Pipeline Defect Assessment Workshop
Led by Ian Smith
July 22-24, 2020: Long Beach, CA

This course involves practical application of the principles and methods learned in our Defect Assessment in Pipelines course. It takes those who want to take their defect assessment knowledge to the next level; it goes into greater depth on the various defect assessment methodologies and provides participants with hands-on practical experience performing calculations based on them. Participants will become comfortable performing and reviewing a wide variety of anomaly assessment methodologies and will understand when to best apply them within an Integrity Management Program. Cases and problems worked in class will be based on actual inspections of working pipeline systems. The course addresses both traditional pipeline methodologies as well as recent innovations, including the API 579 Fitness-for-Service Standard.

It will be necessary to bring a laptop to this course.

Lecturer

Ian Smith is a consulting engineer with over 20 years in the pipeline industry. He formed his own consulting company, ID Smith Pipeline Engineering, in 2016 after having leadership roles within inline inspection, pipeline operating, and Fitness-for-Service consulting organizations. This has provided Ian with a unique perspective on the complete process of pipeline integrity from data collection to defect Fitness-for-Service assessment through to integrating assessment results into integrity management programs. He is a Professional Engineer and a member of ASME.

Syllabus

1. Introduction to Pipeline Integrity
1. Common flaw types and failure mechanisms
2. Overview of inspection technology
3. Overview of available assessment methodologies
4. Introduction to Fitness-for-Service
5. The ever-changing regulatory environment
2. Assessment of Metal Loss
1. The original and modified B31.G method
2. The RSTRENG effective area method
3. The API 579 Level 1 and Level 2 method.
4. Comparison of B31.G, RSTENG, and API 579
5. Impact of Data Analysis on Assessment results
6. Finite element analysis
7. Example problems (worked in class)
3. Assessment of Cracks
1. Introduction to fracture mechanics
2. The NG-18 equation
3. The API 579 failure assessment diagram (FAD)
4. Finite element analysis overview
5. Fatigue Analysis
6. Hydrostatic testing versus ILI as a means to address cracks
7. Example problems (worked in class)
4. Assessment of Plain Dents
1. Rule-based assessment methodologies
2. API 579 methods
3. Finite element analysis
4. Example problems (worked in class)
5. Combined Anomalies
1. Dents with wall loss
2. Dents with cracks
3. Wall loss + crack
4. Identifying Interacting Anomalies
5. Approaches to assessing anomalies co-incident with strain events
6. FFS Case Studies
1. Case studies are presented for class discussion
2. Implementation of FFS methodologies into IMPs