Health Monitoring of New and Aging Pipelines- Development and Application of Instrumented Pigs

摘要

More than 3 million kilometers of high pressure liquid and gas pipelines are installed all over the world.Usually steel is the safest means to transport large quantities of oil and oil related products and natural gas however, just like any other technical component, pipelines also deteriorate with time, result of which, flaws appear and they grows until the pipeline fails. That is why Pipeline operators worldwide maintain the good health of buried cross-country pipelines with a combination of good quality external coating and cathodic protection. Beside this various other techniques like cleaning and debris removal by scrapper pigging at intervals depending upon the life of pipeline and the products being transported through the same are used. Use of corrosion inhibitors and internal coating is also done to protect the internal surface from corrosion. It is of greatest importance to ensure the safety, efficiency, environmental integrity and regulatory compliance of the worldwide pipeline infrastructure. Achieving this objective entails the need for effective inspection technologies, incorporating the accuracy and reliability required for optimized maintenance strategies.