[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 251 (Monday, December 30, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 68813-68814]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-33165]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Research and Special Programs Administration


Second Quarterly Performance Review Meeting on the Contract 
``Detection of Mechanical Damage in Pipelines'' (Contract DTRS-56-96-C-
0010)

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 pig'') vendors, and the general public to the second quarterly 
performance review meeting of progress on the contract ``Detection of 
Mechanical Damage in Pipelines.'' 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 
technologies using electromagnetic technology to detect and 
characterize mechanical damage and stress corrosion cracking. There 
will be a presentation on the status of work on the contract tasks, 
including a summary of the activity and progress during the past 
quarter and the projected activity for the next quarter.

DATES: The second quarterly performance review meeting will be held on 
January 14, 1997 beginning at 8:30 a.m. and ending around 12:30 p.m.

ADDRESSES: The quarterly review meeting will be conducted in the Venice 
I & II meeting rooms at the Doubletree Guest Suites, 5353 Westheimer 
Road, Houston, Texas. The hotel's telephone number is (713) 961-9000.

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: [email protected].

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 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 was conducted on October 22, 1996, in Washington, 
DC. This, the second quarterly review meeting, is being held in 
Houston, Texas, in parallel with a meeting of the Gas Research 
Institute's (GRI) Nondestructive Evaluation Technical Advisory Group in 
order to enable significant participation by pipeline operators and 
inspection vendors. The research contract RSPA has with Battelle is a 
cooperative effort between GRI and DOT, with GRI providing technical 
guidance.\1\ Future meetings may be conducted in Columbus, Ohio 
(Battelle); San Antonio, Texas (Southwest Research Institute); Ames, 
Iowa (Iowa State University); or Chicago, Illinois (Gas Research 
Institute). It is anticipated that every other meeting will be 
conducted in Washington, DC. Each of the future meetings will be 
announced in the Federal Register at least two weeks prior to the 
meeting.
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    \1\ See the notice of the first quarterly performance review 
meeting (61 FR 53484; Oct. 11, 1996) for information on the 
Memorandum of Understanding between DOT and GRI.
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    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 each meeting.

 II. 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. 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

[[Page 68814]]

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 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, DC on December 24, 1996.
Richard B. Felder,
Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety.
[FR Doc. 96-33165 Filed 12-27-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-60-P