Estimating the probability of the propagation of stress corrosion cracks in compressor station pipelines

The conditions for the nucleation of stress corrosion cracks in linear and compressor station gas pipeline sections were considered. The potential for the use of pipes with a smaller diameter and a thicker wall in compressor station pipelines to create favorable stressed state conditions that promote the arrest, etching, and stabilization of stress corrosion cracks was shown. The fractographic inspection of pipe fragments with stress corrosion cracks allowed us to reveal an overload that was unrelated to the increase in the internal pressure of the given gas pipeline section. This overload was a major cause of such events as the reinitiation and propagation of stress corrosion cracks to a depth of nearly 50% of the pipe wall thickness. The overload itself was presumably caused by a construction factor connected with the position of a pipe on a pipeline route and its possible deformation (pinching) owing to soil and thermal instabilities.