The opening events of the 2017-2018 session kicked things off to a very good start with an average attendance of 50.
Firstly, September was a joint event with TWI, and there was a very interesting presentation by Susan Jacob of CAN (Offshore) Ltd, entitled “An Investigation into the Wrinkling Phenomenon on Corrosion Resistant Alloy (CRA) Pipelines and Its Impact on Pipeline Integrity”. This focussed on issues arising with both the laying and subsequent inspection of thin CRA internally clad pipelines. CRA’s have been increasingly deployed for new and replacement Pipe Lay Projects however they can be problematic and great care must be taken at the installation stage to prevent wrinkling, as Susan highlighted. This topic will be subject of a more detailed technical paper in Corrosion Management in January/February 2018. This upcoming paper will aim to respond in more detail to the many questions raised by attendees, who clearly enjoyed the evening, including, the definitive evidence as to whether pipe lay procedures adequately did, in this instance, address the potential risk of wrinkling and whether (10 years on) more modern methods of fitting CRA Liners are any more resistant to this CRA wrinkling phenomenon; the evidence as to whether applying internal pressure can eliminate the wrinkling risk and as to whether cleaning tools irreparably damage the CRA Liner, or whether perhaps increased Anti-Scale CI and Reduced Cleaning Frequency is a safer approach? The article will also consider the ability of the Intelligent Pigging (IP) Tool to detect thinning changes in a 3mm thick CRA Liner and / or small perforations or tears of this liner, and whether there is a likelihood of ongoing corrosion in the CRA/carrier annulus in cases where CRA disbondment has occurred.
The October special event focussed on offshore external corrosion and repair solutions, which most importantly brought together specialists from two (normally competing) companies. Consultants, Ian Taylor and Nabeel Khan of IMG Composites Ltd., and Gareth Urukalo, Senior Technical Engineer of ICR Integrity Ltd, worked together to provide an objective insight into the development and application of two key standards, ISO24817: 2015, and the increasingly used ASME PCC-2 Code. The two presentations were entitled “Established Composite Engineering in 2017” and “Composite Repairs – A long Life-time Repair Solution”.
Composite repair has been extensively used in the last 10 years to extend the operating lives of process systems, particularly but not exclusively, for piping systems, which would otherwise have required costly interventions and loss of production and outages that may ultimately have caused the facilities to cease production altogether!
The talks considered some key questions that once again generated much interest from the gathered audience. What came across was the increasing industry confidence that these composite repairs can provide fully engineered long-term repair solutions, providing additional structural strength (subject to necessary quality controls, such as a high standard of surface preparation), to provide to Energy operators a guaranteed service life.
The ‘new world’ of composites was wonderfully illustrated with many practical day-to-day examples such as the new A380 Airliner and the “New Bus for London”, that contain a very high percentage of composites. For example, the four key structural composite parts which make up the rear end of the new bus support the weight of the engine, the passengers on the platform, the staircase and the upper deck. Using these composite materials has resulted in the saving of several hundred kilograms from the structural weight of the bus compared to traditional materials, and of course very significant fuel savings.
Information about all forthcoming Aberdeen branch activities can be found on the diary page of the magazine and on the Institute website, alternatively a calendar of local events of interest to corrosion professionals in the Aberdeen area, and the opportunity to sign up to the Branch mailing list is available at https://sites.google.com/site/icorrabz/home. Aberdeen Branch have also established their new Media Centre on LinkedIn, which can be found at https://www.linkedin.com/in/aberdeen-icorr/recent-activity/
ICorr Aberdeen Chair presents a Certificate of Appreciation to Speaker Susan Jacob of CAN (Offshore) Ltd.
