EPRG guidelines on the assessment of defects in transmission pipeline girth welds - Revision 2014

摘要

The 1996 edition of the EPRG guidelines on the assessment of defects in transmission pipeline girth welds has been reviewed to extend their range of application.The revised 2014 guidelines replace and retain the three-tier structure of the old guidelines.The 2014 guidelines can be used for pipe grades up to X-80 and defect heights greater than 3 mm. A novel defect interaction criterion is given for co-planar defects in girth welds which comply with the EPRG material and performance requirements.Additionally, guidance on the pipe material and weld-metal testing requirements is given.The new guidelines provide conservative allowable defect sizes as they are fully validated by curved-wide-plate (CWP) test data. The guidelines are simple, transparent, and can be applied by users without requiring extensive experience in fracture mechanics.