Pipe storage

I was asked a question about the storage of pipe outdoors over an extended period of time.

Just some random thought:

 

This is based on my many-years study of pipelines and physics.

I may have made an error somewhere, so please fact-check everything.

I believe this is mostly correct.

Plug this into Google maps: 42.688208, -73.955254

This is a spread yard for the Constitution Pipeline.

(image below)

This pipe has been sitting there since ~March 2014.

So about 4 years.

How long was it sitting after it was manufactured?

Unknown.

How long will it sit before it is finally used?

Unknown.

So it is possible that this pipe could sit around,

exposed to the elements for a decade before it is finally used.

What most people do not understand,

but rolled steel pipe has both stored

mechanical energy and electro-chemical energy.

Every section of rolled steel pipe wants to destroy itself

from the day it is made. And there are two competing ways it wants

to do that.

The first way is mechanical energy:

Every section of pipe is like a giant spring under tension.

It literally wants to go SPROING! and unwind along helical welds,

just like a roll of Pillsbury dinner rolls.

When pipelines explode, they often unwind like this.

You can see this in images from pipeline failures, like Sissonville WV:

​

The second way rolled steel pipes want to self-destruct is through electro-chemical energy.

Every section of pipe has little batteries all along the surface.

It has negatively charged areas (anodes) and positively charged areas (cathodes).

 

​

Add external water with a dissolved electrolyte, and you have a complete

electrical path. The charged areas of different potential want to equalize.

Through an electro-chemical reaction, the anode will actually

dissolve, it will give up charged molecules of metal.

This is how pipelines corrode and produce wall loss. 

So will a section of steel pipe fail through the release of

mechanical energy, leading to deformation?

Or will it dissolve into dust?

It's a race and only time will tell....

Cathodic Protection systems place "sacrificial anodes" into the ground and

literally spray the area with molecules of metal. This donor anode metal (-)

wants to bind to the cathode areas on the pipe (+) and hopefully spare the

pipe from donating parts of itself as the anode and rust.

Now what they do is coat the outside of the pipe with something called

"Fusion Bond Epoxy". This is an electrical insulator. The idea here is to

make a barrier and break the electrical path and slow corrosion.

But it gets complicated, because the layer of epoxy, which is an electrical insulator,

also creates a capacitor, which is another device which stores an electrical charge!

So every section of pipe is actually made of little batteries in a short-circuit configuration,

and to slow do the pipe from dissolving into dust, they actually create a new problem.

Now that you understand all of this... now examine this massive structure!!

image is from Google Earth:

​

All kinds of questions arise!

I am only smart enough to ask these questions.

I do not have these answers:

1: What kind of effects could a structure like this have upon the Earth?

Could it affect weather? Could it alter the earths magnetic field?

Might the N-S or E-W orientation of the pipe matter?
Could it act like a resonant tank for radio waves of a certain
frequency? 

2: What kind of effects could the Earth (magnetic flux lines, radio waves,

force of gravity/gravity waves, charged areas in clouds) have upon this structure?

Could the Earth's natural fields increase the rate of corrosion?
Could this structure act like a giant transformer?
What if this were struck by lightening?

A structure this large and this contrived IMO could not only increase the rate of

corrosion of the pipe, but it could also produce strange hazards due to it's

electrical-chemical properties. 

Hope these ramblings are helpful... :)

BH

--
William Huston:  WilliamAHuston@gmail.com
Binghamton NY

Public Service Mapping / Videography / Research
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https://www.desmogblog.com/2015/08/03/permits-required-build-transcanada-s-keystone-xl-pipeline-jeopardy-hearings-reveal-missteps


"Precluded from pre-trial evidence were photos of segments of pipe procured for the Keystone XL that were stored at the Gascoyne pipe yard in North Dakota. The interveners were able to introduce the photos during their cross examination of Kothari when she disclosed that the pipe had been purchased by 2011.

At first Kothari claimed the pipe was stored at a few manufacturing facilities, but when questioned about pipe being stored at the Gascoyne pipe yard, she admitted some of it was also at that location.

The photos of the Gascoyne pipe yard show sections of pipeline piled up several layers high and left out in the open. The duration of time the pipes were stored without protection against the elements led the interveners to question the integrity of the pipe materials.

EN Engineering's Schramm testified that the National Association of Pipe Coating Applicators recommends protecting pipe materials left above ground within six months. But Schramm added that Scotch, a,manufacturer, recommends taking measures to protect the pipe within 12-18 months. (Audio of Schramm's relevant testimony at 0:23:15 – 0:29:00 on Saturday Aug. 1)

However, Sabrina King, a member of the Dakota Rural Action group who shot the photos referred to during the hearing, claimed the pipe had been at the Gascoyne yard in North Dakota since December 2010.

King's photos were taken in May of 2013. By August that year, TransCanda did take action and protect the pipe, past both of the recommended times that Schramm mentioned.

"That is 2.5 years of pipe laying out in North Dakota, where the weather is horrendous, before it was fully covered," King told DeSmog.( Audio of Schramm's relevant testimony at 20:30 to 26:00 on Saturday Aug. 1)