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The paper presents some materials, related with 1.1. Potential gas supply to Europe to 2030
projects, realization, nondestructive testing examination and Presented in Table 1 data is based on the work carried
repairing of the pipes during exploitation. out by Observatoire Méditerranéen de l’Energie (OME) in the
This report is prepared on the base on some papers [2, 3 framework of the ENCOURAGED (Energy Corridor
5, 6, 7, 8], presented during the 2-nd South East European IIW Optimization for the European Markets for Gas, Electricity and
International Congress and firm information about NDT Hydrogen) project financed by the European Commission DG-
procedures and devices. Research 6-th Research and Development Framework Programme
[1].
1. Current conditions and future pipelines
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Figure 1. Gas export potential to Europe-34 of the main producers
393
1.2. Projects in Balkan region • Russia with the new projects North Stream and South
The present and the main potential suppliers for the Stream
European region at the moment are: • The Caspian region states – Aserbaydzhan,
• from North Sea – whose deliveries potential decrease; Turkmenistan and lately Iraq with the projects Nabucco and
• from Algeria – at the moment main destiny is Italy; AGRI [2].
• from Russia - by means of pipelines across Ukraine, The above presented disposition of the gas suppliers
Belarus and Turkey. was a basis of agreement to start the preparation and realization
The increase of the delivery potentials is associated of the two mega-projects for gas supply of West Europe, namely
with: South stream and Nabucco.
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Figure 4. The general configuration scheme of the Nabucco pipeline project
Figure 5. The general configuration scheme of the South stream pipeline project
Figure 6. The Black see branch of the South stream pipeline project
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This tendency was imposed by the necessity to
1.3. Materials used for pipelines optimize the costs for main pipelines over great distance.
In pipeline building history, mainly three types steel pipelines The weight difference alone between pipelines of e.g.
have been used: X60 and X80 steels results in huge economy of metal units over
great distances. In the same time, lighter pipes require lighter
mounting technique (pipe-layers).
• up to ∅ 325 mm – by means of seamless pipes
1.4. Welding technology and non destructive testing of
pipelines
In the period before 1975, the basic welding technology
was associated with application of MMA process and joining
• up to ∅1000 mm - by means of spiral seam or together three pipe sectors in preliminary manufacturing stations
through rotation under submerged welding process. This MMA
approach was considerably developed further on, when cellulose
straight seam pipes shield electrodes were applied to implement the weld root. This
ensured weld root defect removal, but raised strong requirements
towards the welding technology considering setting free the
• up to ∅ 1400 mm – by means of straight seam pipes. hydrogen from the weld. The requirements towards the welder
qualification and towards the welding joint NTD control were
also raised.
In the near past, X52 and X65 steel of different alloy
To overcome those problems, multi-positional MAG
scheme pipes were used. Since the past century’s 80s, elevated
equipment for orbital welding of the Company CRC - Huston
strength steels started being more and more often applied for the
was introduced.
pipelines, such as X70, X80, and today, pipelines of X100 steel
are tested.
NDT control during the erection manufacturing process millions Euro. Direct and indirect damages could be incurred.
is take significant interest. Therefore, there should not be any compromise in NDT and it
Quality is extremely important for flawless and long should permanently be following the front welding groupe.
time gas pipeline exploitation. Some failures may cost tens of
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Figure 8. The “Kroler”equipment for NDT control of pipelines
2. International standartization in the field of welding and non destructive tests and requirements to manufacturing joined
NDT products. There is a strong relation of these standards to product
The development of new and the revision of existing standards and to European Directives [3].
ISO Standards in the field of welding and allied processes was Technical standards are developed on different levels:
formidable in the last five to seven years. In the middle of the on national, on regional and on international levels (Fig. 9). The
year 2009 there were available more than 300 European and national level does not need any interpretation. Although some
more than 270 International Standards in that field, most of the national standardization organizations have a strong international
EN Standards are identical or very similar to ISO Standards. impact like ASME, API and AWS of the U.S. in the
Industry has to take into account the new standards and the corresponding branches.
changes in the existing once especially in respect of filler
materials, procedure qualification tests, personal qualification,
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The regional levels are e.g. partners in international standardisation, the International
• African Regional Organization for Standardization Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and the International
(ARSO) Telecommunication Union (ITU). The three organizations, all
• Arab Industrial Development and Mining Organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, have formed the World Standards
(ARSO) Cooperation (WSC) to act as a strategic focus for for
• European Committee for Standardization (CEN) collaboration and the promotion of international standardization.
• Pan American Standards Commission (COPANT) The international standardization work in the field of
• Euro Asian Council for Standardization, Metrology and welding and allied processes mainly is done in ISO TC 44
Certification (EASC) "Welding and allied processes". The secretariat is with AFNOR,
• Pacific Area Standards Congress CP ASCI the French national standardisation organisation, and chairman is
• ASEAN Consultative Committee for Standards and Mr. Lobinger, from France as well.
Quality (ACCSQ) The scope of ISO/TC 44 reads: "Standardization of
European standards are developed by CEN, the welding, by all processes, as well as allied processes; these
European Committee for Standardisation, CENELEC, the standards include terminology, definitions and the symbolic
European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation, both representation of welds on drawings, apparatus and equipment
with then-central offices in Brussels, and ETSI, the European for welding, raw materials (gas, parent and filler metals) welding
Telecommunications Standards Institute with its central office in processes and rales, methods of test and control, calculations and
France. design of welded assemblies, welders' qualifications, as well as
In this contribution mainly will be dealt with safety and health. Excluded: electrical safety matters related to
international standardisation activities by ISO, the International welding which are the responsibility of IEC / TC 26"
Organisation for Standardisation. ISO collaborates with its
SC 3 Welding consumables
SC 12 Soldering materials
At the actual stage ISO/TC44 and its subcommittees same subjects on the European and the international level.
(SC) are working on 51 projects. These are revisions of existing Anyway there are some projects that are on European but not on
standards and developments of new standards. Most of these international interest. These projects are handled only by
projects are handled in a strong cooperation with CEN, the CEN/TC 121 “Welding and allied processes” and its sub
European Committee for Standardisation, following the Vienna committees.
Agreement to avoid as far as possible different standards on the
398
Table 3. Structure of CEN/TC121 „Welding and allied processes“
CEN/TC121/SC8 Brazing
CEN/TC121/SC9/WG4 Testing and marking of equipment for air filtration for welding and allied processes
CEN/TC121/SC9/WG6 Procedure for quantitative determination of fume from resistance spot welding
3. Non destructive testing of pipelines as cracks, slag inclusions, lack of fusion, porosity, etc. Similarly,
Pipelines are essentially pressure vessels and lack of base material defects can occur in the heat-affected zone (HAZ)
pipeline integrity can lead to failures, which can result in significant and it is important to inspect the pipe ends, as these will become
financial loss, not to mention environmental damage and the HAZ during pipeline construction. Girth welding, where
detrimental effects on a company’s reputation. Accurate and lengths of pipe are joined together often takes place in less than
adequate inspection is the key to assessing pipeline integrity by the hospitable conditions, ranging from an exposed double joint
latest technology available for this critical task – from the fabrication yard to the back end of a lay barge. As a result, the
manufacture of the pipe through construction to aging asset. equipment used to carry out inspection must be robust and
Many factors can affect the integrity of a pipeline flexible as well as accurate and reliable. In-service inspections
throughout its entire life cycle. Although flaws within the original for integrity not only look at welds but also monitor
steel plate used to fabricate pipes are rare, 100% ultrasonic testing corrosion/erosion, caused by aggressive or abrasive fluids or
is still carried out prior to rolling. After rolling, the longitudinal or environments. In addition, environmental conditions can
spiral welds of the finished pipe must be inspected for defects such
399
sometimes cause embrittlement and stress corrosion cracking of interpret the image and determine the relative quality of the weld.
welds and base metals. While radiography is still widely accepted, like any other
Naturally, each of these inspection areas poses its own technique, it does have its drawbacks and disadvantages,
particular challenges and this has resulted in the development of especially in terms of creating radiation hazards.
application - focused solutions [4]. Moreover, traditional radiography creates a two
dimensional image or picture of a weld, normal to the radiation
3.1 Non destructive testing during the manufacturing process source. As a result, weld cracks oriented perpendicular to the
3.1.1. Base NDT methods surface are often not detectable and present a possible failure
Most pipe mills include some kind of inspection after mode if unchecked. Conversely, X-ray inspectors, simply
virtually every stage of manufacture. Steel plate is inspected by the because of a lack of adequate three dimensional inspection data,
supplier of the raw material and documented results are provided sometimes reject perfectly acceptable welds.
with each shipment. Testing machine are integrated into pipe
production lines and are used to test a wide range of tubes and 3.1.2. Advanced ultrasonic method
pipes, from small diameter, cold finished, seamless tubes for power The automated ultrasounds techniques have been
plants or automotive the industry, to large diameter, large wall gradually replacing the radiographic methods all over the world.
thickness hot rolled seamless tubes for casing and drill pipe and Advanced ultrasound systems have been developed in order to
welded tubes for oil and gas pipelines. Inspection is carried out by a improve the inspection efficiency [5].
variety of methods including visual inspection, eddy current, flux The API 1104 defines some requirements to be fulfilled
leakage, magnetic particle inspection, radiography and ultrasonic during the ultrasonic testing, like the type of sensitivity blocks to
inspection. Visual inspection is generally carried out after be used, the scanning sensitivity and the evaluation level.
submerged arc (SAW) welding or electronic resistance welding However, the code doesn’t define rigid rules about how the
(ERW) of the long seam to identify any obvious manual pipe weld inspection shall be performed.
repairs that need to be made. At the same time, the pipe may well Issued In 1998 a standard practice ASTM E-1961
be inspected internally by a remote visual camera to check for any (ASTM E1961 - 06 Standard Practice for Mechanized Ultrasonic
remaining flux or slag [5]. Testing of Girth Welds Using Zonal Discrimination with Focused
Pipes are delivered in specified lengths to the fabrication Search Units) establishes some recommendations for the
yard, laybarge or the land-based pipe laying location, where they mechanized ultrasonic examination of pipe girth welds. This
are then typically joined together by butt-welding to form piping practice describes a methodology in which the weld volume is
systems. split in thin slices, each
Historically, girth weld inspection has been carried out by one with a height approximately equal to one filler pass height.
radiography. For both small and largte diameter pipes. This Each zone will be inspected independently from the adjacent
technique provides easy-to-interpret, two-dimensional grayscale zone, in order to allow having a precise dimension of the
images of the weld and, with minimal training; an operator can discontinuity height.
Although this practice was originally developed for third of the thickness. However the Phased Array module
ultrasonic inspection using several monolytic focused probes, the overcomes this disadvantage [5].
same principle can be applied to the automated ultrasonic Most conventional ultrasonic inspections use
inspection system. monocrystal probes with divergent beams which mean that the
In this context, here it is presented an automated and beam is not focused. The ultrasonic field propagates along an
integrated ultrasonic inspection system combining Phased Array acoustic axis with a single refracted angle. The divergence of this
and TOFD (Time Of Flight Diffraction) techniques. Although beam is the variable that will contribute to detection and sizing of
TOFD is not recognized by API 1104, has great advantages like the misoriented defects.
ability to improve the indications sizing (length and height) as well In the case of Phased Array technique, it is assumed
to assist the NDT operator for the interpretation of the geometric that the monoblock is cut in many identical elements, each with a
features in the root region, like root concavity, excess of width much smaller than its length. Each small crystal may be
penetration, weld misalignment, that are very difficult or even considered a line source of cylindrical waves and according
impossible to assess using pulse eco techniques. As disadvantages Huygens principle a new wavefront of the new acoustic block
TOFD has a presence of dead zones mainly in the OD surface, and will constructively interfere, generating an overall wavefront.
a poor spatial resolution in depth from the OD surface up to the first The small wavefronts can be time-delayed and synchronized for
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phase and amplitude, in such a way as to create an ultrasonic The sweeping beam is focused and can detect in
focused and/or driven beam with steering capability. The main specular mode the misoriented cracks. These cracks may be
feature of phased array ultrasonic technology is the computer located randomly away from the beam axis. A single crystal
controlled excitation, in terms of amplitude and delay, of individual probe, with limited movement and beam angle, has a high
elements in a multielement probe. The excitation of the different probability of missing misoriented cracks, or cracks located away
piezocomposite elements can generate an ultrasonic focused beam from the beam axis, Fig. 11. [5]
with the possibility of electronic modifying the beam parameters
such as angle, focal distance, and focal spot size through software.
Regarding the second advanced ultrasonic technique the ultrasound beam and, consequently, the entire volume is
used in the system presented in this paper, Time Of Flight inspected using a single scan pass along the inspection line. At
Difraction (TOFD), the most significant distinction between this the tips of the flaw the acoustic beam is diffracted and in some
technique and the other UT methods is that it monitors the situations reflected and the diffracted signal is redirected to a
forward-scattered diffracted energies, relatively low amplitude receiver probe. At some generated time and due to the beam
signals, only from the tips of defects rather than reflected aperture, the lateral wave propagates along the surface, the back
ultrasonic energies. Two wide beam angle probes are used in wall echo reflects the bottom surface of the test object and reach
transmitter-receiver mode and the distance of the probes is to the receiver. The other two signals, upper flaw tip diffracted
calculated according to the wall thickness. Broad beam probes signal and lower flaw tip diffracted signal appear due to the
are used so that the entire crack area is covered by the width of presence of a discontinuity, Fig. 12.
401
Concerning the modelling stage, in each zone a focal thickness of 9.5mm. In this case the weld volume was split in 5
point was associated with a specific angle and focal distance. Fig. regions
13, illustrates one typical configuration for a V bevel weld with a
:
Figure 13. Acoustic pressure and beam configuration distribution associated to each filler zones
After the system setup and calibration the validation panoramic exposition, and the both results were compared. The
trials were performed. For this purpose a pipe sample of 20" and Fig. 14 shows an example of these results related to a crack (left
9.5 mm of thickness was used. This sample was also inspected side) and a lack of fusion (right side).
trough radiography with a Se75 source and a C5 film in
402
Regarding the porosity, the TOFD module is able to simultaneously compared with radiography (Crawler) using a
detect this type of defect. As the API does not consider this Se75 source. As can be observed in Table 4 the results obtained
technique to evaluate the defects, at this stage this module is used with the Automated Ultrasonic system (AUT) in terms of
as complementary information to the Phased Array. In any case, inspection capabilities were considerable better than those
the TOFD module has an important added value in the integrated obtained with the conventional systems based in the radiography.
system, because its information can be used to validate the
welding process.
The system was also tested in field in a gas pipeline of
12". The inspection results of 250 welding joints were
Table 4. Results of the validation tests between radiography (Se75) and the ultrasonic system
Dimension Dimension AUT
Defect No Type Real dimension
Rγ [mm] [mm]
1 Root crack 67 90 93
2 Lack of Fusion 21 28 30
3 Lack of Fusion N.D 25 25
4 Root concavity 100 104 105
5 Porosity 25 201 25
6 Lack of Fusion 64 53 54
Figure 15. Gas Pipe inspection using the integrated inspection system
3.2. NDT during operation advances in methods of inspection. Of particular importance are
In-service inspection is essential to extend the life of improvements in the speed of inspection, tool accessibility,
aging assets, to squeeze ever more production out of assets by inspection range and costs.
minimizing downtime and to help prevent catastrophic failures,
failures that can result in the loss of life, and damage to the 3.2.1. NDT with pigs and crowlers
environment and company reputation, and eventually company The need for pipeline non-destructive testing (NDT)
profits. grew very rapidly with the increase of offshore gas and oil
The occurrence of corrosion, erosion and mechanical exploitation in the 1970s. New pipelines for offshore supplies
damage to pipes and pipelines means that there is great interest in brought new and sometimes unexpected corrosion problems. The
403
presence of sediment and chemicals in offshore risers often ultrasonic detection of wall thinning, and X-ray crawlers for weld
caused corrosion and erosion of the risers, leading to wall inspection in long runs of pipe. The perceived economic
thinning at several times the expected rate. The consequence of importance of these techniques at the time is evident from the
this was that expensively laid pipelines would fall short of their publicity they received. The first smart pig was developed in
design lives [6]. 1964 using Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) technology to inspect
Very substantial investments were made in the 70s in the bottom portion of the pipeline (Fig. 16).
the development of both pipeline pigs for electromagnetic and
Pigs and crawlers excelled at the time in being the only The wave is reflected from the pipe end, circumferential welds
means of inspecting for erosion, corrosion and other types of and defects in the wall, and the reflected echoes (usually mode
defect in pipes buried inaccessibly below ground or on the sea- converted) are received by the transmitting probes. Therefore, all
bed and/or encased in concrete or other protective coatings to defects in the entire run of pipe are detected simultaneously,
protect outer pipe walls from corrosion. provided they are large enough to produce an echo amplitude
Pigs and crawlers excelled at the time in being the only above the random noise level [6].
means of inspecting for erosion, corrosion and other types of The promise of the technique as a global monitoring
defect in pipes buried inaccessibly below ground or on the sea- tool stems from the fact that low frequency guided waves have a
bed and/or encased in concrete or other protective coatings to very long range in pipes because:
protect outer pipe walls from corrosion. Both approaches have (i) absorption in the pipe material is low at low
the capability to inspect long lengths of pipes and pipelines in a frequencies.
short period of time. These pipes and pipelines do not need to be (ii) for pipes in air, leakage of waves out of the pipe is
emptied for the inspection. However, not all the pipelines can be very low because of the high acoustic impedance mismatch at the
inspected in this way. Entry and exit points may not be present solid-air boundaries. Therefore, all the energy propagates down
for the ‘pig’. Pipe bends or steep gradients may occur, which the pipe with little attenuation of the energy density (wave
prevent the ‘pig’ passing through. There are therefore very large amplitude).
proportions (perhaps as high as 75%) of pipelines that cannot be (iii) A wave mode with low dispersion (frequency
inspected with the ‘pig’. dependence of phase velocity) can be selected so that the rate at
which the wave pulse spreads out in time is small.
3.2.2. NDT with guided waves (low-frequency ultrasonic The test range can be defined as the range at which a
testing) defect which
Hence long runs of pipe have to be taken out of service requires detection gives a detectable echo. So the probe
and bypassed to allow inspection. The above problems have collar need only be repositioned along the pipe at intervals equal
been overcome using the Guided Wave Inspection (GW). to the twice the test range, with a small allowance for overlap to
Over the past 10 years, TWI has been pioneering the achieve total inspection coverage of an indefinite length of pipe.
technique of GW for corrosion and erosion detection and Depending on many factors such as pipe diameter, wall thickness
monitoring, which, in principle, allows inspection of long runs of and bend radius, as well as considerations (i) to (iii) above, the
pipe from just one access point. test range can be as much as 100 metres for an uncoated pipe in
In this technique a pulsed guided wave mode is air.
propagated in a pipe wall from a family of equally spaced TWI has exploited the long range ultrasonic technique
ultrasound probes supported by a collar wrapped round the pipe. through their subsidiary Plant Integrity Ltd. Figures 17, 18 and
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19 illustrate the first, second and third generation of Teletest® Plant Integrity Ltd (Pi Ltd).
long range ultrasonic equipment developed and marketed by
Figure 18. Second generation MK2 Teletest® system Figure 19. Third generation MK3 Teletest® system
Plant Integrity Ltd. tested Teletest to inspect caissons, the full length of the caisson in order to gain an understanding of
on an offshore installation. Access to these caissons was difficult the condition prior to removal. This also allowed Plant Integrity
and Teletest had the ability to inspect the whole length of the to trial new analysis techniques such as focusing and the new
Caisson from the top-side. The aim of the inspection was to test Amplitude Map (A-Map).
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Figure 20. DAC curve for the caisson with A-Map
A development of the technology and systems for “LRUT” project according to this theme was carried
remote flaw detection using a method of long-range low- out in the 6th Frame Program of EC in which the specialists from
frequency ultrasonic testing (LF UT) was significant progress in Ukraine, Bulgaria and other countries under the leadership of
improvement of methods for control of technical state of TWI took part [7].
extended objects. A character of long-term operated extended pipelines is
PATON ELECTRIC WELDING INSTITUTE use the presence of different internal or appearing on the surface
advantage of this method at quick test of technical state of reflectors in them. Classification of the types of reflectors in the
technical state of different application pipelines after their fitting pipeline and scheme of their possible positioning on the pipe is
through formation of initial defectogram of the pipeline as well given in Figure 21
as at their further monitoring and development of a database for
calculation of operational life of the pipelines.
.
Figure 21. Classification of the types of reflectors in the pipeline (a) and scheme of their possible positioning on the pipe (b)
406
The piezotransducers of round form and star-shaped semicircle peaks, as a result of which a secure transfer of
antenna, shown in Figure 22a, were used for study of the ultrasonic oscillations to antenna mass and pipe body is provided,
processes of distribution of twist oscillations in the pipeline. The respectively. At that, piezotransducer planes are directed along
antenna consists of two semicircles which are joined together longitudinal axis of the pipe.
mechanically during setting on the pipe, providing secure contact The small-dimension guided acoustic antenna with
of semicircles with pipe surface. Each semicircle has four peaks piezotransducers mounted in rubber circles are given in Figure
on which four piezotransducers are installed, respectively. The 22b.
piezotransducers though holes in their center are fastened to
а) б)
Figure 22. General appearance of guided acoustic antennas
Figure 23. General appearance of a complex for investigations on detection of flaws in the pipeline by guided waves
General appearance of the equipment for investigations An echogram of signals reflected from the pipe end,
with application of low-frequency ultrasonic guided waves in the pipeline welded joints and from models of discontinuities are
pipeline of 48 m length is shown in Figure 8. shown in Figure 9. The echogram was taken using guided wave
of twist mode, which was excited with the help of star-shaped
407
antenna. Resonance frequency of excited signals made 19.4 kHz. as corrosive damages are asymmetric reflectors and so induce
The signals given in the echogram show that pipeline welded conversion of the wave mode that allows differentiating them
joints are symmetric reflectors, therefore, they symmetrically from welded joints.
reflect guided waves back to transducers’ circle. Such reflectors
408
Figure 25. Main types of welded joints carried out when repairing defective pipelines by various technologies
4.2. Repairing pipelines by means of composite materials surface using an appropriate procedure and by operations of
The difficulties regarding the repair of pressurized polishing, grinding or sand blasting in order to round the edges
pipelines using technologies that imply the performance of and smooth the flaws profile, eliminating the possible micro-
welding operations determined the search of repair technological cracks initiated on the flaws and the flaws transformation in long-
solutions without welding, one of these is the application at the radius curvature grooves, with reduced effects of mechanical
outside of pipelines, in the defective areas, of some reinforcing tension concentration; b) pipeline external configuration
wraps made of composite materials. rehabilitation, which consists of filling the outside flaws using a
Composite wrap repair has the structure shown in the polymeric filler; c) pipeline mechanical strength rehabilitation,
Figure 26, and its achievement requires three stages: a) pipeline which consists of applying a composite wrap for reinforcement in
preparation for repair, which consists of cleaning the pipeline the flaws area [8].
Figure 26. The structure of the repairs carried out using composite wraps
The repair procedures with composite material wraps it can be seen examining the data synthesized in Table 5, high
are very efficient, it was ascertained experimentally that the mechanical characteristics. The mechanical strength RmC of these
performed repair works by means of these procedures on composite materials is likely to the one of the steel-types the
pipelines with local defects such as “metal loss” with depths up pipes are made of, but the elastic features (the modulus of
to 80% of the pipe wall thickness, can remake and even increase elasticity EC and the Poisson’s ratio µC) and the elongation at
the mechanical strength of pipelines and can assure a longer failure AC are inferior to those corresponding to the steel-types;
operating life of these. the anisotropy of these materials is now removed by using
The composite materials used nowadays for reinforcement textures (of glass fibres or graphite) with tetraaxial
consolidation wraps for the repair of defective pipelines have, as texture (instead of the usual biaxial texture) [8].
409
Table 5. Mechanical features of the composite materials used for repairing pipelines
This work was supported by Marie Curie Actions, International Control: a historical perspective and a Guided Wave
Research Staff Exchange Scheme, grants number: PIRSES-GA- approach to the future, The 2nd South-East European IIW
2012-318874 of the FP7, project titles: INNOVATIVE International CongressWelding, High-tech Technology in
NONDESTRUCTIVE TESTING AND ADVANCED COMPOSITE 21st century, Pipeline welding: current topic of the
REPAIR OF PIPELINES WITH VOLUMETRIC SURFACE DEFECTS. regionSofia, Bulgaria, October 21st-24th 2010, p. 118-122.
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[7] Paton B. E., Troitsky V. A., Gorbik V. M., Shvydkiy S. A,
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