Portable Indentation Plastometry for Accurate and Immediate In-Ditch Material Verification

Abstract A new tool has been developed for in-ditch verification of yield strength and tensile strength. The PLX-Portable from Plastometrex utilizes a method termed Profilometry-based Indentation Plastometry (PIP) testing. In 2023, to support its adoption on midstream oil and gas transmission pipelines, the tool was subjected to a period of validation testing in cooperation with several network operators, service providers and the Pipeline Research Council International (PRCI) with the results independently verified by RSI Pipeline Solutions. In this paper, the blind testing data on full-ring sections of pipeline from tests carried out in-yard or in-ditch are presented. The results are compared with those obtained in the initial validation work using various statistical methods favored by different operators for approval of Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) tools on their networks.