Aberdeen Branch, Latest News
The Branch continued its successful 2017-2018 session with a high turn-out (68 attendees) at its joint event with the Mining Institute of Scotland (MIS) and IOM3 Oil and Gas Division, (Over the last few years MIS has established a strong working relationship with the Aberdeen branch and holds an annual joint technical evening that is funded alternatively).
The key topic under discussion was Corrosion under Insulation (CUI). This is a major issue for not only the oil and gas sector, but industry in general, with an estimated annual cost to the UK of £28 billion. The event started with a buffet and a poster presentation from Tianyang Lan, a MSc student from Northampton University, who presented the experimental work that he had been undertaking, assessing both physical and electrochemical techniques for measuring CUI. Two physical methods and two electrochemical methods were used in this test work, Eddy Current Testing (ECT), IR Thermography (IRT), Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy and Electrochemical Noise Method (ENM). The samples used to conduct the experiments were carbon steel panels at different corrosion stages, used to simulate the pipe condition, with standard maintenance organic coatings and insulation tapes representing the pipe insulation. Results have indicated that ECT/IRT could not discriminate rusting beneath a coating when it was greater than about 250microns thick however the electrochemical methods showed immense promise. Insulation of course covers all signs of corrosion.
MIS, with IOM3 Oil and Gas Division, had arranged two technical presentations. The first was given by Rebecca Allison of the Oil and Gas Technology Centre, (OGTC, a public / private initiative), who introduced the topic of CUI and the role of the OGTC in addressing the challenges of CUI. Rebecca provided an overview of new technologies being supported by the OGTC and got comprehensive feedback from the audience on these, however she highlighted that addressing CUI is not just about technology, a holistic approach including working practices, procedures, competency, human factors and data management is required.
Bill Brown and Mike Dixon of The Rope Access Company (TRAC) then built on the overview provided by Rebecca with a presentation providing results from their field and yard trials assessing the latest tools and techniques available to measure and analyse CUI, which included developments with pulsed eddy current and digital radiography. Field and yard work highlighted key issues for practitioners to be aware of.
The Oil & Gas Industry has experienced many challenges when inspecting for Corrosion under Insulation (CUI), assessing the condition of steel components under Engineered Composite Wraps and the minimum remaining wall thickness under surface scabs / blisters. The aim of their OGTC supported project is to try and determine the limitations of the available NDT methods relative to each application. TRAC plans to share the ongoing research and development overview obtained to date.
At closing, a warm vote of thanks to all the presenters was made by the new MIS President Bob Laird for their valuable contributions which were very much appreciated by all those in attendance. Next year’s joint meeting is already scheduled for 27 November 2018 at the Palm Court.
Information about all forthcoming Aberdeen branch activities can be found on the diary page of the magazine and on the Institute website, 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/
The 2017-2018 ICorr Aberdeen Sponsors currently include: Aberdeen Foundries Ltd, Atkins, CAN Offshore Ltd, CORRPRO Companies Europe Ltd, Cosasco, Deepwater, ICR, IMG Composites, IndCorr, LR, North East Corrosion Engineers, Oceaneering International Services, Permasense, Pipeline Technique Ltd, Plant Integrity Management, Spencer Coatings, Rosen, R&R Corrosion Ltd, Total E&P and TRAC.
Aberdeen Branch, Latest News
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.
Aberdeen Branch, Latest News
The branch closed its very successful 2016/2017 session with its annual Corrosion Awareness Day, which was well attended with 62 registrations supported by 6 excellent speakers providing a very successful, though very intense day, with many areas of corrosion introduced. This event was only made possible by the very generous sponsorship of Sherwin Williams together with all the Aberdeen Branch Sponsors.
Professor Paul Lambert (Mott MacDonald) provided a wonderful and gripping introduction to the day’s proceedings, outlining some key areas in the evolution of materials and corrosion control methods, as a background to other more specialised areas covered by the following speakers. Dr Carol Devine (ICR Integrity) followed with an amazing insight into the world of integrity wrecking bugs and how they can be controlled and detected, with some wonderful imagery that makes highly recommended viewing (https://sites.google.com/site/icorrabz/resource-center). Dr Nigel Owen (Aberdeen Foundries) gave us the view from the ‘Front Line’, as a busy foundry manager dealing with numerous metallurgical related casting issues, supplying the complex needs of the Cathodic Protection Industries, covering both Impressed Current and Sacrificial CP requirements and differing technologies.
After a well-earned break and some delicious catering provided by Palm Court, Sarah Vasey, ICorr President opened the afternoon CAD Session with a talk on the work of the Institute and its organisation. Malcolm Morris (Sherwin Williams) then gave us the 3 excellent insights into the world of corrosion mitigation by coatings, chemicals and materials selection with a strong practical bias and highlighted many relevant standards, recommended practices and legislation, essential to ensuring successful performance.
All this fitted very nicely into the final two talks by key Corrosion Management (CM) Specialists, Hooman Takhtechian (Oceaneering) who skilfully guided us into the concepts of CM, how it is geared to best utilising available resources, providing effective communications systems and the avoidance of risk to personnel, in often High Pressure / High Temperature operating environments. Dr Muhammad Ejaz (Plant Integrity Management) then wrapped up proceedings with a fascinating introduction to the world of Corrosion Modelling, its historical development and how it can be applied successfully today, which was coupled with a supporting presentation on Intrusive Corrosion Monitoring.
All in all, it was a very comprehensive training session of immense benefit that achieved its main objective of providing a most informative event at a very reasonable cost.
The Aberdeen Branch has further strengthened its management committee for 2017/2018 session and welcomes the following new members who will undoubtedly bring a wealth of new experiences and ideas to its work. Amir Attarchi (Senior Corrosion Engineer) at Oceaneering International, Dr Philip Enegela (Corrosion Engineer) at ATKINS Energy Division, Dr Nigel Owen (Manager) of Aberdeen Foundries Ltd, and Bryn Roberts (Managing Director) at ABR Engineering Consultants Ltd.
