• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.12-19
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• 2014

To minimize the risk of corrosion on buried pipeline and to maximize the efficiency of cathodic protection, various indirect inspection techniques have been used for decades. In the United States, 49 CFR has regulated the external corrosion direct assessment for buried pipelines. In Korea, there is no provision for external corrosion direct assessment but there is only, according to the KGS Code, provision that if the survey of the defects of buried pipeline and the leakage test for the pipe were conducted, it is deemed to leakage inspection. We, therefore, have suggested external corrosion direct assessment method appropriate to domestic status through the survey of the regulations and standards of UK and the USA and the investigation of domestic situation on coating damage detection method. The proposed external corrosion direct evaluation method was used as the basis when introducing the precision safety diagnosis regulation for the medium-pressure pipe in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.72-81
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• 2016

When the coatings of buried steel pipelines are damaged, corrosion could be occurred on the surface of the damaged areas. Moreover the pinhole occurred by corrosion of pipelines may cause accidents due to gas leakage. To prevent these accidents, foreign countries including UK and USA have carried out coating defect detection on the buried gas pipelines by using a DCVG or a ACVG and have conducted direct assessment of pipelines through digging the ground, and if necessary, have repaired the pipelines. That is called ECDA i.e External Corrosion Direct Assessment which is regulated by NACE standards(SP 0502) and etc. In Korea, the ECDA provisions were included in KGS FS551 in 2014 when the regulations of Safety Validation in Detail for the medium-pressure piping were introduced. We have developed the equipment which can be used to detect external corrosion of the buried gas pipelines. We have also constructed pipeline test bed for empirical test of the developed equipment. In addition, we have carried out the verification experiments of the developed equipment on the test bed to demonstrate the performance of the equipment. The experiments were conducted by comparison tests of the developed equipment and other equipments which have been introduced and used in Korea. As the result, we have found the developed equipment is easier to use and has far superior performance compared to other equipment being used in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.33-43
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• 2016

Grinding, weld deposition, type A sleeve, type B sleeve, composite sleeve, hot tapping and clamp are used as the method to repair the buried pipelines in the United States, UK and Europe. In the event of defect to the pipeline, they have repaired the pipeline through the fitness-for-service assessments. In addition, they have guidelines for the possible repair methods to apply to each type of damage, which is occurred due to the 3rd party construction or corrosion. According to the KGS FS551, Safety Validation in Detail including ECDA(External Corrosion Direct Assessment) as one method of integrity management should be carried out for the old pipeline which supply natural gas as the middle pressure in Korea. Where a defect on the pipelines is found, on the result of Safety Validation in Detail, the pipelines should be repaired or replaced by new piping. However, there are no guidelines or regulations regarding the repair and reinforcement of pipeline, so that, cutting the damaged pipeline and replacing it as a segment of new pipe is the only way in Korea until now. We have suggested pipeline repair methods including type A, B sleeve, composite sleeve, after the survey of foreign repair method and standards including the method of United States and the United Kingdom, and after analysis of the results on pipeline repair test including type A, type B sleeve and composite sleeve.