NISTIR 6641
Advanced Welding and Joining
Technical Workshop: Pipelines
The proceedings of a workshop held January 25-26, 2006,
at the
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Boulder, Colorado
Edited by:
Thomas A. Siewert
Robert W. Smith
James Merritt
Christopher N. McCowan
NISTIR 6641
Advanced Welding and Joining
Technical Workshop: Pipelines
The proceedings of a workshop held
January 25-26, 2006, at the
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Boulder, CO 80305
Edited by:
Thomas A. Siewert
Christopher N. McCowan
Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Robert W. Smith
James Merritt
U.S. Department of Transportation
Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
Sponsored by:
The Office of Pipeline Safety
January 2006
U.S. Department of Commerce
Carlos M. Gutierrez, Secretary
Technology Administration
Robert Cresanti, Under Secretary of Commerce for Technology
National Institute of Standards and Technology
William Jeffrey, Director
U.S. Department of Commerce
National Institute of Standards and Technology
325 Broadway
Boulder, CO 80305-3328
Official Business
Penalty for Private Use $300
Executive Summary
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) strongly supports the drive
toward safer pipelines, and joined with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety
Administration (PHMSA) to advance this goal. NIST in collaboration with PHMSA and
several pipeline industry trade organizations, organized and executed the Advanced
Welding and Joining Technical Workshop on January 25 and 26, 2006 workshop in
Boulder, Colorado.
Assistance in organizing the workshop came from an 18-person steering committee
selected to represent the different interests in the pipeline industry. This committee
helped to prepare the agenda, identify speakers, organize the working groups, and
promote attendance.
The workshop had 69 participants representing pipeline owners, technology developers,
trade and standards organizations, and government agencies. The workshop structure
included six keynote presentations to suggest some issues, five working groups (by
topical area) to identify and rank the research needs, and summary presentations (back to
the whole group) to compare results and comment on any overlaps or omissions.
The five working groups were:
• Weld Design in Emerging Materials,
• Construction,
• Weld Inspection and Assessment Methods,
• Weld Maintenance and Repair, and
• Joining Issues for Nonmetallic Materials
Their charge was to identify topical goals that could improve pipeline safety and the
actions required to have these become reality. The working groups convened just after
the keynotes were finished (by lunch on the first day) and continued on the second
morning. The top goals identified by the groups were:
WG 1 – Weld Design in Emerging Materials
Goal #1 – Testing Methods for Mechanical Strength Properties
- Deciding what data is necessary for weld metal base metal
- Defining how to attain that data and procedures
- Making judgments based on data
Goal #2 – Acceptance Criteria
- Establish required inputs/information for different design methodologies
- Fill gaps in available ECA technologies to determine flaw acceptance criteria
- Stress-based – undermatching, heat affacted zone softening
- Strain-based methodologies for all steel grades
- Define limits of applicability
Goal #3 – Testing Methods for Fracture Toughness Properties
- Get more relevant fracture data than standard CTOD test for HAZ and WM
Establish link between laboratory tests and full-scale.
Goal #4 – Essential Variables
- Update current welding standards to cover essential variables and procedure
qualification for modern welding techniques to ensure property consistency
WG 2 – Construction
Goal #1 – GMAW Automation
Arc dynamics (single wire/tandem)
Process monitoring
Start/stop control (stability)
Seam tracking
Goal #2 – Fabrication standards for high strength (>/= X80) steels and processes
X-80 +
Recommended practices (endorsed by PHMSA/OPS)
Goal #3 – End preparation technology
Equipment survey to identify a path forward
Optimize joint design
Goal #4 – Laser Hybrid Welding
Move towards a production system
Goal #5 – Pipeline Construction Tie-In Automation
WG 3 – Weld Inspection and Assessment Methods
Goal #1 – Develop, validate and implement a set of methodologies and standards to
quantify the reliability of automated ultrasonic testing (AUT) systems, procedures and
operators for critical pipeline weld inspection applications
Goal #2 – Investigate, develop and quantify 3-D digital image capture radiography
Goal #3 – Investigate the practical applicability of AUT matrix phased array probes and
3-D imaging
WG 4 – Weld Maintenance and Repair
Goal #1 – Improve Methods of Technology Transfer
Better ways of informing operators of results of completed research and industry
practices (e.g., manuals, notes for guidance documents, websites, training courses,
videos, interactive CD-ROMs)
Goal #2 – Further Develop Understanding of Metallurgical Factors that Affect Hydrogen
Cracking
Microstructure/hardness limits as a function of hydrogen, chemistry, and wall thickness
Methods for determining chemical composition of in-service pipelines (e.g., database
development, development of new analytical methods, etc.)
Goal #3 – Develop Better Predictive Models for Pre-Weld Planning
Cooling rate/microstructure/hydrogen model for predicting hydrogen cracking
Thermo/mechanical model for predicting burn through
WG 5 – Joining Issues for Nonmetallic Materials
Goal #1 – Develop NDE technology that can determine the integrity of all fusion joints.
Goal #2 – Improve on current joining technologies, including process validation to
ensure proper equipment operation to mitigate human error.
Goal #3 – Develop quicker methods or testing practices for accurately predicting the
integrity/residual life of older PE pipe joints.
This report will be distributed in several formats: CDROM and electronically from the
PHMSA web site (http://primis.phmsa.dot.gov/rd/mtg_012506.htm) and from the NIST
Materials Reliability Division web site (boulder.nist.gov/Div853). Both of these sites
have many more files and reports that may be of interest to the pipeline community, and
you are encouraged to search through both of them.
Incidentally, this is the second workshop in this series. The first one, “Advanced Coating
R&D for Pipelines and Related Facilities,” was published by NIST as Special Publication
1044. It is available from the OPS website and the NIST Metallurgy Division website,
www.metallurgy.nist.gov/reports/NIST-SP1044-2005-PL-coatings.pdf and
http://primis.phmsa.dot.gov/rd/mtg_060905.htm .
Steering Committee
• Nate Ames – Edison Welding Institute
• David Dorling – Transcanada
• D. Dzurko – Optonline
• Michael Else – Minerals Management Service
• J. Gianetto – CANMET Materials Technology Laboratory
• Harvey Haines - PRCI
• David Horsley – Transcanada
• F. Jeglic – National Energy Board (Canada)
• A. Johnson – API
• David McColskey – NIST
• James Merritt – Office of Pipeline Safety, DoT
• Joe Paviglianiti – National Energy Board (Canada)
• K Paulson – National Energy Board (Canada)
• Marie Quintana – Lincoln Electric
• Christina Sames – American Gas Association
• Tom Siewert – NIST
• Robert W. Smith - Office of Pipeline Safety, DoT
• Jim Swatzel – Columbia Gas
• B. Tyson – Natural Resources Canada
Please find all presentations given at http://primis.phmsa.dot.gov/rd/mtg_012506.htm
