Using Automation and Visualization to Streamline Your Analysis

The pipeline infrastructure in North America is projected to aggressively expand in the form of new construction but is aging at the same time due to the need to extend the life of existing lines for economic reasons. Stress Engineering Services Canada (SESC) helps operators across the continent assess their pipeline’s integrity and resiliency through Finite Element Analysis (FEA). This evaluation includes subsequently determining safe operating limits and/or mitigation strategies for cases where the established acceptance criteria is exceeded at identified concern locations along the pipeline. This work has become a specialty for the SESC office, and we’ve developed an effective and efficient approach to these analyses—but what makes our method the best?

Optimization Through Automation

SESC knows that complex problems require sophisticated solutions, and we know that efficiency is key. Our team has developed a software suite of automated pipeline tools that help us optimize your analysis.

From Client-provided pipe tally and/or in-line inspection (ILI) data, SESC can rapidly create a full-length, cross-country digital representation of your pipeline and, from this, automatically generate analysis models. Following completion of the analysis stage, the extraction of model results is instantaneous and code stress calculations are automatically performed. Finally, a Google Earth file is generated, which translates a cornucopia of information into a clean and concise visual summary, ready to share with your team. Altogether, this means a faster turnaround and a higher quality product.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Excel Spreadsheets

Analysis results can be presented as a spreadsheet with all the details for every element of a pipeline model, but this format may not be easily digested by our clients. At SESC, we appreciate the fine detail, but we also understand that our clients need something quick to interpret and easy to share with a multidisciplinary audience. That’s why we’ve incorporated Google Earth into our final product as an all-encompassing means of pipeline data and analysis results visualization.

With this integration, Clients can see our analyses results and their pipe tally/ILI data overlaid onto satellite images of their pipeline right-of-way. Stress or strain gradients and marked concern locations are indicated for easy interpretation. On top of that, you could quickly query pipeline properties such as yield strength, pipe diameter, wall thickness, bend angle/radius or adjacent soil profiles to interpret the effects of those parameters on the identified concern locations.

By importing the final analysis results into Google Earth, data is brought back into the global pipeline response context. Clients can easily assess the “what”, “where”, and “why” of each point of concern – something that a spreadsheet can’t communicate in the same way since “spatial relativity” is lost in this format.

Pipeline Analysis: The SESC Approach

Stress Engineering Services Canada knows pipelines, and we know that you need an accurate, effective, and efficient analysis to inform your new design or existing run (as-is), repair, rerate, or replace decisions. Through optimization and visualization, SESC is saving time and money for our clients and providing results in a context that makes sense. Please reach out to [email protected] or [email protected] for more information or to book a Lunch & Learn with your team.

Stress Engineering Services Canada delivers expert engineering problem solving services focused on providing clients the right answers on time and on budget. Located in Calgary, Alberta, our services are primarily centered around the testing, inspection, assessment and life extension of operating equipment in plants, pipelines, power stations, upstream facilities, and more. For more information, call 403.256.2527 or visit our LinkedIn page.