Case Study Pipeline Proactive Failure Prevention Analysis 

 The request in the box below was received by email.

 I am contacting you to make you aware of Request, RFP# 68250, “Breakthrough Technologies for Pipeline Leak Detection.” 

We invite proposals for breakthrough technologies for pipeline leak prevention, detection,  and remediation. We have identified you as a party with the potential expertise to respond to this request. 

 Request RFP# 68250 was to find new and better ways to prevent leaks from gas and liquid carrying pipes, and/or detect and address leaks in overland pipelines before 10 barrels of content spilled. It was an opportune case to apply a fundamental tool in the Plant Wellness Way Methodology—Physics of Failure Analysis (POFA)—to see what solutions could be generated. 

The standard way used world-wide to do conceptual failure analysis is by Failure Mode Effects Analysis (FMEA). In FMEA you list known failure modes that could occur to the item being investigated. A failure mode is what you observe upon failure of the item e.g., a damaged region, a discoloration, a hole, a score mark, etc. For each failure mode you then identify all the possible failure causes that lead to the failure mode. 

In Physics-of-Failure Analysis you focus on the destruction of the materials-of-construction. You ask, “How is the material that makes up this item destroyed?” With POFA you first identify all stresses that fail the component material structure. Then you identify what scenarios during the item’s life cycle produce those stresses. POFA uses the stresses that fail an item to discover how such stresses can arise. The end result of the POFA is to select proactive preventions of possible failure events so that excessive stresses do not arise and thus failure never happens.

See the full analysis in the PDF below: