[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 76 (Monday, April 21, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 19389-19390]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-10196]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Research and Special Programs Administration
[Contract DTRS-56-96-C-0010]


Third 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 pig'') vendors, and the general public to the third quarterly 
performance review meeting of progress on the contract ``Detection of 
Mechanical Damage in Pipelines.'' The meeting is open to anyone, and no 
registration is required. 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 electromagnetic in-line inspection 
technologies to detect and characterize mechanical damage and stress 
corrosion cracking. There will be a presentation on the status of 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 third quarterly performance review meeting will be held on 
May 5, 1997, beginning at 12:30 p.m. and ending around 4:30 p.m.

ADDRESSES: The quarterly review meeting will be held in rooms 6332-36 
of the Department of Transportation Headquarters Building, 400 7th 
Street, S.W., Washington, DC. Non-government personnel must enter the 
building through the southwest entrance in order to receive a temporary 
building pass.

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 in-line inspection research is of immediate 
interest to the pipeline industry and in-line inspection vendors. RSPA 
will continue this practice throughout the two- or three-year period of 
the contract. The meetings will allow disclosure of the results to all 
interested parties and will provide an opportunity for interested 
parties to ask Battelle questions concerning the research.
    The first meeting was conducted on October 22, 1996, in Washington, 
DC. The second quarterly review meeting was held on January 14, 1997 in 
Houston, Texas, in parallel with a meeting of the Gas Research 
Institute's (GRI) Nondestructive Evaluation Technical Advisory Group to 
enable significant participation by pipeline operators and inspection 
vendors. This, the third quarterly review meeting is being held in 
Washington in advance of the May 6-7, 1997, meetings of RSPA's two 
technical advisory committees, the Technical Pipeline Safety Standards 
Committee (TPSSC) for gas pipelines and the Technical Hazardous Liquid 
Pipeline Safety Standards Committee (THLPSSC) for hazardous liquid 
pipelines. Each committee is a 15 member, Congressionally mandated 
advisory committee (49 U.S.C. 60115) responsible for reviewing proposed 
pipeline safety standards for technical feasibility, reasonableness, 
and practicability. An announcement of the TPSSC and THLPSSC meetings 
appeared in the Federal Register on April 4, 1997 (62 FR 16212). The 
advisory committee members have been invited to this quarterly review 
meeting in order for interested members to obtain a detailed briefing 
on the status of the research.
    The research contract 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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    Attendance is open to all and does not require advanced 
registration nor advanced notification to RSPA. However, we 
specifically want that segment of the pipeline 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. Each has 
named an engineering/technical representative.

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 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. Task 1 is to evaluate existing

[[Page 19390]]

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.
    A Task 3 is being considered for an option year to the contract. 
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, D.C. on April 15, 1997.
Richard D. Huriaux,
Acting Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety.
[FR Doc. 97-10196 Filed 4-18-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-60-P