Experimental Study of the Behavior of Wrinkled Energy Pipelines Subjected to Cyclic Pressure Loading
Publication: Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering and Practice
Volume 12, Issue 3
Abstract
The development of a small wrinkle defect in a buried pipeline can be a challenging issue for pipeline operators to approach. Although extensive research has been conducted to evaluate the integrity of a pipeline showing signs of irregularities such as corrosion, pipe wall buckling, and/or rippling, limited research data or guidelines are available to assess the severity of a small wrinkle defect. If not dealt with appropriately, these small wrinkle defects can lead to further damage of the pipe wall as a result of fatigue damage caused by internal pressure cycling. A research program comprised of a full-scale two-stage experimental test setup was initiated to investigate the postwrinkling behavior of field pipelines undergoing typical pressure fluctuations. This paper presents test procedures describing both the wrinkle defect initiation stage and the subsequent cyclic pressure fatigue test stage, as well as the corresponding observations and results. The results indicate that wrinkle defects that initiate in pipelines that operate at lower pressures or are temporarily shut down are more susceptible to fatigue failure as a result of pressure fluctuations, due to internal cracks initiating at the apex of the wrinkle and propagating outward.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
This research project was conducted with financial assistance from Enbridge Pipelines Inc. and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
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Published In
Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering and Practice
Volume 12 • Issue 3 • August 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 4, 2020
Accepted: Nov 25, 2020
Published online: Apr 28, 2021
Published in print: Aug 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Sep 28, 2021
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