- assessment
- mitigation techniques
- pipeline industry experiences
- regulatory practices (US, UK, Canada, UE)
The report identified several gaps which warrant further attention, including:
- Better one-call enforcement, improved communications, an improved understanding of the effectiveness of different prevention methods and better ways of enhancing public awareness
- The need for ILI technology that more accurately detects and assesses the severity of prior mechanical damage
- Methods to determine the need for immediate action or pressure reduction
- Validated methods to assess the remaining service life of pipelines impacted by mechanical damage
- Guidelines for the selection and application of composite repair systems
- Improved confidence in the long-term performance reliability of all repair systems
For a copy of this report, click here.