[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 199 (Friday, October 11, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 53484-53486]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-26030]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
[Contract DTRS-56-96-C-0010]


Quarterly Performance Review Meeting on the Contract ``Detection 
of Mechanical Damage in Pipelines''

AGENCY: Research and Special Programs Administration (RSPA), DOT.

ACTION: Notice of meeting.

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SUMMARY: RSPA invites the pipeline industry, in-line inspection 
(``smart

[[Page 53485]]

pig'') vendors, and the general public to a quarterly performance 
review meeting of progress pursuant to the contract ``Detection of 
Mechanical Damage in Pipelines.'' RSPA wants the pipeline industry, 
particularly that segment of the industry involved with in-line 
inspection, including in-line inspection vendors, to be aware of the 
status of this contract. This contract is being performed by Battelle 
Memorial Institute (Battelle), along with the Southwest Research 
Institute, and Iowa State University. The contract is a research and 
development contract to develop in-line inspection equipment using 
electromagnetic technology to detect and characterize mechanical damage 
and stress corrosion cracking. Battelle's Program Manager will make a 
presentation on the status of contract tasks, including a summary of 
the activity and progress during the past quarter and the projected 
activity for the next quarter.

DATES: The quarterly performance review meeting will be held on October 
22, 1996, beginning at 9:00 am and ending around noon.

ADDRESSES: The quarterly review meeting will be conducted at the 
Holiday Inn Capitol, 550 C Street, SW, Washington, DC.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Lloyd W. Ulrich, Contracting Officer's 
Technical Representative, Office of Pipeline Safety, telephone: (202) 
366-4556, FAX: (202) 366-4566, e-mail: lloyd.ulrich @ rspa.dot.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    RSPA is holding quarterly public meetings on the status of its 
contract ``Detection of Mechanical Damage in Pipelines'' (Contract 
DTRS-56-96-C-0010) because it recognizes that this in-line inspection 
research is of immediate interest to the pipeline industry and in-line 
inspection vendors. RSPA plans to make the results available on a 
quarterly basis throughout the two- or three-year period of the 
contract. The meetings will allow disclosure of the results to all 
interested parties at the same time and provide an opportunity for 
interested parties to ask Battelle clarifying questions concerning the 
research.
    The first meeting will be conducted on October 22, 1996, in 
Washington, DC. Future quarterly review meetings may be held in 
Columbus, Ohio (Battelle); San Antonio, Texas (Southwest Research 
Institute); Ames, Iowa (Iowa State University); or Chicago, Illinois 
(Gas Research Institute). Each of the future meetings will be announced 
in the Federal Register at least two weeks prior to the meeting.
    We want the pipeline industry, and in particular, that segment of 
the industry involved with in-line inspection, to be aware of the 
status of this contract. To assure that the industry is well 
represented at these meetings, we have invited the major domestic in-
line inspection company (Tuboscope-Vetco Pipeline Services) and the 
following pipeline industry trade associations: American Petroleum 
Institute, Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, and the 
American Gas Association to name an engineering/technical 
representative, to attend the meetings.

II. The GRI/DOT Memorandum of Understanding

    The Gas Research Institute (GRI) and the Department of 
Transportation (DOT) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on June 
20, 1996, which formalized a partnership to further the mutual 
interests of both organizations in providing public safety, and 
environmental protection, and in reducing risks from gas transmission 
pipelines. GRI is a cooperative research organization of the natural 
gas industry. The MOU's objective is to define and formalize a 
structure to exchange information and coordinate GRI's and DOT's 
research programs, and to guide research in various areas involving 
pipeline safety and environmental protection including nondestructive 
testing, data analysis, risk management, damage prevention, and mapping 
standards. The research contract RSPA has with Battelle is a 
cooperative effort between GRI and DOT, with GRI providing technical 
guidance.

III. The Contract

    The Battelle contract is a research and development contract to 
evaluate and develop in-line inspection technologies for detecting 
mechanical damage and cracking, such as stress-corrosion cracking 
(SCC), in natural gas transmission and hazardous liquid pipelines. 
Third-party mechanical damage is one of the largest causes of pipeline 
failure, but existing in-line inspection tools cannot always detect or 
accurately characterize the severity of some types of third-party 
damage that can threaten pipeline integrity. For example, although SCC 
is not very common on pipelines, it usually appears in high-stress, 
low-population-density areas and only when a limited set of 
environmental conditions are met. Several attempts have been made to 
develop an in-line inspection tool for SCC, but there is no 
commercially successful tool on the market.
    Under the contract, Battelle will evaluate and advance magnetic 
flux leakage (MFL) inspection technology for detecting mechanical 
damage and two electromagnetic technologies for detecting SCC. The 
focus is on MFL for mechanical damage because experience shows MFL can 
characterize some types of mechanical damage and can be successfully 
used for metal-loss corrosion under a wide variety of conditions. The 
focus for SCC is on electromagnetic technologies that can be used in 
conjunction with, or as a modification to, MFL tools. The technologies 
to be evaluated take advantage of the MFL magnetizer either by 
enhancing signals or using electrical currents that are generated by 
the passage of an inspection tool through a pipeline.
    The contract includes two major tasks during the base two years of 
the contract, and one major task (Task 3) being considered for an 
option year to the contract:
    Task 1 is to evaluate existing MFL signal generation and analysis 
methods to establish a baseline from which today's tools can be 
evaluated and tomorrow's advances measured. Then, it will develop 
improvements to signal analysis methods and verify them through testing 
under realistic pipeline conditions. Finally, it will build an 
experience base and defect sets to generalize the results from 
individual tools and analysis methods to the full range of practical 
applications.
    Task 2 is to evaluate two inspection technologies for detecting 
stress corrosion cracks. The focus in Task 2 is on electromagnetic 
techniques that have been developed in recent years and that could be 
used on or as a modification to existing MFL tools. Three subtasks will 
evaluate velocity-induced remote- field techniques, remote-field eddy-
current techniques, and external techniques for sizing stress corrosion 
cracks.
    Task 3, if done, will verify the results from Tasks 1 and 2 by 
tests under realistic pipeline conditions. Task 3 will (1) extend the 
mechanical damage detection, signal decoupling, and sizing algorithms 
developed in the basic program to include the effects of pressure, (2) 
verify the algorithms under pressurized conditions in GRI's 4,700 foot, 
24-inch diameter Pipeline Simulation Facility (PSF) flow loop, and (3) 
evaluate the use of eddy-current techniques for characterizing cold 
working within mechanical damage.
    A drawback of present pig technology is the lack of a reliable pig 
performance verification procedure that is generally accepted by the 
pipeline industry and

[[Page 53486]]

RSPA. The experience gained by the pipeline industry and RSPA with the 
use of the PSF flow loop in this project will provide a framework to 
develop procedures for evaluating pig performance. Defect detection 
reliability is critical if instrumented pigging is to be used as an in-
line inspection tool in pipeline industry risk management programs.
    The ultimate benefits of the project could be more efficient and 
cost-effective operations, maintenance programs to monitor and enhance 
the safety of gas transmission and hazardous liquid pipelines. Pipeline 
companies will benefit from having access to inspection technologies 
for detecting critical mechanical damage and stress-corrosion cracks. 
Inspection tool vendors will benefit by understanding where 
improvements are beneficial and needed. These benefits will support 
RSPA's long-range objective of ensuring the safety and reliability of 
the gas transmission and hazardous liquid pipeline infrastructure.

    Issued in Washington, D.C. on October 4, 1996.
Richard B. Felder,
Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety.
[FR Doc. 96-26030 Filed 10-9 -96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-60-P