Evaluation of Strength of Pipe With Metal-Loss due to CUI by FFS and FEA Which Considered the Fracture Ductility

Abstract

Corrosion under insulation (CUI) is an aging degradation issue in long-term service vessels and pipes made of carbon steel and low-alloy steel. One of the problems in managing CUI is an equivocal evaluation technique of thinning detected by inspection. A replacement period with more accuracy can be evaluated more appropriately by performing fitness-for-service (FFS) assessment in this equipment. It is important to verify the validity of the FFS assessment using actually corroded pipes in order to promote the spread of FFS assessment in the domestic industry. In the present paper, pipes with complicated metal-loss due to CUI that were used in a chemical plant are burst in burst tests. An estimated burst pressure, which is calculated based on the assessment of metal-loss and through finite element analysis (FEA) based on FFS assessment, is compared with experimentally obtained burst pressures in order to validate the integrity evaluation. The burst pressure is then estimated by FEA, in which the ductile fracture under the multiaxial stress condition is considered. The burst pressure estimated by FFS approximately matched the burst pressure obtained based on experimental results. Fitness-for-service is sufficiently valid for investigating the remaining strength or burst pressure of corroded pipe. In addition, the burst pressure estimated by FEA that considered the ductile fracture under the multiaxial stress condition agreed with the experimental results and is valid so long as the remaining strength factor (RSF) is less than 0.6.