This project was done to reassess the industry's perceptions of NDT needs and to recommend areas of research pertinent to those needs. The project included two survey questionnaires-one sent to 41 pipeline operating companies, yielding 31 responses, and the other sent to 10 inspection vendors with 9 responses. The surveys covered pipeline integrity issues, NDT technologies, and the perceptions of both operators and vendors regarding the need for new or improved inspection capabilities. The survey responses showed the four most important pipeline integrity issues to be (in order of priority):CorrosionCoating...
This project was done to reassess the industry's perceptions of NDT needs and to recommend areas of research pertinent to those needs. The project included two survey questionnaires-one sent to 41 pipeline operating companies, yielding 31 responses, and the other sent to 10 inspection vendors with 9 responses. The surveys covered pipeline integrity issues, NDT technologies, and the perceptions of both operators and vendors regarding the need for new or improved inspection capabilities. The survey responses showed the four most important pipeline integrity issues to be (in order of priority):CorrosionCoating failureMechanical damage (third-party damage)Stress-corrosion crackingWhile acknowledging that some improvements could be made, the industry expressed general satisfaction with current in-line inspection (ILI) systems except for the crack pig, which they said needs significant improvement and which they feel is too expensive for use except in critical applications. They had similar opinions of the cost of the mapping pig, though to a lesser degree than for the crack pig. A question regarding conventional versus high-resolution corrosion inspection drew the response that although high-resolution tools are recognized for superior performance, there will always be a need for both classes of tools.