Pipeline Failures Resulting From Interacting Integrity Threats

Abstract

All pipelines contain manufacturing and construction anomalies that typically are stable with time and are not generally considered to be integrity threats. These include laminations, seam weld anomalies, girth weld anomalies, and shallow dents. There also are time-dependent integrity threats to buried natural gas and petroleum pipelines. These include external and internal corrosion, fatigue, corrosion fatigue, stress corrosion cracking (SCC), and hydrogen embrittlement. Unexpected failures can occur when the time dependent integrity threats are coupled with these stable anomalies. This paper describes several of these interactions.