NATURE OF DEFECT
The 18” Cooling Water line had suffered from severe external corrosion. This had resulted in a through-wall axial split approximately 200mm long axially and 25mm wide circumferentially. The client requested a composite repair to seal the leak locations and to bring the line back up to its full design specification. After the initial defect was sealed, Metalyte Pipeworks technicians noticed the landing areas for the over wrap were highly corroded and looked to be thin wall. After further inspection by the client it was reported that wall thinning had occurred at the 6 o’clock position over a 4.2m long length.
SOLUTION
Metalyte Pipeworks was asked to design and engineer a composite repair which was capable of sealing the leak at the clamp joint, but also capable of withstanding the high operating and design pressures that the line will see. Metalyte Pipeworks Engineers were able to run FEA analysis on the repair solution in order prove that the repair could easily withstand the high pressures of the system.
REPAIR METHOD
Metalyte technicians began by installing the divert plate over the defect, this was fixed in placed and encapsulated using high strength water activated Titan 505 composite. The technicians then injected a water activated hybrid resin to seal the leaks.
