Our partner Mistras has developed a new technology to test for Hardness, Strength, and Ductility (HSD) Testing. As part of their novel approach to Pipeline material verfi Contrary to existing lab technologies, it is non-destructive field surveying method. It can help pipeline owners to verify the existing material properties of assets (pipelines) in place.
Material verification needs through an advanced, integrity-driven inspection service. MISTRAS utilizes an innovative Hardness, Strength, and Ductility (HSD) tester that is originally developed by the American company MMT. It is designed for accurate steel pipeline measurements, performance analysis, and seamed or seamless material verification.
What is the HSD tester?
Hardness, Strength, and Ductility Tester (HSD) is a device used by field technicians to provide critical pipeline integrity health and performance data. It’s focused at gathering information about material properties that are required by engineers to calculate strength, remaining life, pressure resistance, corrosion resistance and design of corrosion mitigation measures. Typically things that would be available of the shelve, for new pipelines.
However, this information isn’s present (anymore) for existing assets with an operational life of sometimes more than 60 years(!).
The HSD is the only field device that performs frictional sliding to imprint multiple long shallow grooves on the pipe surface. This enables collection of hundreds of measurements from a single test to sample a greater volume of material and provide reliable averages.
Additionally, the HSD measures the material response at targeted levels of deformation, creating a representative stress-strain condition that is closer to the initial yield and ultimate tensile strength of the material, reducing the extrapolation that is required with indentation-based methods.
HSD Processing measurements and data analysis
For average field conditions and an individual pipe segment, it would require approximately 4-6 hours from start-to-finish, . This includes all procedures of the HSD tester, full chemistry sampling and in-situ microscopy of the pipe material. An instant report is available immediately via specific software that helps to transform the datapoints into meaningful information.
Usually this technology is used on in conjunction with other on-site inspection technologies to the complete picture about the properties of the material.
Examples of these other techniques are:
Chemical Composition Analysis
Chemical composition analysis can also be done on-site with devices used by an on-site inspection operator. They are using Positive Material Identification (PMI) devicesAdditionally, field collection of pipeline metal shavings is also used to conduct metallurgical chemical composition analysis and material identification
Field Metallurgical Replication
In the Field Metallurgical Replication (FMR) process, the metal surface is ground and polished to a mirror finish and the polished surface is subsequently etched to reveal the microstructure. A replica of the etched surface is then made, which can be analyzed with a portable optical microscope or in the lab. The test identifies grain size, deformation processing indications, and internal cracking and creep damage. FMR is used for evaluating microstructures of process plant equipment, and is useful in making run-repair-replace decisions.
Sources:
https://www.mistrasgroup.com/how-we-help/consulting/pipeline-material-verification/
