The remote nature of long-distance pipelines can expose them to a range of external loads. Earthquakes, landslides, sea bed movement, ship anchor drags, permafrost, flooding, third party damage, construction and backfill all have the potential to locally deflect a pipeline from its as built position. While steel pipelines exhibit small amounts of inherent ductility, any deflection from the design centre-line will impart an increased level of strain into the material. Too much deflection can cause buckling, wrinkles, damage at weld or defect locations and ultimately, failure. While the incidence of natural force damage is comparatively low, the consequences are far greater. Natural force damage only equates to 8% of significant incidents but causes 34% of all property damage. This is because these incidents tend to result in pipeline rupture rather than leakage, hence greater spill volumes, longer downtime and increased property and environmental damage.
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