A steel-reinforced plastic connector with mechanical seals for field welding of steel pipelines with plastic pipe liners.
1. Introduction
Thermoplastic or thermosetting plastic pipe liners are frequently used in conjunction with
carbon steel pipe to protect the latter from internal corrosion and/or to prevent contamination
of the transported fluid with corrosion by-products. Carbon steel is a highly desirable material
for building pipelines due to its strength and ductility but lacks corrosion resistance to transport
aggressive media. Thermoplastic or thermosetting plastic materials are highly desirable for
building pipelines due to their corrosion-resistant properties but lack the strength to resist high
pressures. Combining both by pulling plastic pipe liners through carbon steel pipes makes the
best characteristics of both materials complement each other and has been widely used to
prevent internal corrosion of steel pipelines.
Carbon steel pipes with plastic pipe liners provides the optimal solution for safely
transporting most hazardous liquids and aggressive slurries. The strength and ductility of carbon
steel pipes combined with the corrosion and abrasion resistance of relatively thick thermoplastic
or thermosetting plastic pipe liners ensure that the resulting high-pressure composite pipelines
last a very long time.
However, a welded joint solution that protects the weld zone of carbon steel pipes with
plastic pipe liners and permits a fast and economical joint assembly has eluded the industry for
a long time. Methods used to date include the use of corrosion-resistant alloy (CRA) connectors
that place the plastic pipe liner far enough away from the carbon steel weld zone to prevent heat
from damaging the liner, or thermoplastic connectors that utilize insulation and/or air gap to
prevent heat from damaging the thermoplastic liner at the weld zone. In the case of the latter, it
is required the electrofusion weld of the connector to the plastic pipe liner in the pipe, which
may be complex and time consuming.
In offshore pipeline construction, the extra time at each welded joint does not slow down
construction much with reel-lay vessels, due to the fact that there are relatively few joints to be
welded offshore. However, J-Lay and S-Lay vessels are often desirable or required for some
projects and the industry has been in need of a faster welded joint assembly process.
SealSleeve™ system, the welded joint sealing system described in this paper avoids both
CRA welding and the plastic electrofusion process, by using a steel-structured thermoplastic or
thermosetting plastic connector that is mechanically sealed to the plastic pipe liner in the carbon
steel pipe. The mechanical seal is self-energizing: sealing pressure increases proportionally to
the pipeline pressure. It is designed to withstand the same pressure as the carbon steel pipe.
SealSleeve™ system bridges the plastic pipe liners through the weld zone of the carbon steel
pipe with a steel-structured plastic connector and utilizes a highly repeatable and proven sealing
technology to ensure the continuity of the plastic pipe liner protection through the welded joints.
Offshore installation time is a matter of seconds per joint, and onshore installations no longer
have to use expensive and leak-prone mechanical joints.
2. Basic design of the welding joint system
In order to make the mechanical seal of the SealSleeve™ system to work properly, it is
required that the sealing surfaces on the plastic pipe liner and on the steel-structured plastic
connector do not move relative to each other. This is achieved by locking the plastic pipe liner
to the carbon steel pipe wall, at a specified distance from the weld bevel. Without this, a
mechanical seal would not be possible, as the plastic pipe liner would be free to move inside
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Rio Pipeline Conference & Exhibition, 2023. | ISSN 2447-2069 2
José Anisio de Oliveira e Silva, Ryan Sears
the carbon steel pipe, due to thermal expansion/contraction, pipe bending, internal pressures,
etc., breaking the mechanical seal to the steel-structured plastic connector.
Locking of the plastic pipe liner to the steel pipe is achieved by first connecting a steel
locking ring to a machined recess in the OD of the plastic pipe liner. This can be made either
by welding a pre assembled plastic pipe liner terminal to the ends of a plastic pipe liner or by
machining the ends of a plastic pipe liner. Thermofusion or electrofusion welding of a pre
assembled plastic pipe liner terminal can be used with thermoplastic pipe liners, while
machining the ends of the plastic pipe liners can be used with either thermoplastic or
thermosetting plastic pipe liners. In both cases, a seat for the aforementioned mechanical seal
on of the steel-structured plastic connector is created on the ends of the plastic pipe liner.
Fastening the locking ring to the plastic pipe liner OD is done during or before the insertion of
the plastic pipe liner into the carbon steel pipe, which in the case of offshore pipelines, would
be performed at an onshore spool base. Figure 1 shows steel locking ring installed on one end
of the plastic pipe liner.
Figure 1 – Steel locking ring installed on one end of the plastic pipe liner
Source: Produced by the authors
After the plastic pipe liner is inserted into the carbon steel pipe, a proprietary method is
used to position its ends at the proper distance to the carbon steel pipe weld bevel and to create
an interference fit of the locking ring to the carbon steel pipe wall. Testing of the resistance of
the locking ring to movement has proven that this resistance is more than enough to prevent the
liner from moving inside the carbon steel pipe under the longitudinal forces generated by
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A steel-reinforced plastic connector with mechanical seals for field welding of steel pipelines with plastic pipe liners.
thermal expansion/contraction, pipe bending or internal pressure. Figure 2 shows the locking
ring installed on the end of the plastic pipe liner inserted into the carbon steel pipe.
Figure 2 – Steel locking ring installed on the end of the plastic pipe liner inserted into the carbon steel pipe
Source: Produced by the authors
The steel-structured plastic connector is constructed of a thermoplastic or thermosetting
plastic material which may be different from the material in the plastic pipe liner. A metal sleeve
provided with thermal insulation material behind it is placed around the exterior central portion
of the plastic connector. The carbon steel pipe girth weld takes place directly on top of the metal
insulating sleeve and the thermal insulation material prevents the welding heat from damaging
the steel-structured plastic connector. The metal sleeve is provided with a central recess
intended to avoid it to be welded into the root pass of the carbon steel pipe girth weld. In this
way, the installation of the steel-structured plastic connector does not interfere with the fatigue
life of the carbon steel pipeline, which may be an issue in offshore installations.
The ends of the steel-structured plastic connector are machined to mate the ends of the
plastic liner pipe, and to accept mechanical elastomeric sealing means that seal between the
ends of the steel-structured plastic connector and the ends of the plastic pipe liner. O-ring seals
are the mechanical elastomeric sealing means of choice due to their simplicity, reliability and
excellent track record in the most demanding applications. Figure 3 shows the steel-structured
plastic connector and the seats for the mechanical elastomeric sealing means.
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José Anisio de Oliveira e Silva, Ryan Sears
Figure 3 – Steel-structured plastic connector
Source: Produced by the authors
The steel-structured plastic connector is easily and quickly installed just before the
offshore girth weld of the carbon steel pipe is performed. In a typical offshore construction
project, the plastic pipe liner installation and the locking the locking ring to the carbon steel
pipe wall are done on a spool base onshore, preparing lined carbon steel pipe stalks ready for
joint assembly and welding on the lay vessel, where a steel-structured plastic connector is
inserted into the lined carbon steel pipe ends to bridge the space between the mating ends of the
plastic pipe liners. Figure 4 shows the carbon steel welded joint assembly and the relation of
the steel-structured plastic connector to the plastic pipe liners locked in position into the carbon
steel pipe.
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A steel-reinforced plastic connector with mechanical seals for field welding of steel pipelines with plastic pipe liners.
Figure 4 – Welded joint assembly
Source: Produced by the authors
3. In-house testing
In-house tests have proven that the SealSleeve™ system prevents liquids from reaching
the bare steel behind the steel-structured plastic connector. To perform the test, a joint was
assembled per the process described above and inserted into a hydrostatic test jig with two blind
flanges on each end. Special seals were used to seal the outside of the plastic pipe liners to the
inside of the carbon steel pipes and O-ring seals were used to seal the opposite ends of the
carbon steel pipes against the face of the blind flanges. A small hole was drilled through the
pipe wall in the location of the steel-structured plastic connector.
The assembly was pressurized in stages to 500 bar (7,252 psi) and held for one hour. The
pressure was subsequently brought back to atmospheric pressure and then re-pressurized to 500
bar. No water leaked from the hole in the pipe wall during the course of the hydrostatic test,
indicating that water did not leak past the mechanical seals. Figure 5 shows the hydrostatic test
jig used to perform the test.
A test was performed to ascertain the force that the locking rings could withstand when
installed and interference fit with the pipe wall. A hydraulic press was used to attempt to
dislodge the locking rings from their place. The test proved that, for the diameter tested, the
locking ring could withstand more than 30 tons of force without moving from its installed
location in the pipe.
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Rio Pipeline Conference & Exhibition, 2023. | ISSN 2447-2069 6
José Anisio de Oliveira e Silva, Ryan Sears
Figure 5 - Hydrostatic Test Jig
Source: Produced by the authors
Various weld tests were performed that proved the thermoplastic material of the
connector to be unaffected by the heat from the girth weld. A destructive weld test was
performed to ascertain the resistance of the material of the steel-structured plastic connector to
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A steel-reinforced plastic connector with mechanical seals for field welding of steel pipelines with plastic pipe liners.
extreme weld heat. In this test holes were drilled through the steel-structured plastic connector
and thermocouples inserted through the holes to measure the temperature exposure to the
exterior of the plastic material. The girth weld was performed with maximum heat input, with
no delay between passes, and without any method to chill the assembly during welding. The
steel-strutured plastic connector used in this test was also less than half the width of the
connector normally used – meaning that the insulation material was also less than half the
normal width and bringing the plastic material much closer to the weld zone than normal. Figure
6 shows the destructive weldng heat test
Figures 6 - Destructive welding heat test
Source: Produced by the authors
The temperature near each end of the steel-strutured plastic connector- which is where it would
seal against the seats on the plastic pipe liner in the carbon steel pipe - reached an average
maximum temperature of 110°C with an anomalous location registered at 130°C. The plastic
material at the mechanical seal location was afterward visually inspected. Some signs of melting
were seen on the exterior of the steel-structured plastic connector where it touched the hot pipe
steel, but the seal seat and interior appeared unaffected. It is important to note that this was a
destructive test to actually try to damage the thermoplastic material of the connector.
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José Anisio de Oliveira e Silva, Ryan Sears
Chart 2 - Temperature recordings of thermocouples during destructive weld test
Source: Produced by the authors
4. Final remarks
The SealSleeve™ system provides a fast, cost-efficient, highly repeatable means for
protecting from corrosion the weld zone of carbon steel pipe with thermoplastic or
thermosetting plastic pipe liners. It avoids the costly and time-consuming tasks of CRA welding
or thermoplastic electrofusion of plastic sleeves associated with other welded joint systems and
makes it economically feasible to construct carbon steel pipelines with thermoplastic or
thermosetting plastic pipe liners with S-Lay and J-Lay vessels. It also opens the possibility of
using specialty plastic liners for transport of high temperature sour oil and gas where more
welded joint connectors are required than with traditional HDPE or PEx pipe liners.
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