Performance of In-Line Inspection Tools and Their Influence on the Structural Reliability of Corroded Pipeline Available to Purchase

This paper presents: i) the assessment of in-line inspection (ILI) tools’ performance in the measurement of defects caused by corrosion; ii) different methods for calculating the probability of failure (POF) of corroded pipeline based on the ILI report. The ILI report is compared to the geometry of defects measured by a reference tool (field measurements) and the errors associated with each measurement system are analyzed and assessed through different statistical methods. The minimum number of field measurements necessary to verify the performance of the ILI in sizing the corrosion defects is determined by implementing a test based on sequential analysis. The POF of a pipeline is calculated using two methods: i) first order reliability method (FORM) and ii) propagation of uncertainties. The comparison between calculated and acceptable POF enables the determining of the next reinspection period. When the calculated POF exceeds the acceptable POF before completing the amount of time desired for the next inspection, the developed procedure enables determining the number of repairs that must be made to reach the desired time when the next ILI will be performed. Finally, a software in Visual Basic® language was developed to implement this work.