Pipework Support Surveys

The Importance of Pipework Inspections

Our operational experience (OPEX) shows that poorly maintained or imbalanced pipework systems can lead to significant issues. Regular pipe support surveys are a proven and effective way to identify early signs of failure and minimize associated risks. There are several reasons why these surveys are so important:

• There is a significant industrial safety risk due to the stored energy in sprung pipe supports.
• The commercial impact of pipework failure on the secondary systems can also be significant.
• There are age-related degradation mechanisms for sprung pipe supports. Therefore, the incidence of hanger failures or issues will increase with plant age.
• Failures are contributed to by supports not functioning as designed (due to misalignments, wear, or components becoming bent).
• Supports are engineered to provide specific restraint to pipework, this can be upwards force for sprung supports, but also applies to gaps on limit stops and guides. If gaps are incorrectly set, or not present when they should be, this can damage the pipework.
• Easily detectable issues with pipework hangers such as being out of range (‘topped’ or ‘bottomed’) can lead to pipework failure. High energy pipework failures have severe industrial safety and commercial consequences.
• Dynamic behaviour of the pipework has implications on the structural integrity of its supports (vibration, swaying or transient events).
• Failure of a single pipe support in operation has implications on adjacent pipe supports and components which would take on extra load.
• Maintenance induced adverse conditions can be introduced inadvertently (staff may damage pipe supports, clashes of support components/pipework with scaffolding, or non-removal of temporary pipework fixings/restraints).

Pipework Support Inspection

Our team conducts thorough plant walkdowns to visually inspect the condition of all pipework and pipe supports, meticulously documenting the condition and travel position of constant, variable and rigid types of supports. We assess all load path components and consider potential defects/issues such as:

• End of travel reached – topped/bottomed
• Gagged/restricted supports
• Potential mechanism blockage due to debris
• Broken or distorted components
• Components in poor condition
• Loose or missing nuts, bolts or locknuts
• Misalignment
• Interference/clashing with adjacent pipelines, supports, steelwork or equipment
• Corrosion
• Vibration
• Slumping of pipelines

All observations are noted as part of the survey so that they can be considered against knowledge of plant operations and maintenance procedures to inform recommendations for remedial work.

Pipework supports on high temperature pipework systems may be of particular interest since supports functioning as per their design intent allows for thermal expansion of the pipework without excessively large stresses within the pipework developing. For high temperature systems, survey travel scale position results are used to build a database of movements. This database is reviewed against design movements and any historical data available so our experts can ensure the pipework is operating within design intent and can assess the implications of any observed issues.

Pipework Support Survey Methodology

Our method is grounded in a systematic approach to both inspections and ongoing pipeline monitoring, tailored to the systems in scope, helping to ensure the correct level of inspection is undertaken to maintain pipework integrity. Key stages include:

1. Scoping and Planning: Identify systems that would benefit from pipework support surveys by undertaking research to understand operating conditions and pipework supports in use, identifying suitable inspection intervals to satisfy safety requirements, and compiling the information required (system drawings, support details, etc) to undertake inspections.

2. Plant Surveys: Undertake full surveys of pipework supports in its various operating conditions to determine the condition and movement of the systems.

3. Audit: Undertaken after every plant survey to ensure a high level of quality is maintained. The survey results are subject to an independent audit, which will look at any issues raised in the surveys and a random sampling of the survey results to ensure that the appropriate remedial actions are undertaken.

4. Data Comparison and Trend Monitoring: A database of each surveyed system is created and used to compare the condition and movement of the system over time, comparing initial records against design conditions or calculated theoretical movements and then over time against the historical survey results. This allows long-term pipeline monitoring helping to detect issues early, in turn allowing proactive solutions which prevent failure from occurring.

5. Reporting: A full written report is provided after each survey and audit reviewing the condition of the pipework and deviations from previous surveys. Each report will provide recommendations for remedial work and the effect of completed remedial work, while also acting as a record for any outstanding actions.

6. Remediation Support: Our experts can provide support to the remediation process to ensure the best possible outcome.