QNews Quest

Quarterly

Q1 2011

In this issue:

Unpiggable Pipelines page 1

Upcoming Events page 2

New Website page 3

Acquisition News page 3

Computational Fluid Dynamics page 4

Ultrasonic In-Line In-

spection and Fitness-

for-Service Assess-

ment of Unpiggable

Pipelines

By: Dan Revelle

Pipeline operators have long been aware of the need to man-age and maintain the integrity of their systems. Recent advances and proven deployment of com-pact, highly accurate ultrasonic inspection tools for unpiggable and difficult-to-inspect pipelines, in addition to engineering as-sessment allow operators to ana-lyze and make decisions that affect ongoing reliability. Ad-vanced ultrasonic in-line inspec-tion tools provide accurate, re-peatable, 100% coverage data that can be used to manage pipeline integrity and reliability from cradle to grave.

Quest Integrity Group has developed unique solutions for the inspection and assessment of unpiggable pipelines. InVista™ is an ultrasonic, fully self-contained, free flowing in-line inspection tool, which unlike other systems, pro-vides direct measurement of anomaly characteristics for superior pipeline in-tegrity assessment. These tools detect internal and external corrosion in addi-tion to the dimensional change in diffi-cult configurations including 1-D bends. The tools are easily launched, have the ability to pass through tight diameter bends, are bi-directional and provide high resolution measurement data of axial position, geometry and wall thick-ness. Fitness-for-service assessment is a mul-ti-disciplinary approach to evaluate structural components to determine, as the name suggests, if they are fit for continued service. Pipelines may con-

tain flaws or other damage, or may be subject to more severe operating condi-tions than the original design anticipat-ed. Our LifeQuest™ Pipeline assess-ment solution utilizes the API 579-1/ASME FFS-1 Fitness-for-Service meth-odology to deliver an assessment of the pipeline for continued operation at de-fined maximum allowable operating pressure (MAOP). An evaluation of re-maining life and/or inspection intervals may also be part of such an assess-ment. Quest Integrity’s standard deliver-able – including the InVista™ in-line in-spection, collected data set and analy-sis, and the LifeQuest™ Pipeline-driven API 579-1/ASME FFS-1 engineering assessment – empowers the operator with an understanding of total line condi-tion as well as individual priorities within the line (B31G-2009 recognizes API 579 Level 2 as equivalent to the B31G Effec-tive Area Method).♦

Quest Quarterly– Q1 2011 Page 2

Upcoming Events

By: Lilly Darnell

Quest Integrity Group will be exhibiting at several upcoming events. Please visit us at our booth and consider attending our informative presentations.

FEBRUARY

Clarion Pipeline Pigging & Integrity Management Conference Marriott Westchase Hotel, Houston, TX February 14-17,2011 www.clarion.org/ppim/ppim11/main.php Booth #112 Dan Revelle of Quest Integrity Group and Taylor Shie of DNV will be co-presenting: “Independent Validation of In-Line In-spection Performance Specifications.”

Nitrogen + Syngas Conference Hilton Hotel, Dusseldorf, Germany February 21-24, 2011 http://crugroup.com/Events/NitrogenandSyngas/Pages/nitrogenandsyngas2011.aspx Booth #27 Rich Roberts of Quest Integrity Group will be presenting: "Enhanced Steam Reformer Tube In-spection and Remaining Life Assess-ment Methodologies."

MARCH

NISTM International Aboveground Storage Tank Conference Rosen Shingle Creek Hotel, Orlando, FL March 1-3, 2011 www.nistm.org/13th_annualOrlando_AST2011/13th_annualOverview.html Booth # 427 Devon Brendecke of Quest Integrity Group will be presenting:

"Capitalizing on Your Advanced Engi-neering Assessment Options."

IPEIA 15th Annual Conference The Banff Centre, Banff, Alberta, Cana-da March 2-4, 2011 www.ipeia.com/ Booth # 6

NACE Corrosion Management Confer-ence: Pipeline Corrosion George R. Brown Conference Center, Houston, TX March 13-17, 2011 events.nace.org/conferences/c2011/index.asp Booth #1141 Jozef Soltis of Quest Integrity Group will be presenting: “Effect of Cathodic Polarization on Pit-ting and Metastable Behaviour of High Purity Aluminium”

CEATI International Conference Ceasar’s Palace, Las Vegas, NV March 15-16, 2011 http://www.ceati.com/Meetings/DS2011/ Booth #1

—PLATINUM SPONSOR— Clarion Unpiggable Pipeline Solutions Forum Marriott Westchase Hotel, Houston, TX March 30-31, 2011 www.clarion.org/UPS_Forum/ups2011/index.php Booth #2 Dan Revelle of Quest Integrity Group will be presenting: “Inspection Methodologies and Tradeoffs

for Inspection of Unpiggable Pipelines.”

APRIL

Pipeline Technology Conference Hannover Convention Center, Hannover, Germany April 4-5, 2011 http://www.pipeline-conference.com/ Dan Revelle will be presenting: “Advanced Assessment of Pipeline In-tegrity Using ILI Data.”

ASME Plant Engineering, Inspection and Maintenance Tradeshow Pasadena Convention Center, Pasade-na, TX April 14, 2011 SynGas Association Conference Tulsa Marriott Southern Hills, Tulsa, OK April 25-27, 2011 www.syngasassociation.com/index.html

Rich Roberts of Quest Integrity Group will be presenting: "Enhanced Steam Reformer Tube In-spection and Remaining Life Assess-ment Methodologies."♦

Quest Quarterly– Q1 2011 Page 3

New Quest Integrity

Group Website

By: Lilly Darnell & Margo Reyna

Our new website, www.QuestIntegrity.com, was launched in October 2010. The updated site rep-resents the completion of our brand con-solidation efforts. Our advanced inspec-tion (formerly Quest TruTec) and engi-neering assessment (formerly Quest Re-liability) business units are now divisions under Quest Integrity Group. The site features a new layout for more intuitive navigation, as well as a more streamlined and updated look. You can learn about our unique inspection technologies and engineering capabili-ties with downloadable versions of bro-chures, case studies, technical papers, and published articles. ♦

Click here to see recent published arti-cles Click here to see recent technical papers

Click here to see our client testimonials

Team, Inc. Acquisition

By: Margo Reyna

In November 2010, Quest Integrity Group was acquired by Team, Inc. (NASDAQ: TISI). Quest Integrity contin-ues to operate as a separate entity aligned with Team’s inspection services division. All of Quest Integrity’s manage-ment team continues to lead the compa-ny in the delivery of our advanced in-spection and engineering assessment services and software products. “We are excited about the synergies and new opportunities created by this strate-gic initiative, which combines our ad-vanced services and products portfolio with Team’s extensive field service capa-bility,” said Milton Altenberg, Quest In-tegrity CEO. The company will retain the Quest Integ-rity name and all business functions in-cluding operations, sales, contracts and administration will remain autonomous and continue to function as they do to-day. Contracts, pre-qualifications, insur-ance policies and certificates, and ven-dor master setups are unaffected and remain intact. “There are numerous advantages for our clients, and perhaps the most notable is that they will continue to receive the same high quality services and products on a larger scale, and do not need to change anything in their systems to facil-itate current and future projects,” said Rich Roberts, Vice President Inspection Division.

We remain committed to health, safety

and environmental responsibility and will

continue to maintain active certifications

and/or relationships with organizations

including Houston Area Safety Council,

VCA/Tüv Rheinland, CanQual, ISNet-

world, PEC Premier and PICS.♦

To learn more about Team, click on the

logo below:

Sign up for the Quest

Quarterly Newsletter!

Click below to sign up online

or email marketing@questintegrity.com We welcome your comments and sug-gestions and encourage you to forward our newsletter to any interested col-leagues.

Quest Quarterly– Q1 2011 Page 4

Computational Fluid

Dynamics

By: Bruno Fletcher, M.Sc. and

Greg Brown, Ph.D.

Quest Integrity Group has added com-putational fluid dynamics (CFD) to our available engineering technologies. This capability complements our exist-ing structural analysis and fracture me-chanics expertise. CFD deals with the numerical simulation of fluid flow, and Quest Integrity uses the Star-CCM+ CFD environment for our flow model-ing needs. Star-CCM+ is a validated state-of-the-art CFD solver capable of handling complex flow simulations that involve:

Incompressible and compressible fluids

Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids

Multiphase flows

Combustion and heat transfer

Low through porous media

Fluid/solid interaction problems (thermal and stress)

Quest Integrity has recently purchased a 16 processor Linux cluster with 60 GB of RAM. This cluster is capable of running very large CFD and structural models (up to 60 million cells), and is capable of obtaining results within a fraction of the time that would be re-quired to run a large simulation on a desktop computer. Quest Integrity is primarily interested in using CFD to predict the thermal load-ing (temperatures and heat transfer coefficients) of a given hardware com-ponent that is embedded within, or contains the flow field. These loads are then generally mapped onto an Abaqus finite element model where further structural assessment is per-formed. Star-CCM+ has the capability of directly exporting both thermal and pressure loads onto any Abaqus struc-tural model. This removes the need for guess work or assumptions of the fluid-induced loadings when setting up their structural models. CFD analysis can also be applied to problems such as

flow induced vibration, corrosion and erosion. Typical applications where Quest In-tegrity has applied this technology are turbine rotor and blade life assessment based on CFD analysis of the hot gas path and cooling flows (see Figure 1), flow induced erosion inside a heat ex-changer, and design of a corrosion testing rig for a geothermal plant. Recently, we used Star-CCM+ and Abaqus in a multi-million dollar litiga-tion case involving the premature fail-ure of a piece of critical equipment in a refinery. For this project, Star-CCM+ was used to determine the tempera-ture distribution of the components that failed. The CFD model included the hot gas path within the machinery, the modeling of combustion of the hydro-carbons, the use of porous media to simulate the flow through repeating hardware geometry patterns, and the detailed geometry of the internal com-ponents which failed. The resulting CFD-predicted hardware temperatures were then mapped onto an Abaqus model where further structural failure analysis was performed on each com-ponent. The advanced analysis tech-niques integrated with our materials engineering expertise gave our client an advantage over the opposing side’s experts.

This analysis played a key role in reaching a successful legal settlement for our client. In fact, our client was so satisfied and impressed with our analy-sis that they recently contracted Quest Integrity to use the CFD models to as-sist in the redesign of the internal com-ponents that failed. The successful outcome of this and other projects has greatly enhanced our market reach as an innovator in engineering assess-ment, computational mechanics and failure investigation.♦