Abstract
Direct Assessment (DA) is an accepted methodology to evaluate the impact of external, internal, and stress corrosion cracking on underground pipelines’ integrity. However, for aboveground piping of a facility or for aboveground sections of an underground pipeline, other approaches are more suitable to assess the integrity of the aboveground piping. For many years, a combined methodology for facility piping inspection has been successfully applied to assess integrity of aboveground and underground piping; the combined methodology compromises the application of the American Petroleum Institute (API) Piping Inspection Code and the National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE) DA Process. This combined methodology applied since 2005 is discussed in this publication. The risk-based and software-supported methodology, how to establish locations for inspection and examination, how to establish corrosion rates, and how to calculate remaining life and reassessment interval is discussed. In addition to the application of this combined methodology, the results of the assessments are enhanced using software and finite element analysis (FEA) modeling to perform fitness-for-service and remaining stress calculations to address findings identified in the field with visual inspection or nondestructive examinations (NDE).
