Monitoring Remaining Fatigue Life
NIMA Integrity Management Software
A 500-km-long slurry pipeline in South America suffered two in-service failures only a few years after commissioning. Consequently, the pipeline was shut down for failure investigation inspection and integrity assessment. Field investigation and failure analyses confirmed that the two failures were due to fatigue cracking at seam welds.
Following an internal inspection of the pipeline with a range of technologies, ROSEN performed a study to quantify the remaining fatigue life of the pipeline based on a conservative estimate of the future pressure cycling. Consequently, the operator implemented a range of measures to reduce the severity of the pressure cycling. However, they had no means to regularly and accurately monitor their impact on the remaining fatigue life.
Our solution
ROSEN’s integrity and software specialists set up a securely hosted instance of the NIMA Integrity Management software. NIMA allows the fully flexible definition and modification of integrity management processes to fit the many and varied requirements of pipeline operators. In this case, the implementation included the configuration of various customer-specific NIMA IM process templates for minimum remaining fatigue life estimation, which comprised:
- Uploading daily operating pressure data.
- Checking and correction of daily pressure data.
- Remaining fatigue life estimation and projection.
- Several predefined operations dashboards.
The operator’s engineers received remote user training after the completion of the implementation. Furthermore, the required datasets, including data quality assurance and control (QA/QC), were integrated on the ROSEN server, and the operator will be supported with NIMA IM maintenance services during the subscription period.
Your benefit
The ROSEN hosted NIMA IM platform provides the operator’s technical team with an indication of the operational conditions of the pipeline in terms of remaining fatigue life. This enables:
- The prediction and ultimately the prevention of leaks and associated environmental impacts.
- The determination of optimum inspection intervals to guarantee pipeline integrity.
- Quick and sustainable decision-making.
- Full control of the updating and reporting process, ensuring up-to-date information.