Page 130 - Pipeline Pigging Technology

A computerized inspection system

The FORMS screen handler is used to give a consistent and effective interface
to the user. A third-party GKS graphics package was also selected (the
graphical kernal system meets ISO and ANSI standards).
A Pragma 4160 high-resolution dot-matrix printer was selected to produce
hard copy output of the graphical reports and analyses. It is capable of
producing large continuous plots and is a very economical alternative to large
pen plotters. The system was developed using FORTRAN 77 as the program-
ming language and the Prime is run under its native operating system,
PRIMOS.

HOW THE SYSTEM MATCHES UP TO
EXPECTATIONS

CIS-PIPELINE was commissioned during August, 1986. The following few
months were devoted to loading the initial database. Some of the data was
entered manually, including:

construction and environmental data;
major results from inspection and maintenance earlier than 1983: burial
condition, free spans, area inspected.

All the results since 1983 were available on floppy discs, provided by the
contractors. After reformatting, these were loaded onto the system.
The system was successfully used for the 1987 inspection campaign and
most of the initial expectations were met as follows:

Improvement of the awareness of the pipeline condition

Performing analyses was much easier than before, therefore these were
conducted more frequently and were more accurate. As a result, the engi-
neers gained a better knowledge of the pipelines and had more confidence
in the results.
Examples of studies carried out:

trend analysis of burial condition and free spans;
during the summer of 1987, a major review of the Frigg pipelines'
condition over the past ten years was performed. The result of this
study is now-frequently used as a reference.

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