[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 228 (Monday, November 27, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Page 70758]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-30053]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Research and Special Programs Administration

[Cooperative Agreement DTRS656-00-H-0004]


Quarterly Performance Review Meeting on the Cooperative Agreement 
``Better Understanding of Mechanical Damage in Pipelines''

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

ACTION: Notice of meeting.

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SUMMARY: RSPA has entered into a cooperative agreement with the Gas 
Research Institute (GRI) to co-fund a two year research program to 
identify and characterizing mechanical damage, the leading cause of 
reportable accidents in both gas and hazardous liquid pipelines, using 
the technology of magnetic flux leakage (MFL) oriented in the 
circumferential direction on an in-line inspection tool. RSPA along 
with GRI invite the pipeline industry, in-line inspection (``smart 
pig'') vendors, and the general public to a quarterly performance 
review meeting hosted by RSPA to report on progress with the research 
``Better Understanding of Mechanical Damage in Pipelines.'' The meeting 
is open to anyone, and no registration is required. This work is being 
managed by GRI and performed by Battelle Memorial Institute (Battelle), 
along with the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). 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 quarterly performance review meeting will be held on 
Thursday, December 7, 2000 beginning at 9 a.m. and ending around 1 p.m.

ADDRESSES: The quarterly review meeting will be held in room 6244 of 
the Department of Transportation Headquarters Building, 400 7th Street, 
SW., Washington, DC. Non-federal personnel must enter the building 
through the southwest entrance at 7th and E Streets, SW., in order to 
receive a temporary building pass.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Lloyd W. Ulrich, Agreement Officer's 
Technical Representative, Office of Pipeline Safety, telephone: (202) 
366-4556, FAX: (202) 366-4566, e-mail: [email protected]. You 
may also contact Harvey Haines, Principal Investigator, GRI, telephone: 
(773) 399-8223, FAX: (773) 864-3495, e-mail: 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:   

I. Background

    RSPA has entered into a Cooperative Agreement (Cooperative 
Agreement DTRS656-00-H-0004) with the Gas Research Institute (GRI) to 
co-fund a two year research program to identify and characterizing 
mechanical damage, the leading cause of reportable accidents in both 
gas and hazardous liquid pipelines, using the technology of magnetic 
flux leakage (MFL) oriented in the circumferential direction on an in-
line inspection tool.
    We plan to conduct public semi-annual quarterly performance review 
meetings for the duration of this research. This meeting is the first 
semi-annual one to be conducted to update the public and interested 
governmental parties on the research, such as pipeline operators, 
vendors, RSPA technical and regional staff and the National 
Transportation Safety Board. Semi-annual meetings in the future will be 
held in conjunction with industry meetings, such as the American 
Petroleum Institute Pipeline Conference, in order to reach a broad 
audience. We want the pipeline industry and especially that segment of 
the pipeline industry involved with in-line inspection to be aware of 
the status of this research. The meetings allow disclosure of the 
results to interested parties and provide an opportunity for interested 
parties to ask questions concerning the research. Attendance at this 
meeting is open to all and does not require advanced registration nor 
advanced notification to RSPA. Each of the semi-annual meetings will be 
announced in the Federal Register at least two weeks prior to the 
meeting.
    The quarterly performance review meetings held between the semi-
annual meetings described above will be held in conjunction with 
meetings of the joint GRI/PRCI Technical Committee.

II. The Research

    This research continues work that DOT supported at Battelle to 
improve In-Line Inspection NDE measurements of mechanical damage and 
more closely coordinates work that GRI is supporting at SwRI to develop 
a critical assessment criteria based on these NDE measurements. This 
program extends the work conducted under the DOT-funded contract 
``Detection of Mechanical Damage in Pipelines'' (Contract DTRS-56-96-C-
0010) \1\ by looking at the circumferential magnetic flux leakage field 
instead of the traditional axial field and extends the critical 
assessment criteria research to work with full scale samples that are 
being used for MFL measurements. The goal of the research is to 
evaluate and develop techniques for assessing pipeline metal loss, 
mechanical damage, and cracks using circumferential MFL. These 
techniques are expected to complement the techniques used for axial MFL 
systems.
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    \1\ The final report on this research dated June 2000 is 
available on the OPS web site, http://ops.dot.gov.
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    The research will extend the failure assessment methodology for 
mechanically damaged pipes to include the influence of local cold 
working due to the gouging/denting process on the pipe's remaining 
life. The program will combine full scale tests and MFL monitoring of 
pipes, laboratory tests and elastic-plastic finite element analyses to 
develop a validated methodology for determining the remaining life of a 
damaged pipe. The proposed SwRI research will complement the work at 
Battelle in developing MFL methods for detecting and characterizing 
mechanical damage.

III. Agenda for the Meeting

    The following is the agenda for the meeting:

``Overview of DOT/GRI project for finding and characterizing in-line 
inspection for mechanical damage''--Lloyd Ulrich-DOT (15 min)
``Project History and Impact of the In-Line Inspection for Mechanical 
Damage.''--Harvey Haines-GRI (15 min)
``Defect Manufacture and installation''--Tom Bubenik-Battelle (30 min)
``Circumferential Magnetizer design and construction''--Bruce 
Nestleroth-Battelle (30 min)
Break
``Non-Linear Harmonics Measurement and test set-up''--Al Crouch-SwRI 
(30 min)
``Burst test Setup''--Al Crouch-SwRI (10 min)
``Tool Development for Implementation in Actual Pipelines''--Carl 
Torres-Tuboscope (30 min)
``Wrap up and comments''--Ulrich & Haines (10-15 min)

    Issued in Washington, DC on November 20, 2000.
Jeffrey D. Wiese,
Manager, Program Development, Office of Pipeline Safety.
[FR Doc. 00-30053 Filed 11-24-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-60-P