New technique for studying soil-corrosion of underground pipeline

Abstract

Pipeline integrity management programs address a wide range of threats to safe operations. Among these threats, external corrosion has been among the most dominant failure mechanism experienced by buried steel pipelines. External corrosion can be detected through a variety of assessment methods, including inline inspection (ILI) and External Corrosion Direct Assessment (ECDA). In the absence of data from inspection, the corrosion rate can be estimated based on the use of buried corrosion coupons, corrosion probes and corrosion rate modelling using data derived from soil analysis. The objective of the study was to design a methodology of the external growth modelling of corrosion on buried gas pipelines under various exposures to soil conditions. The technique can be used to generate field data so as to model empirically the corrosion dynamic in soil or for verification of corrosion data from laboratory testing. The potential model based on the proposed technique is highly potential to predict the likelihood of corrosion growth rate experienced by buried lines exposed to corrosive environment. Hence, can greatly assist operator to secure the integrity of their pipelines until the structure reaches its designed lifetime.