Measurement pipelines

When several rectifiers protect a structure, it is necessary that all rectifiers be interrupted at the exact same instant in order to obtain meaningful measurements. Pipeline operators usually specify that at least two rectifiers ahead of the survey team and two rectifiers behind the survey team have to be interrupted in a fully synchronized manner. The amount of time between current interruption and depolarization can vary from a fraction of a second to several seconds, depending upon details of the structure. In addition, capacitive spikes that occur shortly after current is interrupted may mask the instant-off potential. Measurements made with a recording voltmeter are preferred as they can be subsequently analyzed to determine the real instant-off potential [16]. 

Reporting Create your own reports that can measure pipeline generated per program, ROl by channel, costs per new name per channel, revenue per program channel, and more. 

The measurement of a crude oil s viscosity at different temperatures is particularly important for the calculation of pressure drop in pipelines and refinery piping systems, as well as for the specification of pumps and exchangers. 

The Institute has many-year experience of investigations and developments in the field of NDT. These are, mainly, developments which allowed creation of a series of eddy current flaw detectors for various applications. The Institute has traditionally studied the physico-mechanical properties of materials, their stressed-strained state, fracture mechanics and developed on this basis the procedures and instruments which measure the properties and predict the behaviour of materials. Quite important are also developments of technologies and equipment for control of thickness and adhesion of thin protective coatings on various bases, corrosion control of underground pipelines by indirect method, acoustic emission control of hydrogen and corrosion cracking in structural materials, etc. 

Tracer Type. A discrete quantity of a foreign substance is injected momentarily into the flow stream and the time interval for this substance to reach a detection point, or pass between detection points, is measured. From this time, the average velocity can be computed. Among the tracers that have historically been used are salt, anhydrous ammonia, nitrous oxide, dyes, and radioactive isotopes. The most common appHcation area for tracer methods is in gas pipelines where tracers are used to check existing metered sections and to spot-check unmetered sections. 

Corrosion. Anticorrosion measures have become standard ia pipeline desiga, coastmctioa, and maintenance ia the oil and gas iadustries the principal measures are appHcation of corrosion-preventive coatings and cathodic protection for exterior protection and chemical additives for iaterior protectioa. Pipe for pipelines may be bought with a variety of coatiags, such as tar, fiber glass, felt and heavy paper, epoxy, polyethylene, etc, either pre-apphed or coated and wrapped on the job with special machines as the pipe is lowered iato the treach. An electric detector is used to determine if a coatiag gap (hoHday) exists bare spots are coated before the pipe is laid (see Corrosion and corrosion control). 

Section 10 of this Handbook describes the use of orifice meters for flow measurement. In addition, orifices are commonly found within pipelines as flow-restric ting devices, in perforated pipe distributing and return manifolds, and in perforated plates. Incompressible flow through an orifice in a pipehne as shown in Fig. 6-18, is commonly described by the following equation for flow rate Q in terms of pressure drop across the orifice Ap, the orifice area A, the pipe cross-sectional area A, and the density p. 

Because the value of Z for natural gas is significantly less than unity at ambient temperatures and at pressures greater than 1 MPa (145 psia), the compressibility must be taken into account in gas measurement gas purchased at high line pressure will fflve a greater volume when the pressure is reduced than it would if the gas were ideal. Natural gas pipeline operators use a.. supercompre.s.sihility faclor, also called Z, out defined as... 

The rapid development of microelectronics has enabled many similar measurements to be made with data collecting systems and then stored electronically. The raw data can then be downloaded to the data processing installation, where they can be plotted and evaluated at any time [1]. This applies particularly to monitoring measurements on pipelines for intensive measurements, see Section 3.7. Figure 3-1 shows an example of a computer-aided data storage system. 

The first term in Eq. (3-27) represents the voltage drop between the reference electrode over the pipeline and the pipe surface. The second term represents the potential difference AU measured at the soil surface (ground level) perpendicular (directly above) to the pipeline. Average values of the values measured to the left and right of the pipeline are to be used (see Fig. 3-24) [2]. In this way stray IR components can be eliminated. The third term comprises the current densities where, in the switched-off state of the protection installation, there is a cell current J. In the normal case J = 0 and also correspondingly AU f = 0 as well as = t/ ff On... 

It is recommended that all instruments be provided with an additional time switch, so that the interruption of the protection current supply outside working hours (i.e., during the night) is not maintained. In this way the reduction in the protection current supply is kept as small as possible this amounts to 10% with 27 s on and 3 s off. This can be significant in the measurement of a long pipeline, which can often take several weeks. 

Where there are stray currents, the switching method described in Section 3.3.1 cannot be used. Stray current protection stations are usually installed where the pipeline has the most positive pipe/soil potential. When the stray current drainage is cut off, a too-positive stray current exit potential that is not 7/ -free is quickly established. In distant areas a too-negative stray current entry potential that is not 71 -free will be measured. The determination of the 71 -free pipe/soil potential is only possible in stray current areas when the origin of the stray current is not oper-... 

Equation (3-42) is not valid for conducting systems consisting of several conducting phases (e.g., steel pipeline in soil). Figure 3-15 shows an example for the measured results (3). 

Soil resistivity measurements can be affected by uncoated metal objects in the soil. Values that are too low are occasionally obtained in built-up urban areas and in streets. Measurements parallel to a well-coated pipeline or to plastic-coated cables give no noticeable differences. With measurements in towns it is recommended, if... 

The variation in the on and off potentials or the potential difference along the pipeline will usually indicate faults that prevent the attainment of complete cathodic protection. The protection current requirement of the pipeline may be estimated from experience if the age and type of pipeline is known (see Fig. 5-3). Figure 3-20 shows the variation in the on and off potentials of a 9-km pipeline section DN 800 with 10-mm wall thickness. At the end of the pipeline, at 31.84 km, an insulating unit is built in. The cathodic protection station is situated at 22.99 km. Between this and the end of the pipeline there are four pipe current measuring points. The applied protection current densities and coating resistances of individual pipeline sections are calculated from Eqs. (3-40) and (3-41). In the upper diagram the values of... 

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