70758 Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 228 / Monday, November 27, 2000 / Notices

1The final report on this research dated June

2000 is available on the OPS web site, http://

ops.dot.gov.

[FR Doc. 00–30138 Filed 11–24–00; 8:45 am]

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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Research and Special Programs

Administration

[Cooperative Agreement DTRS656–00–H–

0004]

Quarterly Performance Review Meeting

on the Cooperative Agreement ‘‘Better

Understanding of Mechanical Damage

in Pipelines’’

AGENCY: Research and Special Programs

Administration (RSPA), DOT.

ACTION: Notice of meeting.

SUMMARY: RSPA has entered into a

cooperative agreement with the Gas

Research Institute (GRI) to co-fund a two

year research program to identify and

characterizing mechanical damage, the

leading cause of reportable accidents in

both gas and hazardous liquid pipelines,

using the technology of magnetic flux

leakage (MFL) oriented in the

circumferential direction on an in-line

inspection tool. RSPA along with GRI

invite the pipeline industry, in-line

inspection (‘‘smart pig’’) vendors, and

the general public to a quarterly

performance review meeting hosted by

RSPA to report on progress with the

research ‘‘Better Understanding of

Mechanical Damage in Pipelines.’’ The

meeting is open to anyone, and no

registration is required. This work is

being managed by GRI and performed

by Battelle Memorial Institute (Battelle),

along with the Southwest Research

Institute (SwRI). The meeting will cover

a review of the overall project plan, the

status of the contract tasks, progress

made during the past quarter, and

projected activity for the next quarter.

DATES: The quarterly performance

review meeting will be held on

Thursday, December 7, 2000 beginning

at 9 a.m. and ending around 1 p.m.

ADDRESSES: The quarterly review

meeting will be held in room 6244 of

the Department of Transportation

Headquarters Building, 400 7th Street,

SW., Washington, DC. Non-federal

personnel must enter the building

through the southwest entrance at 7th

and E Streets, SW., in order to receive

a temporary building pass.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Lloyd W. Ulrich, Agreement Officer’s

Technical Representative, Office of

Pipeline Safety, telephone: (202) 366–

4556, FAX: (202) 366–4566, e-mail:

lloyd.ulrich@rspa.dot.gov. You may also

contact Harvey Haines, Principal

Investigator, GRI, telephone: (773) 399–

8223, FAX: (773) 864–3495, e-mail:

harvey.haines@gastechnology.org.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

RSPA has entered into a Cooperative

Agreement (Cooperative Agreement

DTRS656–00–H–0004) with the Gas

Research Institute (GRI) to co-fund a two

year research program to identify and

characterizing mechanical damage, the

leading cause of reportable accidents in

both gas and hazardous liquid pipelines,

using the technology of magnetic flux

leakage (MFL) oriented in the

circumferential direction on an in-line

inspection tool.

We plan to conduct public semiannual quarterly performance review

meetings for the duration of this

research. This meeting is the first semiannual one to be conducted to update

the public and interested governmental

parties on the research, such as pipeline

operators, vendors, RSPA technical and

regional staff and the National

Transportation Safety Board. Semiannual meetings in the future will be

held in conjunction with industry

meetings, such as the American

Petroleum Institute Pipeline Conference,

in order to reach a broad audience. We

want the pipeline industry and

especially that segment of the pipeline

industry involved with in-line

inspection to be aware of the status of

this research. The meetings allow

disclosure of the results to interested

parties and provide an opportunity for

interested parties to ask questions

concerning the research. Attendance at

this meeting is open to all and does not

require advanced registration nor

advanced notification to RSPA. Each of

the semi-annual meetings will be

announced in the Federal Register at

least two weeks prior to the meeting.

The quarterly performance review

meetings held between the semi-annual

meetings described above will be held

in conjunction with meetings of the

joint GRI/PRCI Technical Committee.

II. The Research

This research continues work that

DOT supported at Battelle to improve

In-Line Inspection NDE measurements

of mechanical damage and more closely

coordinates work that GRI is supporting

at SwRI to develop a critical assessment

criteria based on these NDE

measurements. This program extends

the work conducted under the DOTfunded contract ‘‘Detection of

Mechanical Damage in Pipelines’’

(Contract DTRS–56–96–C–0010) 1 by

looking at the circumferential magnetic

flux leakage field instead of the

traditional axial field and extends the

critical assessment criteria research to

work with full scale samples that are

being used for MFL measurements. The

goal of the research is to evaluate and

develop techniques for assessing

pipeline metal loss, mechanical damage,

and cracks using circumferential MFL.

These techniques are expected to

complement the techniques used for

axial MFL systems.

The research will extend the failure

assessment methodology for

mechanically damaged pipes to include

the influence of local cold working due

to the gouging/denting process on the

pipe’s remaining life. The program will

combine full scale tests and MFL

monitoring of pipes, laboratory tests and

elastic-plastic finite element analyses to

develop a validated methodology for

determining the remaining life of a

damaged pipe. The proposed SwRI

research will complement the work at

Battelle in developing MFL methods for

detecting and characterizing mechanical

damage.

III. Agenda for the Meeting

The following is the agenda for the

meeting:

‘‘Overview of DOT/GRI project for

finding and characterizing in-line

inspection for mechanical damage’’—

Lloyd Ulrich-DOT (15 min)

‘‘Project History and Impact of the InLine Inspection for Mechanical

Damage.’’—Harvey Haines-GRI (15

min)

‘‘Defect Manufacture and installation’’—

Tom Bubenik-Battelle (30 min)

‘‘Circumferential Magnetizer design and

construction’’—Bruce NestlerothBattelle (30 min)

Break

‘‘Non-Linear Harmonics Measurement

and test set-up’’—Al Crouch-SwRI (30

min)

‘‘Burst test Setup’’—Al Crouch-SwRI (10

min)

‘‘Tool Development for Implementation

in Actual Pipelines’’—Carl TorresTuboscope (30 min)

‘‘Wrap up and comments’’—Ulrich &

Haines (10–15 min)

Issued in Washington, DC on November 20,

2000.

Jeffrey D. Wiese,

Manager, Program Development, Office of

Pipeline Safety.

[FR Doc. 00–30053 Filed 11–24–00; 8:45 am]

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