[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 153 (Tuesday, August 10, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43421-43422]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-20538]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Research and Special Programs Administration


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 last 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. 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 remainder of the 
contract.

DATES: The last quarterly performance review meeting will be held on 
Monday, August 30, 1999 beginning at 1 p.m. and ending around 5 p.m.

ADDRESSES: The quarterly review meeting will be held at The Antlers 
Adam's Mark Hotel, 4 South Cascade Avenue, Colorado Springs, CO 80903. 
The hotel's telephone number is (719) 473-5600.

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. 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 advanced registration nor advanced notification 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 
assure 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 and, 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 semi-annually. Conducting public meetings 
semi-annually will provide all interested parties with sufficient 
update of 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 semi-annual meetings.
    Another objective is to conduct many of the semi-annual meetings 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 Colorado 
Springs the day before a meeting of the GRI Nondestructive Technical 
Advisory Group. Each of the semi-annual

[[Page 43422]]

meetings have been 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, 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 is evaluating and advancing 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 three major tasks. Task 1 evaluated existing 
MFL signal generation and analysis methods and established a baseline 
from which today's tools can be evaluated and tomorrow's advances 
measured. Then, improvements to signal analysis methods were developed 
and verified through testing under realistic pipeline conditions. 
Finally, it built 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 evaluated two inspection technologies for detecting stress 
corrosion cracks. The focus in Task 2 was 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 evaluated 
velocity-induced remote-field techniques, remote-field eddy-current 
techniques, and external techniques for sizing stress corrosion 
cracks.1
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    \1\ The report summarizing the work conducted under tasks 1 and 
2 can be found from viewing the RSPA home page, http://ops.dot.gov.
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    Task 3 is verifying the results from Tasks 1 and 2 by tests under 
realistic pipeline conditions. Task 3 is (1) extending the mechanical 
damage detection, signal decoupling, and sizing algorithms developed in 
the basic program to include the effects of pressure, (2) verifying the 
algorithms under pressurized conditions in GRI's 4,700 foot, 24-inch 
diameter Pipeline Simulation Facility (PSF) flow loop, and (3) 
developing techniques to measure stress and determine the severity of 
mechanical damage and cracks.
    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.
Richard B. Felder,
Associate Administrator for Pipeline Safety.
[FR Doc. 99-20538 Filed 8-9-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-60-P