General Electric Company
Effective area metal loss clustering

Abstract:

A method of in-line inspection of integrity of a pipeline includes identifying a first prospective cluster related to at least a first feature of the pipeline and a second prospective cluster related to at least a second feature of the pipeline. The method includes calculating an effective area using Length Adaptive Pressure Assessment (LAPA) techniques. The effective area corresponds to a lower calculated burst pressure than surrounding areas of the pipeline. LAPA techniques are used to determine if the first prospective cluster interacts with the second prospective cluster. The method includes combining the first and the second prospective cluster when the effective area includes the first and the second prospective cluster to form a resultant cluster. The method further includes generating an indication of an attribute of the resultant cluster.