THE PLACE OF INSULATION COATINGS IN ENSURING RELIABILITY STEEL UNDERGROUND GAS PIPELINES

Abstract

The article examines the issue of the place and role of insulating coatings in ensuring the reliability of steel underground gas pipelines. It has been shown that insulation is the main, basic means of protection against corrosion. A reliability model has been proposed for a linear section of a steel underground gas pipeline as a complex technical system consisting of unequal elements: a steel pipe as the main element that determines the operability/inoperability state of the system, and auxiliary protective elements – insulation and electrochemical protection, which reduce the level of corrosive effects of soil on the main element. This increases the degree of similarity of the reliability model to a real technical object, and also makes it possible to build a hierarchical structure of faults of various elements, taking into account their impact on the overall technical condition of the gas pipeline. It is proposed to consider its integrity as the determining physical parameter of the protective coating; the degree of preservation (loss) of integrity and the onset of the limiting state of the insulation should be assessed by the number (density) of defects.