Steel pipelines undergo the following sequential stages prior to high pH stress corrosion cracking (HpHSCC) failure, viz., formation of environmental condition, initiation of the intergranular cracks followed by cracks coalescence to form critical crack size (Stage I), mechanically dictated crack growth with higher rate (Stage II) compared to Stage I, rapid crack propagation to failure (Stage III). From fracture mechanics perspective, the crack size reaches the critical value at the onset of stage II; consequently, stress intensity factor (K) ahead of the crack tip exceed the critical value (K ISCC ). Although many researches have been devoted to understanding HpHSCC behavior, the mechanical conditions that accelerate the onset of stage II remains unknown. This study investigates the mechanical loading conditions that yield to early onset of stage II with respect to the most severe loading condition in operating pipeline, underload-minor-cycle type of pressure fluctuation. In this study, several loading scenarios were applied to pre-cracked CT specimens exposed to 1 N NaHCO 3 -1N Na 2 CO 3 at 40° C and −590 mVSCE. The first series of tests were conducted through applying variable amplitude loading waveforms to determine the K value below the K ISCC . It was observed the crack growth rate decreases from 1.5 × 10 −7 mm/s to 2.5 × 10 −8 mm/s when K max decreases from 36 to 15 MPa·m 0.5 . Then, both constant amplitude and variable amplitude loading scenarios with the K max = 15 MPa·m 0.5 were applied to pre-cracked CT specimens. It was observed that low R-ratio constant amplitude cycles yield to highest crack growth rate (3.6 × 10 −7 mm/s), which was one order of magnitude higher than other waveforms. However, comparing the intergranular crack advancement per block resulted in similar crack growth rates for those waveforms containing low R-ratio cycles. These results imply that stage I of crack growth is assisted by fatigue due to low R-ratio cycles. It was observed that loading/unloading frequency of low R-ratio cycles has a direct relation with crack growth rate at stage I, i.e., high frequency cycles accelerate onset of stage II. The implication of these results for pipeline operator is that pressure fluctuation, particularly large and rapid pressure fluctuation at the sites susceptible to HpHSCC, threatens the pipeline integrity. Avoiding such pressure fluctuations, if possible, increase pipeline lifespan and prevents catastrophic damages by intergranular stress corrosion crack growth through delaying the onset of stage II of HpHSCC crack growth.

Near-neutral pH stress corrosion cracking (SCC) is a significant threat to the operational safety and reliability of gas and oil pipelines. The SCC cracks are typically formed in colonies with different crack density populations on the external surface of the pipe. The density of SCC cracks affect how pipeline integrity and remaining lifetime are assessed. Although sparse and dense crack colonies are commonly observed on pipelines, it has not been well established how these crack colonies with different crack populations were developed in the field. This research was made in an attempt to replicate near-neutral pH SCC cracks with different crack densities in the laboratory with realistic loading conditions commonly found during field operation. An X65 pipeline steel with different surface preparations was used. The results showed that the dense near-neutral pH SCC cracks were successfully reproduced on the primer-coated samples, whereas sparse cracks were reproduced on the mill-scaled and polished samples. The densely spaced cracks could transform into sparsely spaced cracks when most of the primer layer and mill scale had been removed during the long period of corrosion under cyclic loading and further corrosion occurred thinning the crack density. The results of crack initiation obtained from this investigation have also been found to be quite consistent with crack initiation scenarios found during field operation.

Oil pipelines and gas pipelines operations result in very different pressure fluctuation schemes due to different compressive properties of liquids and gases. Liquid fluids such as oil are less compressible and pressure fluctuations during oil pipelines operations are more frequent and vary over a wide range of magnitudes and frequencies, compared with those during gas pipelines operations. Despite the differences in operating conditions indicated above, both oil pipelines and gas pipelines are susceptible to stress corrosion cracking and corrosion fatigue failures. This investigation was initiated to understand the different crack growth rate behavior of pipeline steels characteristic to the type of pressure fluctuation schemes in near-neutral pH environment, that is, oil pipelines vs. gas pipelines. It was suspected that the similar range of service life between oil pipeline steels and gas pipeline steels could be attributed to a higher rate of direct dissolution at the tip of a crack during gas pipeline operation because of much higher mean pressures, despite their lower crack growth caused by corrosion fatigue. In the case of near-neutral pH stress corrosion cracking, corrosion makes minor contribution to crack growth but produces diffusible hydrogen that interacts with cyclic loading to make cracks grow. This study was performed using specimens with surface cracks, which simulated the following two environmental conditions: 1) fully exposed to the environment, 2) shielded from the environment, exposed to hydrogen only. In Case 1), the specimen surface, on which the surface cracks were made, was fully exposed to a near-neutral pH solution, allowing the occurrence of corrosion at the crack tip. In Case 2), a narrow strip of a coating was applied to prevent the cracks from direct contact with the corrosive solution; however, the cracks were affected by diffusible hydrogen which had been generated as a by-product of corrosion on the adjacent steel surface free of coatings. These specimens were mechanically loaded under different pressure schemes typical of both oil and gas pipeline operations. It has been found that crack growth caused by direct dissolution of crack tip materials is insignificant, regardless of pipeline operating conditions. A much higher crack growth rate, attributed to hydrogen embrittlement, was found under gas transmission conditions, while a higher corrosion fatigue crack growth was found under oil transmission conditions. Based on these findings, strategies on crack growth mitigation, characteristic to each type of pipeline operation are also proposed.

High pH Stress Corrosion Cracking (HpHSCC) is a significant threat to the buried pipelines, which are protected through simultaneous coating and cathodic protection strategies. In the past decades, extensive research has been devoted to assessing the influence of environmental and metallurgical factors on the susceptibility to HpHSCC. With reference to mechanical factors, previous studies employed either slow strain rate or constant amplitude testing methods. However, the pressure fluctuation data extracted from pipeline operations has indicated that pipelines experience highly variable amplitude loading conditions during their service. Accordingly, an important consideration in managing HpHSCC is load interaction. Statistics show a higher probability of HpHSCC failures within the 30 km downstream from pump/compressor stations where the pipeline steels experience elevated service temperatures, with incipient higher susceptibility to HpHSCC. However, the pipeline sections within the 30 km downstream from pump/compressor stations also experience the underload-type of pressure fluctuations that feature a maximum pressure close to the design limit, frequent and large amplitudes of depressurization, resulting in low stress ratio, R (minimum stress/maximum stress), and many smaller pressure fluctuations (minor cycles) with R ratio closer to +1.0. It has been well characterized that the underload-minor-cycle-type of pressure fluctuations has the significant acceleration effect on crack growth rates in near-neutral pH (NNpH) environments. However, the effect of the underload-type of pressure schemes on HpHSCC crack growth has not been well developed. In this research work, a cathodically protected X65 steel specimen in the developed high pH solution, composed of 1N Na 2 CO 3 and 1N NaHCO 3 , was subjected to different loading conditions. These loading waveforms simulate underload cycles (R = 0.5), minor cycles (R = 0.9) and variable amplitudes consisting of both underload and minor cycles, respectively. The HpHSCC test results showed that the highest and lowest crack growth rates were obtained in high and low R ratio constant amplitude loading conditions, respectively. Furthermore, an intermediate crack growth rate was obtained under variable amplitude loading condition. These results indicate that the underload cycles retard crack growth rate in high pH environments.

Environmental-assisted cracks in pipeline steels usually undergo the following three sequential stages prior to the failure: • Stage 1 – crack initiation and early stage crack growth, in which cracks initiate at imperfections but grow slowly depth-wise with time. Crack length may be seen to increase either because of merging with new small cracks in the vicinity of an existing crack or faster crack growth at the crack tip. Some cracks pose little threat to pipeline steel integrity if they remain dormant. • Stage 2 – Increased crack growth rate where crack growth can be dictated by mechanical driving forces and crack growth rate increases with time. • Stage 3 – The final stage of crack growth where crack growth rate is very high. Typical crack management programs mitigate cracks prior to entering Stage III. It is of great importance that pipeline steels with Stage II cracks are detected, monitored, and managed to ensure operational pipeline integrity. Although a range of crack in-line inspection and detection techniques with varied detection limits are available, it is not clear how their detection limits match the threshold geometrical dimensions of Stage 2-cracks. This investigation is aimed to define critical geometrical dimensions of cracks that are considered to be Stage 2 cracks. The determination of critical geometrical dimensions of Stage 2 cracks was made with a consideration of a wide range of situations including pipeline operating conditions, susceptible environments for crack growth, metallurgical, fabrication and construction conditions of pipeline steels. A comparison of the threshold geometrical dimensions of Stage 2 cracks with the crack detection limits of modern crack inspection and detection techniques are made at the end of the paper.

Internal pressure fluctuations during pipeline operations could contribute to crack growth in steel pipelines. These pressure fluctuations create a variable amplitude loading condition with large amplitude cycles at near-zero stress ratio, R (minimum stress / maximum stress) and small amplitude cycles (minor cycles) at near +1 R ratio which can both affect crack propagation. Mean stresses fluctuate with pressure due to fluid friction losses proportional to the distance from the pump/compressor station. A deeper understanding of mean stress sensitivity on crack growth rate in steel pipelines is sought. The aim of this research is to retard crack growth in pipelines by prescribing pressure fluctuations, thus controlling mean stress effects on imperfection growth in steel pipelines under a near neutral pH environment. This study shows that prescriptive mean load pressure fluctuations can be used to reduce crack growth rates in steel pipelines, thus expanding pipeline integrity management methods.

Energy resources of offshore wind and ocean wave are clean, renewable and abundant. Various technologies have been developed to utilize the two kinds of energy separately. This paper presents the principle of an integrated generation unit for offshore wind power and ocean wave energy. The principle of the unit includes that: The wind rotor with retractable blades and the 3-DOF (degrees of freedom) mechanism with the hemispherical oscillating body are used to collect the irregular wind and wave power, respectively; The energy conversion devices (ECDs) are utilized to convert mechanical energy from both the wind rotor and the 3-DOF mechanism into hydraulic energy; The hydraulic energy is used to drive the hydraulic motors and electrical generators to produce electricity. Some analyses and experiments of the unit is conducted.

From extensive investigations for over 30 years since the discovery of near-neutral pH stress corrosion cracking (NNpHSCC), the physical processes of crack initiation and growth have been determined, despite that some details in various aspects of crack initiation and growth are still to be understood. The growth curve is a function of crack growth by direct dissolution of steels at localized areas on pipe surface during initiation or at the tip of a crack during early stage of crack growth (the dissolution growth curve), and by a process involving the interaction of fatigue and hydrogen embrittlement (corrosion fatigue, the hydrogen enhanced fatigue growth curve) in Stage II after crack initiation and early stage of crack growth. For the latter case, recent research shows that crack growth rate can be substantially enhanced by variable amplitude cyclic loading. One of the most severe scenarios of cyclic loading in terms of crack growth rate is the underload type of pressure fluctuations that is often found within 30 km downstream of a compressor station. This investigation is aimed to evaluate pressure scenarios that could reduce or retard crack growth during pipeline operation. Specifically, the effect of pressure holds was investigated. Different periods of static hold were performed to an X65 pipeline steel exposed to a near-neutral pH solution. It was found that a static hold at the maximum load for one hour immediately after a large depressurization-repressurization cycle (underload cycle) yielded the lowest crack growth rate, which was about one third of that of constant amplitude fatigue without the static hold. Static holds for a period shorter or longer than one hour have yielded higher crack growth rates. This observation can be applied to field pipelines during operations to retard crack propagation.

This paper is aimed to introduce Pipe-Online Software that has been developed recently for crack growth and remaining service life prediction for pipelines experiencing near-neutral pH stress corrosion cracking and corrosion fatigue. The software was developed based on the latest understanding of the physical, chemical and mechanical processes involved during crack initiation, early crack growth and coalescence, and stage II crack growth. In each stage of cracking, governing equations were established based on extensive experimental simulations under realistic conditions found during pipeline operation in the field and vast amounts of field data collected, which include pipeline steel properties, crack geometries, field environmental conditions, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) data of oil and gas pipelines. The model has considered a wide range of conditions that could lead to the crack initiation, crack dormancy and crack transition from a dormant state to active growth. It is concluded that the premature rupture caused by stress cracking at a service life of about 20–30 years commonly found during field operation could take place only when all the worst conditions responsible for crack initiation and growth have been realized concurrently at the site of rupture. This also explains the reason why over 95% of near-neutral pH cracks remain harmless, while about 1% of them become a threat to the integrity of pipeline steels. It has been found that crack initiation and early stage crack growth are primarily caused by the direct dissolution of steels at constrained areas. The rate of dissolution can be high at the pipe surface because of various galvanic effects, but decreases to a low value as the cracks approach a depth of ∼ 1.0 mm, leading to a state of dormancy as generally observed in the field. In stage II crack growth, the software has considered loading interactions occurring during oil and gas pipeline operations with underload-type variable pressure fluctuations. The software has provided predicted lifetimes that are comparable to the actual service lives found in the field. This forms a sharp contrast with the predictions made by existing methods that are generally conservative or inconsistent with the field observations.

A crack growth and remaining life predictive software Pipe-OnLine has recently been developed to predict crack growth of pipeline steels in near neutral pH environments. Pressure fluctuations from Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) data are utilized as inputs for crack growth calculations. The accuracy of crack growth predictions largely depends on whether the SCADA data have captured all crack-growth contributing events of pressure fluctuations during pipeline operation. This investigation is aimed at 1) to analyse typical characteristics of pressure fluctuations during oil and gas pipeline operations, 2) to model various pressure data recording scenarios in terms of capturing crack growth contributing pressure fluctuation events, and 3) to provide optimized methods for recording pressure data for the purpose of making crack growth and remaining service life predictions. One of the methods being developed requires to take maximum and minimum pressure points within a given sampling interval). By adopting this method, oil pipeline pressures could be recorded at a max time interval of 1 minute, while gas pipeline pressures could be recorded at a time interval up to 2 hours without reducing the accuracy of prediction. This could substantially reduce the size of data storage and shorten the time of data-analysis for life prediction.

Pipelines are designed to operate below a maximum operating pressure in service. However, there are pressure fluctuations during operation. The presence of pressure fluctuations creates a drive for crack growth in steel pipes. In order to prevent catastrophic failure of pipelines, there is need for better understanding of the contribution of pressure fluctuations to crack growth rate in steel pipelines. Analysis of pressure fluctuation data in oil and gas pipelines shows that there are different types of fluctuations in a pipe due to friction loss with distance from the pump or compressor station. All these fluctuation types show a form of variable amplitude loading classified in this research as underload, mean load and overload. Studies of some structural systems shows that underload can cause acceleration of crack growth while retardation of crack growth is observed after an overload. This research aims to apply pressure fluctuations to manage integrity of steel pipelines through a novel approach of load sequence involving underload and overload in near neutral pH environment. Clear knowledge of the effect of load interaction involving load sequence of underload and overload is vital to control crack growth in steel pipelines under near neutral pH environment. The result of crack growth rate under different load sequence on X65 steel indicate that increase in overload ratio of 2, 3 and 4 caused an increase in crack growth rate of 1.68E−3, 1.89E−3 and 2.31E−3 mm/block respectively. These results are compared with results from other tests under variable amplitude without load sequence. Analyses were carried out on the morphology of the crack tip and the fracture surface after the test.

Hydrogen embrittlement is one of the most severe steel degradation mechanisms. Using hydrogen enhanced decohesion (HEDE) and hydrogen enhanced local plasticity (HELP), we can predict if more hydrogen atoms will accumulate into the plastic zone, enhancing the hydrogen embrittlement and the crack growth rate. In the current study, a relationship has been proposed between operations of pipeline steels and hydrogen accumulation to quantify the effects of hydrogen embrittlement. The study find that hydrogen accumulation rate is proportional to stress intensity and inversely proportional to temperature; hence, higher stress intensity and lower temperature will enhance hydrogen accumulation and crack propagation. Hydrogen potential, diffusivity, hydrostatic stress near the crack tip, and the critical loading frequency have been considered in the new model to predict crack propagation rates in pipeline steels. The predicted values are compared with experimental results of X-65 steel in two near-neutral pH solutions to verify the model. This hydrogen diffusion model helps show former neglected hazard operations such as minor cycles, and offers an easier way to optimize operations that will prolong the life of pipeline steels.

This paper reports the hydrogen permeation behavior of an X-70 pipeline steel in a synthetic near neutral pH field solution under both galvanostatic and potentiostatic conditions. The hydrogen flux through the steel exposed to the solution is influenced by the chemical reactions at the steel surface on the charging side. Results from tests done under potentiostatic and galvanostatic conditions were compared to predictions based on different boundary conditions assumed in solving Fick’s diffusion equations. Constant concentration boundary conditions gave the best fit. It was also found that the diffusible hydrogen generated in a near neutral pH soil environment is likely to be 3 to 10 times lower than the minimum hydrogen concentration required to initiate hydrogen blistering in pipeline steels.

This research has focused on the effect of surface roughness and surface scratch orientation on the development of neutral pH SCC on pipeline steels. The susceptibility to neutral pH SCC was assessed in this study using slow strain rate testing on X-65 line pipe steel. The surfaces of the test samples were ground using either #240 or #600 sandpaper to introduce different scratch roughness. Scratches were produced with an orientation parallel, perpendicular and inclined at 45° to the loading direction, respectively. The test samples were exposed to a synthetic neutral pH ground water at both open circuit potential (OCP) and −800 mV (SCE). It has been found that the reduction in ductility due to a near neutral pH environment was more than 20% larger for the specimens with perpendicular scratches than those with parallel scratches, either at OCP or −800 mV (SCE). Roughness appeared to have little effect on the ductility of the specimen with parallel scratches. However, it has some effect on the sample with perpendicular scratches. For these samples, a finer scratch caused more reduction in ductility than the rougher scratches, particularly under cathodically protected conditions. The reduction in ductility for the specimen with scratches 45° inclined to stress axis was in between those with parallel and perpendicular scratches. The difference in ductility arising from scratch roughness and orientation was consistent with the observation of the surface conditions after test. For samples with perpendicular and angle scratches, cracks were seen to coincide with scratch lines. For those with parallel scratches, only short cracks developed in a direction approximately 45° to the stress axis. Mechanisms concerning this scratch-facilitated crack formation are discussed.

X-52 and X-80 pipeline steels have been used to study the effect of cyclic loading prior to corrosion exposure upon the initiation of stress-corrosion cracks in a near-neutral pH environment. To simulate realistic loading conditions, a cyclic loading scheme was constructed based on pressure fluctuation data collected on operating pipeline systems. It has been observed that cyclic loading either prior to corrosion exposure under static stress or during corrosion exposure enhances pitting corrosion and micro-cracking on the steel surface. These pits are seen to be aligned along scratches on the steel surface and to have coalesced to form micro-cracks at some locations. Some micro-cracks appeared not to have developed from pits, but were instead observed in a direction approximately 45 degree to stress axis. They are believed to have developed at locations where localized deformation such as persistent slip bands has occurred due to cyclic loading. In contrast to cyclic loading, no pits or micro-cracks were seen on the specimen that was subjected to static loading only. The pits and micro-cracks were only observed when the specimens were immersed under a cathodic potential of −790 mV SCE. At the open circuit potential only uniform corrosion occurred on the specimens whether they were cyclically or statically stressed.

As we all know, oceans have great wave power, and many types of wave energy converters (WECs) have been invented so far. Oscillating body systems are a major class of WECs which almost only have one degree of freedom (DOF). This paper presents a three-DOF mechanism which can extract the wave power from any wave directions. The three-DOF mechanism mainly consists of a four-bar linkage and a spherical joint, which are used to capture the heave motion and the pitch and roll motions of the oscillating body respectively. The power conversion principle of the WEC is proposed and the kinematics of the mechanism is derived. Hydraulic power take-off (PTO) systems are used, which are simplified as constant torques in this study. In the end, the power absorption performance of the WEC is presented based on the system dynamics. The results show that the rated power output of the WEC is 4.3MW, and the power output of the WEC is dependent on the wave directions.

Pressure fluctuations are recognized as the driving force for the crack growth of pipeline steels in near-neutral pH environments; however, the crack growth mechanisms are still not fully understood. Difficulty in understanding the crack growth mechanisms is present due to two dilemmas between laboratory testing and field findings: high frequency study in the laboratory versus low frequency pressure fluctuations in the field; constant amplitude cyclic laboratory tests versus random pressure fluctuations in the actual spectra. To bridge the dilemmas, the crack growth behavior of X60 pipeline steel was investigated in near-neutral pH solution at frequencies as low as 1×10 −5 Hz under variable amplitude cyclic loading. Special attention was given to the loading scheme consisting of minor cycles with R ratios (minimum stress/maximum stress) as high as 0.9 and underloads with a relatively lower R ratio of 0.5. It was found that the constant amplitude crack growth rate in near-neutral pH solution in the frequency region below 1×10 −3 Hz decreases with decreasing loading frequency, and it reaches a constant value at very low frequencies. This crack growth rate-frequency relation is opposite of that found in the high loading-frequency regime, where crack growth rate was found to increase with decreasing loading frequency. Crack growth rate was observed to increase by a factor of up to 10 when the underload plus minor cycle loading scheme, as mentioned previously, was applied. Based on the findings obtained from the investigation, recommendations of pressure control were also made to minimize the crack growth during pipeline operation.

Coating disbondment on pipelines is a common phenomenon that leads to exposure of the pipeline metal to ground water solutions, promoting a corrosive environment which is associated with stress corrosion cracking (SCC). This investigation aims to understand the corrosion behavior and rate of pipeline steel under coating disbondments of varying sizes based on field data and experimental studies. In the analysis of the field data, dig reports provided by a Canadian gas transportation company were analyzed for cases of anaerobic corrosion under tape coatings. The analyzed field data provided a correlation between the tape coating disbondment size and corrosion rate found under the coating. The experimental studies aimed to understand the field findings. The analyses were performed on X-65 pipeline steel coupons placed in a vertical coupon holder with a PMMA shielding. To imitate the variation in the disbondment size, the gap size between the metal coupons and the shielding was varied (2 mm, 5 mm, and 10 mm, and infinite). The general corrosion rates were obtained through weight loss calculations. The experimental results were compared and correlated with dig-report data from the field for a development of cathodic protection and pipeline mitigation strategies.

This investigation primarily focused on the validation of the software being developed for crack growth and remaining life prediction using SCADA data. A total of nine pressure spectra, four for oil pipelines and five for gas pipelines, have been collected and used as inputs for the software. It was found that these spectra could be categorized as the underload-, the meanload- and the overload-dominant spectra; each of them have shown different effects on crack growth: the underload spectra, typical of pressure fluctuations at the discharging sites, are most susceptible to crack growth because of load interactions between the minor pressure fluctuations and the unload cycles; while the overload spectra, often found at the suction site, have exhibited retarded crack growth due to the retardation effects caused by overloading. The relative severity of the load interactions in terms of crack growth rate for a given spectrum was quantified using a parameter termed as the Spectrum Factor. A Spectrum Factor greater than one indicates the enhanced crack growth rate by load interactions, such as the case where unloading is frequently present in the pressure spectra, while a Spectrum Factor lower than one may be associated with a retarded crack growth, which can be seen in pressure spectra with predominant overloading events. The predictions made by the models being developed were also compared with those made by the rainflow counting method. The software allows for the SCADA/pressure fluctuation data, in excel spreadsheet format, to be directly analyzed producing a projected remaining life of the pipeline based on the past pressure fluctuations and the assumed future pressure fluctuations.