External stress-corrosion cracking of pipelines is a serious problem for the gm transmission industry. Longitudinal cracks initiate on the outside surface of the pipe and link up to form flaws that, in some cases, can lead to pipe rupture. This paper presents a model that quantities the effect of stress-corrosion cracking on pipe failure stress. The model is
an extension of those that have been developed for oil and gas pipelines and considers both flow-stress and fracture toughness dependent failure modes. A methodology also is presented to calculate the remaining life of a pipeline containing flaws of known size.
Keywords: pipelines, stress-conosion cracking, fracture mechanics, life assessment.