Many gas pipelines in operation in the United States today were constructed prior to coating and cathodic protection (CP) current practices. A number of these vintage pipelines had no coating and had CP installed long after their construction thus allowing initial corrosion growths. With continual public and industrial growth and development on and around these pipelines, plus normal maintenance, there is a need to conduct periodic integrity assessments to insure public safety and maintain pipeline efficiency. One of the best tools currently available to measure or gauge pipeline integrity is the intelligent or smart pig. While there are various technologies offered by In line inspection (ILI) vendors, magnetic flux leakage (MFL) is the one most commonly utilized for in-line inspections of natural gas pipelines. Over the years there has been much speculation over the ability of an MFL tool to clearly define corrosion magnitudes on uncoated pipelines because the MFL signals are
distorted by the external corrosion “crust” or growth. In addition, many of the uncoated lines constructed utilized seamless pipe which compounds the problem with uneven wall thickness’ common with seamless pipe.
Also, the irregular internal surfaces produce additional distortions or “noise” in the MFL signal. Analysis of the smart pig results are quite difficult when evaluating an uncoated seamless pipeline. However, with the latest advances in MFL smart pigs it is possible to accurately analyze corrosion on uncoated seamless steel pipelines. The ability to accurately identifi corrosion on such structures provides the mechanism to evaluate the pipeline’s integrity with analytical tools such as RSTRENG,
(remaining strength). From that a successful remediation program can be developed which will save the pipeline operator millions of dollars when compared to the expensive alternative of replacing the pipeline.
Keywords: MFL (Magnetic Flux Leakage), Smart Pig, and RSTRENG