Residual Strength of Corroded Pipelines Under External Pressure: A Simple Assessment

The loss of metal in a pipeline due to corrosion usually results in localized pits with various depths and irregular shapes on its external and internal surfaces. The effect of corrosion defects on the collapse pressure of offshore pipelines was studied through combined small-scale experiments and nonlinear numerical analyses based on the finite element method. An extensive parametric study using 2-D and 3-D numerical models was carried out encompassing different defect geometries and their interaction with pipe ovalization. This paper briefly summarizes these results, which are subsequently used to develop a simple procedure for estimating the collapse pressure of pipes with narrow defects.Copyright © 2006 by ASME