Materials Performance and Durability Group Design Project
PROJECT TITLE: EXTERNAL OIL AND GAS PIPELINE COATING SELECTION AND PERFORMANCE
The aim of this group project assignment is to provide you and your group with an opportunity to apply principles, methods and other knowledge you learnt in SEM401 Materials Performance and Durability and previous academic Units to analyse and solve practical engineering issues in an important industry. This project is designed to be a real engineering research and problem solving exercise.
In the case of this project we target real engineering issues in the oil and gas industry. It requires you and your group to work as a team to carry out substantial literature research and perform analysis based on the application of your chemistry, physical, mechanical and materials knowledge.
THE PROJECT
Pipeline plays an extremely important role as a means of transporting oil and gas over long distances. Unfortunately oil and gas pipeline is a complex system that is affected by multiple factors such as mechanical stress, corrosion and environmental effects. The main contributor to external corrosion of a buried energy pipeline is the corrosivity of soils that varies over a wide range because of the variety of compositions, the availability of moisture and oxygen. Under the worst conditions, a buried pipeline or vessel may perforate in less than 1 year. U.S. Department of Transportation reported that 8000 corrosion leaks per year occurred in the country and 36% of these accidents were caused by external corrosion. Similar issues exist in the Australian oil and gas industry.
Please address the following issues in your project:
1. Comment, with reasonable justification, on potential future coating materials and corrosion prevention methods that could be used to improve durability of oil and gas transmission pipelines, with particular focus on external corrosion issues. Take life cycle cost, carbon footprint and environmental impacts issues into consideration based on a life cycle assessment of current and potential future materials.
Your group is required to independently write a report in no more than 800-1000 words to address these issues. It is important to carry out literature research, however you should write your report in your own words. Your submission should be preceded by an introduction to materials selection and preformation issues in the battery industry material selection, and include a list of references that show author(s), data of publication, full title, journal title, volume and number, and page range.