Fundamental research toward an imporved understanding of stress corrosion cracking in natural gas pipelines

摘要

GRI recently initiateed research to identify and address basic issues relating to preventing or minimizing stress-corrosion crackign (SCC) of pipelines.basic research issues have been identified which,if addressed successfully,are expected to imporve the ability to reduce maintenance cost associated with SCC.this paper describes how areas of needed basic research relate to specific maintenance imporvements and discusses preliminary results which address the b asic issues.Possible imoporvements that could be derived from further research include: better focusing and prioritizifng of hydrotest,NDE,and bellhole activities; modifyign operating practices to reduce the most harmful pressure fluctuations;and selecting or developing more resistant steels for future pipelines.