Analysis of a glass fibre reinforced polyurethane composite repair system for corroded pipelines at elevated temperatures

The present paper is concerned with the analysis of glass fibre reinforced polyurethane repair systems for metallic pipelines with localised corrosion damage that impair the serviceability. The main motivation for the study presented in this paper is the rehabilitation of corroded pipelines conveying produced water in offshore oil platforms. Although the operating pressure of these pipelines is not very high, the water temperature is between 60 and 90°C, which can be a major shortcoming for the use of polymeric material as repair systems. Tensile tests were performed to analyse the temperature dependence of a polyurethane pre-impregnated, bi-directional E-glass fibre composite. Burst tests were carried out to evaluate the performance of composite reinforcements applied to defects machined in pipeline test specimens. Preliminary ideas for a methodology to estimate the failure pressure of a reinforced specimen with arbitrary localised corrosion damage are presented.