Da, da, but deed not leek, no? Is good weld, da? Wat next?
SF- You never had any experience at the Kubaka Gold Mine in 96 did you?
Guess what? I have worked on some rehab projects here in the good old USA and have seen just as bad and even worse in some cases. Mostly stuff put in prior to 1965. It seems that prior to that welding had began to improve but gas and oil companies began to realize that these lines could last a long time. The oldest rehab job I was ever on was a line that was put in in 1942 as a war efforts gas line supplying gas to some factories building various pieces of equipment for WW-II. As poor as the welds were, as poorly as the line was installed, and how the pipe and attachments were made, the line had never had a failure. It did leak a few times but nothing catastrophic. I have seen 24" pipe welds with 100% hi-lo in the line up operating at 850 PSIG, arc strikes all over the pipe and even the welder's initials welded on the surface of the pipe. I've seen them only half finished and some with only a root bead and hot pass in them operating at high pressures.
Most of these pipeline welds operate well with some tremendous defects in them. The stand hoop stress very well but longitudinal stresses, cyclic loading, and stress caused from 3rd party damage are tough obstacles to overcome.
You probably drive over some of these welds in the buried pipelines everyday. Strength is relative. Poor welds are probably stronger than the material they join together. But I, just as you, realize there are limits.
It leaks & blows out too.
