The Guidelines for the Assessment of Dents on Welds describes a method for evaluating the serviceability of pipeline girth welds affected by otherwise plain, shallow indentations that are free to reround under pressure. The user makes a cumulative fatigue damage assessment, considering the effects of dent size, weld quality, and the severity of the pipeline operating pressure spectrum. An accompanying diskette provides a rainflow cycle-counting algorithm for use in evaluating the operating pressure spectrum, along with other spreadsheet tools to facilitate the analysis. The serviceability is established...
The Guidelines for the Assessment of Dents on Welds describes a method for evaluating the serviceability of pipeline girth welds affected by otherwise plain, shallow indentations that are free to reround under pressure. The user makes a cumulative fatigue damage assessment, considering the effects of dent size, weld quality, and the severity of the pipeline operating pressure spectrum. An accompanying diskette provides a rainflow cycle-counting algorithm for use in evaluating the operating pressure spectrum, along with other spreadsheet tools to facilitate the analysis. The serviceability is established by an estimate of the pressure-fatigue life of the weld-dent combination. Examples are presented. Field inspection and repair issues are also discussed.