Failure Analysis:
Investigated in-service and hydrostatic test failures of pipe and pipe components involving manufacturing defects, overstress situations, workmanship defects, fatigue, third-party damage, and corrosion.
Test and Inspection Intervals:
Established hydrostatic test and in-line-inspection (ILI) intervals for liquid pipelines to reduce the risk of service failures due to time-dependent degradation mechanisms such as pressure-cycle-induced fatigue
Pipeline Stress Analysis:
Analyzed situations involving heavy equipment traversing over buried pipelines. Monitored blasting events and analyzed the effects of the vibration on nearby pipelines. Developed maximum allowable above-ground span length criteria for pipelines and analyzed the effects of currents in open-water crossings.
Material Testing:
Conducted instrumented burst testing on pipe specimens containing seam defects, mechanical damage, and seemingly defect-free pipe. Compared predicted ILI anomalies to the actual pipe removed from service to document the presence and extent of actual anomalies. Evaluated strength and toughness properties of pipe and longitudinal welds.
Fitness-for-Service Assessment:
Evaluated the remaining strength and fitness-for-service (remaining life) of corrosion defects, ILI anomalies, and longitudinal seam defects using fracture mechanics principles
Pipeline Failure and Material Property Research:Created a database for pipe properties and failure-cause information from all failure and material property investigations conducted by Kiefner & Associates since the company was founded in 1990.
