PR-214-203820-R01 Performance Evaluation of ILI for Dents with Cracks and Gouges

Pipeline integrity management involves the analysis of pipeline condition information (e.g., pipe size, presence and size of features), operational/environmental conditions and line pipe material properties in engineering assessment (fitness-for-purpose) tools to evaluate operational risk. While nominal or minimum specified material properties and SCADA reported, design or estimated operational loading conditions can be considered, pipeline operators depend heavily on pipeline condition data from in-line inspection (ILI) systems. The current project presents the details of performance trials evaluating the ability of ILI systems to provide pipeline condition information for dents with coincident or closely aligned features. A set of sample dent features were prepared along with a trial protocol and performance metrics beyond those presented in API 1163 that were used to characterize performance.

ILI system pull and pump through trials of magnetic, ultrasonic and caliper-based ILI technologies from seven ILI Service Providers were performed. Data from these trials were used to quantify detection, identification, and sizing performance of the ILI systems for isolated corrosion features, dents with variety of shapes including those without coincident features and those with corrosion, gouges and/or cracks. The effect of dents on the ILI system detection, identification and sizing of the coincident features was evaluated.