Study helps model buried pipeline pitting corrosion

Researchers at the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) of Mexico have conducted a study to focus on corrosion pitting of underground oil and gas pipelines using various models. Researchers used deterministic and stochastic predictive models for external pitting corrosion in underground pipelines. The weight ratio of the three soil separates determined soil texture. In situ measurements determined maximum pit depth and the value of selected local soil properties in each exposed pipeline segment. Simulation times simulated year 5 to year 40 for each soil class. The larger the exposure time is, the higher the uncertainty in the estimates as determined by the variance of the maximum pit depth distribution. The difference in the growth behavior of the deepest pits with respect to the remaining pit population increases with the corrosivity of the soil.