Modélisation de la fissuration dans un pipeline en acier apré réparation par patch en composite

Abstract

Pipelines are very important industrial structures in Algeria, for the transport of hydrocarbons. In service, the risks they incur, such as corrosion cracking and failure, lead to ecological risks for the environment associated to operating losses, often with a considerable economic loss. For this reason, the presence of defects, in particular cracks in pipeline, requires a periodic monitoring and non-destructive testing to determine the degree of damage, in order to repair them. Actually, the most effective way to repair this kind of structures is to use a composite materials patch. In our study we have realised a numerical simulation of an APL 5L X42 pipeline to analyse their behaviour before and after the appearance of crack, and the repair by gluing of a unidirectional glass/epoxy composite patch, using the finite elements method by calculating the stress intensity factor at the crack front. The results obtained using the ABAQUS CAE code, show the beneficial effect of this type of repair to delay the crack propagation and thus increase the repaired pipe life. A short course was conducted on the field to become familiar with the repairs by gluing patches of composite material