ON DEMAND - In this webinar, T.D. Williamson’s Matthew Romney discusses the problem of selective seam weld corrosion (SSWC), the factors that make pipelines susceptible to it, the research that went into developing the classifier and field results proving its efficacy.
Corrosion is a universal threat. Without proper maintenance, every pipeline, regardless of where it is or what product it carries, is susceptible to its damaging effects.
That does not mean corrosion behaves in a uniform way, however. In SSWC, for example, it attacks the long seam weld more aggressively than it does the parent material around it. The result is an axial v-shaped groove located in the long seam material, usually associated with a general field of corrosion crossing the long seam (CCLS).
Because there is narrow, deep metal loss associated with SSWC – and the condition has been linked to rare catastrophic events – it is considered a greater threat to pipeline integrity than CCLS. Until now, however, inspection technology has struggled to differentiate between SSWC and CCLS, which meant operators found it difficult to prioritise repair and allocate their resources effectively. The solution is a classification algorithm developed by global services provider T.D. Williamson (TDW) and engineering consultants Kiefner & Associates, that distinguishes SSWC from CCLS.
