ENGINEERING.

com
Eng-Tips Forums
Tek-Tips Forums
Resources
Join
Eng-Tips Forums
Engineering forums for professionals
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS
Member Login
Username or Email
Password
Remember Me
Forgot Password?
Join Us!
Come Join Us!
Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
Talk With Other Members
Be Notified Of Responses
To Your Posts
Keyword Search
One-Click Access To Your
Favorite Forums
Automated Signatures
On Your Posts
Best Of All, It's Free!
Join Eng-Tips
*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you ar
e opting in to receive e-mail.
Posting Guidelines
Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.
Eng-Tips Posting Policies
Jobs from Indeed
What:
Where:
jobs by Indeed
Link To This Forum!
Partner Button
Add Stickiness To Your Site By Linking To This Professionally Managed Technical
Forum.
Just copy and paste the
code below into your site.
<a href="http://www.eng-tips.com/threadminder.cfm?pid=378">Pipelines, Piping and
Fluid Mechanics engineering Forum at Eng-Tips</a>
Home > Forums > Mechanical Engineers > Activities > Pipelines, Piping and Fluid
Mechanics engineering Forum
Corrosion probe and corrosion coupon
thread378-327330

Share
Forum
Search
FAQs
Links
MVPs
parthanml (Mechanical)
(OP)
6 Aug 12 00:53
What is the difference between corrosion coupon and corrosion probe ?
SJones (Petroleum)
6 Aug 12 03:46
The coupon is a retrievable piece of metal and the probe is an electronic instru
ment.
Steve Jones
Materials & Corrosion Engineer
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/8/83b/b04
BigInch (Petroleum)
6 Aug 12 04:00
Don't put either one in a piggable line.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If it's not safe ... make it that way.
zdas04 (Mechanical)
6 Aug 12 07:13
I'd go even farther and say that both were developed for lines that are liquid f
ull, and you shouldn't put either one in a primarily gas line, because they are
never where the corrosion happens.
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
"Belief" is the acceptance of an hypotheses in the absence of data.
"Prejudice" is having an opinion not supported by the preponderance of the data.
"Knowledge" is only found through the accumulation and analysis of data.
BigInch (Petroleum)
6 Aug 12 07:18
Even in liquid lines, corrosion seldomly happens right down the center of the pi
peline smile
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If it's not safe ... make it that way.
zdas04 (Mechanical)
6 Aug 12 09:15
Yeah, they go from not-good in liquid lines to horrible in gas lines. I have nev
er gotten useful information from either probes or coupons. I guess people run t
hem to make them feel like they are doing SOMETHING about corrosion.
Same with corrosion chemicals in gas lines--they accumulate at the first sag bec
ause the gas can't move them farther and the chemicals never get to where the co
rrosion cells are, but we keep pumping that crap into gas lines to the tune of a
few billion dollars/year. The attitude that "doing something probably ineffecti
ve is better than doing nothing" is pretty pervasive. I've cut open lines at sag
s that were pure (toxic or poisonous) chemicals and I have to disagree with the
idea that injecting chemicals in gas lines is better than doing nothing. It is a
ctually far worse than worthless.

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
"Belief" is the acceptance of an hypotheses in the absence of data.
"Prejudice" is having an opinion not supported by the preponderance of the data.
"Knowledge" is only found through the accumulation and analysis of data.
SJones (Petroleum)
6 Aug 12 09:41
Gents, Gents - spoken like true pipeline engineers. There are many variants of t
he two corrosion monitoring types, including flush mounted with the pipe wall to
both 'get where the corrosion action is' and keep out of the way of pigs. Selec
tion of specific types is based on what you are trying to monitor and what you a
re trying to achieve with the results. Gas line inhibition should also be relian
t on maintenance pigging as part of the corrosion control strategy - that would
shift the stuff down the line. My money is on your experience being based on pip
elines where the instrument engineer or the mechanical engineer has been tasked
with corrosion monitoring system design and execution: generally a sure bet for
failure!
Steve Jones
Materials & Corrosion Engineer
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/8/83b/b04
zdas04 (Mechanical)
6 Aug 12 10:37
The first class I had on corrosion was 1971. I've had several more since then (b
een a NACE member for 20 years). As a consultant I see a lot more issues where t
he corrosion "mitigation" was controlled by the Integrity Management department
than when it is in the ham-handed control of pipeline engineers.
I've kept track of the corrosion failures I've been asked to investigate over th
e years and over 80% of the failures have been on "protected" lines (some combin
ation of cathodic and/or chemical injection) that were not pigged. "Protected" l
ines make up about 30% of the lines I see in my practice, but they make up the l
ion's share of the failures. I have never seen a single failure on a line that w
as pigged regularly (and adding corrosion chemicals to the pig run just costs mo
ney without providing any real benefit since pigged lines don't rot).
As an aside; at a conference a decade ago I had occasion to ask the Chief Metall
urgist of a major Oil & Gas chemical supplier to join me for a drink. After far
too many drinks I asked him what was the transport mechanism for biocides in a l
ow pressure gas line. He was just drunk enough to say "quarterly profit and loss
statements". In vino veritas.
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
"Belief" is the acceptance of an hypotheses in the absence of data.
"Prejudice" is having an opinion not supported by the preponderance of the data.
"Knowledge" is only found through the accumulation and analysis of data.
BigInch (Petroleum)
6 Aug 12 10:50
Yes as you allude, the biggest problem is keeping up the gas flow to get good in
hibitor transport in lower pressure lines out at the edge of the field where the
water starts creeping in.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If it's not safe ... make it that way.
waterpipe (Mechanical)
6 Aug 12 11:43

In few cross country water pipelines (not piggable), we've had "pipe monitoring
arrangements". A short section parallel to the main pipe like a by pass at where
you want to have your assessment. The main pipe can be inspected when needed (p
erhaps once every few years) to assess the corrosion and the lining of the pipel
ine by bypassing the flow through the by pass arrangement. I think at least you'
re inspecting the "real" pipe.
brimmer (Petroleum)
7 Aug 12 10:54
I have resorted to culverts with UT monitoring on some of the main transmission
lines I manage, an expensive way to get corrosion rates, but much better than co
upons or probes.
I don't know how the question became a discussion on chemical inhibition, but Da
vid I have certainly seen my share of corrosion failures on lines that were pigg
ed regularly (twice per month) with no chemical inhibition. I can also say if I
stopped applying chemical to most of the sour multiphase pipelines I manage I wo
uld see a spike in the number of failures, as this was the case before applying
the inhibitor with everything else equal. Like anything else though, you have to
know the details of what you are doing rather than just put chemicals in the li
ne and hope for the best.
zdas04 (Mechanical)
7 Aug 12 15:55
Bimmer,
I would love to know the details on that. I've consulted on some pretty sour wet
gas lines that were regularly pigged and when we've cut them open for tie-ins,
the pipe looked fine every time. Some of the non-piggable laterals were a very d
ifferent story, but in the absence of standing water there just isn't any place
for the gas to facilitate the creation of a corrosive cell (either acid attack o
r MIC). It seems like twice monthly pigging would be adequate to disturb the liq
uid pools before they become a problem (I often have to pig more often than that
for pressure-drop reasons, but not for corrosion).
I'm not saying you haven't seen what you've seen, it is just so counter to my ex
perience that I would really like to know more.
David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
"Belief" is the acceptance of an hypotheses in the absence of data.
"Prejudice" is having an opinion not supported by the preponderance of the data.
"Knowledge" is only found through the accumulation and analysis of data.
SJones (Petroleum)
8 Aug 12 04:26
There's a number of factors involved in H2S corrosion. Some are lucky and get a
good protective sulphide film; other's aren't so lucky, particularly with high c
hloride water, and get corrosion failures.
The Canadians have the best experience with sour gas corrosion control
http://www.capp.ca/getdoc.aspx?DocId=155644&DT...
Steve Jones
Materials & Corrosion Engineer
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/8/83b/b04
Reply To This Thread
Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.
Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!

Resources
LVS Boxing Helps Designers Knock Out Designs Quickly
Keeping up with the demand for better, faster design flow performance while pres
erving the original layout hierarchy of a design can be very challenging during
design verification.
Download Now
Product Lifecycle Management - Beyond Managing CAD
Top performing companies don t just integrate PLM with their enterprise systems
lso integrate PLM with their engineering tools and CAD systems.
Download Now
A Cost Effective Solution for Linear Guide Wheel Applications
Radial wheels can match production floor demands where debris or contaminates ar
e present
Download Now
Heavy Duty Vee Rings: An Alternative to Slewing Bearings
Traditional slewing ring bearings are commonplace in wind turbines and heavy ind
ustries such as military and construction.
Download Now
Join | Indeed Jobs | Advertise
Copyright 1998-2015 ENGINEERING.com, Inc. All rights reserved.
Unauthorized reproduction or linking forbidden without expressed written permiss
ion.
Engineering.com Eng-Tips Forums Tek-Tips Forums

they a