[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 36 (Tuesday, February 24, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 9295-9296]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-4580]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Research and Special Programs Administration
[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 pig'') vendors, and the general public to the next quarterly 
performance review meeting of progress on the contract ``Detection of 
Mechanical Damage in Pipelines.'' The meeting is open to everyone, 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. The meeting will cover a review of the 
overall project plan, the status of the contract tasks, progress made 
during the past quarter, and projected activity for the next quarter.

DATES: The next quarterly performance review meeting will be held on 
March 17, 1998, beginning at 1:00 p.m. and ending around 5:00 p.m.

ADDRESSES: The quarterly review meeting will be held at the Embassy 
Suites Downtown Salt Lake City, 110 West 600 South, Salt Lake City, 
Utah. The hotel's telephone number is (801) 359-7800.

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 conducting quarterly 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 life of the contract, which 
may be three years. The research contract with Battelle is a 
cooperative effort between the Gas Research Institute (GRI) and DOT, 
with GRI providing technical guidance. The meetings allow disclosure of 
the results to interested parties and provide an opportunity for 
interested parties to ask Battelle questions concerning the research. 
Attendance at this meeting is open to all and does not require advance 
registration or advance notice to RSPA.
    We specifically want that segment of the pipeline industry involved 
with in-line inspection to be aware of the status of this contract. To 
ensure that a cross section of 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 who, along with the GRI 
representative providing technical guidance, form the Industry Review 
Team (IRT) for the contract.
    The original objective was to open each quarterly performance 
review meeting to the public. The first quarterly meeting was conducted 
on October 22, 1996, in Washington, DC. However, preparing for a formal 
briefing each quarter takes a considerable amount of time and resources 
on Battelle's part that could be better used to conduct the research. 
Therefore, Battelle requested and RSPA concurred that future public 
meetings would be conducted semiannually. The Salt Lake City meeting is 
the first of these semiannual meetings. Conducting public meetings 
semiannually will provide all interested parties with a sufficient 
update of

[[Page 9296]]

progress in the research. Only the IRT and RSPA staff involved with the 
contract will be invited to the quarterly performance review meetings 
held between the public semiannual meetings.
    Another objective is to conduct each semiannual meeting at the same 
location and either before or after a meeting of GRI's Nondestructive 
Evaluation Technical Advisory Group to enable participation by pipeline 
technical personnel involved with nondestructive evaluation. This 
meeting is being held in Salt Lake City to dovetail with a meeting of 
the GRI Nondestructive Technical Advisory Group. Each of the future 
semiannual meetings will be announced in the Federal Register at least 
two weeks prior to the 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 stressed pipe, low 
population density areas under a limited set of environmental 
conditions. 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 to detect 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 by 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 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 and 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 February 18, 1998.
Richard B. Felder,
Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety.
[FR Doc. 98-4580 Filed 2-23-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-60-P