THE ROLE OF PROCESS MODELS, FLOW CHARTS AND MATERIAL DATABASES ON THE STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY OF HIGH STRENGTH STEEL PIPELINE SYSTEMS

The lifetime management of different engineering structures and structure elements is one of the important technical-economic problems nowadays. Material databases play important role both on the integrity management and on the engineering critical assessment of the pipeline systems. Material databases collected for general or special purposes and the synergy among the databases can be used to increase the efficiency of the user decisions and the reliability of the lifetime estimation. Different databases were developed for managing different pipeline systems. Data found in standards, in rules, in prescriptions and measured values were integrated in the databases. Additional databases were developed for design calculations and numerical analysis, including physical and plasticity constants of steels, polymers and polymer matrix composites. Theoretical process models were worked out for the decision of managing and assessing typical problems, containing the connections with the different databases. The process models are presented by theoretical flow charts, which can be adapted by potential users for their features. It can be concluded that the applicability of the process models and the flow charts is general; the actual user should add the logical interface between theory and praxis.