L51816 Reliability-Based Prevention of Mechanical Damage to Pipelines

Abstract

Most pipeline incidents� resulting in the loss of life, production and/or environmental damage is caused by third party damage. A need for recommendations regarding the most cost effective third party damage prevention approach and/or plan was identified by the Pipeline Research Council International, Inc. (PRCI). This project and resulting study used a reliability-based methodology from a previous PRCI sponsored project (PR-224-9519) "Reliability-Based Planning of Inspection and Maintenance of Pipeline Systems". The focus of this project and resulting study was to collect the data and develop the models required to apply the methodology to the optimization of mechanical damage prevention. The resulting reliability model consists of two components: a) an impact probability model that calculates the frequency of mechanical interference by excavation equipment as a function of line attributes and damage prevention practices; and b) the puncture failure model that calculates the probability of puncture for a given impact as a function of the pipeline design parameters. The reliability model detailed in this study provides a quantitative tool to estimate the probability of failure due to mechanical damage and to evaluate the effectiveness of different design and maintenance methods.