Construction of oil and gas pipelines and new possibilities for quality assessment of girth welds

Abstract

The paper presents new possibilities related to quality assessment of girth welds. Global trends in oil and gas pipeline construction point to the growing application of methods where fracture mechanics and crack tip opening displacement tests are used for critical defect size determination. This approach can precisely determine pipeline wear levels under given conditions. The most important benefit of this lies in the dependence of critical defect size on the quality of pipe material and the welding consumables' mechanical properties.

Keywords:

• Girth welds
• fracture mechanics
• crack tip opening displacement
• resilience
• automated ultrasonic testing
• weld strength