Full Scale Cyclic Fatigue Testing of Dented Pipelines and Development of a Validated Dented Pipe Finite Element Model

Dents in buried pipelines can occur due to a number of potential causes; the pipe resting on rock, third party machinery strike, rock strikes during backfilling, amongst others. The long-term integrity of a dented pipeline segment is a complex function of a variety of parameters, including pipe geometry, indenter shape, dent depth, indenter support, pressure history at and following indentation. In order to estimate the safe remaining operational life of a dented pipeline, all of these factors must be accounted for in the analysis. The goal of the full scale experimental program described in this paper is to compile a database of full scale dent test results that encompasses many of the dent types seen in the field, including plain dents, dents interacting with girth and long seam welds, and dents interacting with metal loss features, in both the unrestrained and restrained condition. The dents are pressure cycled until a fatigue failure occurs in the dent. Typical data recorded includes indentation load/displacement curves, applied pressures, pipe wall OD strains along the axial and circumferential centerlines, and axial and circumferential dent profiles. The full scale tests are being performed on behalf of PRCI and US DoT. This paper is intended to show the matrix of dents considered to date and present a representative summary of the data recorded. In addition to presenting the full scale test program and resulting data, this paper summarizes ongoing efforts to develop a validated pipeline dent integrity assessment model. The model under development makes use of the aforementioned full scale experimental data, to validate a finite element model of the denting and re-rounding process for a variety of dent scenarios (i.e. depths, restraints, indenter sizes). The paper discusses the efforts under way to develop and validate the finite element model with the goal being to estimate the fatigue life. The paper is an extension of work discussed in a previously presented IPC paper [1].