Developmentandproductionofhighstrengthpipelinesteels.pdfVIP

Development and production of high strength pipeline steels Dr. Ing. Hans-Georg Hillenbrand EUROPIPE GmbH Dr. Ing. Michael Gräf EUROPIPE GmbH Dr. Ing. Christoph Kalwa EUROPIPE GmbH Niobium 2001 December 02-05, 2001, Orlando, Florida, USA TP43 DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTION OF HIGH STRENGTH PIPELINE STEELS Dr.-Ing. Hans-Georg Hillenbrand, Dr.-Ing. Michael Gräf, Dr.-Ing. Christoph Kalwa EUROPIPE GmbH Formerstr. 49 40878 Ratingen Germany Abstract In view of the ever-increasing pipeline length and operating pressure, the development of high-strength steels makes a significant contribution to pipeline project cost reduction. In the case of offshore pipelines, the operating pressure of the pipeline does not play the dominating role. It is rather the ambient water pressure that is more important. Therefore, one of the design criteria for offshore pipelines is less the strength but more the collapse behaviour of the pipe. The pipe to be used in offshore pipeline construction should possess not only good materials properties but also good geometry to ensure good collapse strength. As the H 2 S content of the gas being transported increases, the requirements for HIC resistance of the pipe material increase. When an aqueous phase is present, CO , H S and chlorides are extremely corrosive. For applications in suc