Geohazards
Pipeline construction and management frequently has to cope with hostile or extreme environments subject to a range of geohazards. These typically include:
- Ground shaking in seismically active regions;
- Landsliding ranging from slow creep to rapid debris flows;
- Ground subsidence and settlement by natural or man-made activities;
- Displacements across geologically active faults;
- Freeze-thaw displacements;
- Erosion events leading to exposure, spanning and impact incidents.
In addition, a range of construction activities may directly load or present a hazard to pipelines including formation of embankments, quarry excavations, live loading effects, landfilling operations and major civil engineering structures.
In these circumstances operators may need to investigate whether the pipeline is experiencing an increase in load and then either satisfy regulatory requirements or demonstrate that the pipeline is fit-for-purpose.
Penspen Integrity has highly experienced geotechnical specialists that can supply a wide range of pipeline integrity services covering the assessment of pipeline integrity from ground movement and external loads.
Our services
- Field surveys and investigation works to determine the nature and extent of loading;
- Quantification of representative loading and load distributions;
- Understanding and experience of the key influence of soil restraint on pipeline behaviour;
- Detailed calculations to demonstrate the integrity of the pipeline;
- Access to sophisticated finite element analysis and pipeline stress analysis techniques tailored to complex buried pipeline configurations;
- Specification and execution of direct monitoring and evaluation programs for pipeline integrity;
- Implementation of measures to protect pipelines from high loads or methods of controlling these within safe levels;
- Design and execution of siteworks for remediation of highly loaded pipeline structures;
- Investigation and inspection of pipeline routes to determine the presence of hazards;
- Use of screening assessments to rank the level of threat to the pipeline and prioritize the critical sites;
- Probabilistic evaluation of geohazard loads;
- State of the art analysis of critical sites to determine pipeline integrity including non-linear geometrical and material behaviour;
- Evaluation of the probability of failure and failure frequency of pipelines subject to geohazards;
- Sound recommendations on proven methods for mitigating or avoiding geohazards.
