Technical REport

Corrosion Protection

Rehabilitation of Corrosion
Protective Coatings on Buried Steel
Pipelines
By Michael Schad

Large oil- and gas-pipeline-networks have been installed with diverse coating systems over the last 50 years. The
rehabilitation of those pipelines – and their corrosion protective coatings – has now become a topical challenge.
Different advanced materials have been used for rehabilitation of pipe coatings since the beginning of 1929. The
experiences are as versatile as the products being used – petrolatum, bitumen, coal tar, sintering processes, PE/Butyl
tapes, FBE, liquid coatings and shrink sleeves.
In the following a short overview of coating materials to be recently rehabilitated and the respective solution will be
presented. Special focus will be laid on the newly designed tape system DENSOLEN® AS50/R20HT by DENSO.

Introduction Due to the corrosion damages of gas distribution systems

In 1595 the oldest known industrial pipeline in the world and pipelines, rehabilitation during the global industrialisation
was constructed in Austria. It transported saline solution for became a major issue. Over the last decades the quest for the
40 km from Hallstadt to Ebensee. At that time rehabilitation best coating – or rehabilitation material – became more and
was a quite simple affair. As the pipeline was made of 13,000 more complex since the requirements of corrosive and me-
trunks, one simply had to cut down a tree, hollow it and re- chanical protection of pipelines increased.
place the defect section.
The necessity of more light in the streets of Berlin/Ger-
many grew around 1900 with the increasing traffic on the Current Coatings to be Rehabilitated
streets. Due to its special design and structure, the exist- Due to the technical development of the factory or mill coat-
ing Berlin Gas Distribution System could also be used as re- ings of pipelines over the last decades different types of coat-
mote switching for the street lighting. The danger of leakage ing systems have been applied to pipelines. If onshore pipe-
and corrosion grew with the expansion of the Berlin Gas Dis- lines are excavated today due to results of ultrasonic inspec-
tribution System, reaching its widest expansion in 1929. At tion, most of the mill and joint coatings are of coal tar, bitu-
that time, the worldwide first passive corrosion prevention for men, two-ply tapes made of PVC with hotmelt or bitumen
pipelines was invented by DENSO with the Petrolatum Tape. adhesives or two ply tapes made of PE with hotmelt or butyl

Figure 1: Bitumen coated pipeline Figure 2: Bitumen coated storage tank

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 Table 1: Environmental stresses and their influence on
coating materials

Loads Requirements
Water Vapour impermeability

Corrosion Oxygen Oxygen impermeability

rubber adhesives. Liquid coatings or shrink sleeves are rather
defects are Chemical impermeability
new corrosion prevention technologies which have been ap- caused by Electrolyte
Impermeability of ions
plied over a shorter period of time and therefore rehabilita-
Stray electrical current Electrical isolation
tion experiences have only just started to contribute to the
development of market trends. Impact at transport
Impact resistance
and application
Loads at transport and
Coal Tar and Bitumen Based Coatings application
Indentation resistance
Coal tar and bitumen coatings (see figure 1 and figure 2) are
Indentation resistance
rather old types of coatings, but are still in use in some coun- Compacting of soil Peel strength
tries over the world, such as India. Very often these coatings Lap Shear resistance
got brittle, resulting in the formation of crevices and cracks Coating defects
Pipe movement in soil Lap Shear resistance
caused by
and a significant decrease in adhesion to the steel surface. Sunlight UV-Stability
The risk of corrosion increases. Protective current voltages
Aggressive soil, high
for old coal tar or bituminous coatings often exceed by far levelled operating
Ageing resistance,
Chemical resistance
values which are acceptable for an economically operated temperatures
cathodic protection. High protective current voltages result Microbiological resistance
Micro-organism
in the formation of H2 and therefore increase the corrosion. Unsuitable application
Easy and secure
application methods

Two-ply Tape Systems (PVC- and PE-Tapes)

In most of the cases where tape coatings on pipelines have to
be rehabilitated two-ply tape systems are involved. Main rea-
sons for their failure are low quality material properties and
a general drawback of the coating system most often com- sible penetration path for water and oxygen, increasing the
bined with false application. probability of corrosion.
Particularly for PVC and bitumen based tapes intrinsic ma- Factory or mill coatings are intended to provide a maxi-
terial drawbacks are the main reason for coating failures. mum of mechanical and corrosive protection, while the meth-
As PVC is a rather brittle material, tapes made of PVC con- od of application is not under the main focus. The mill coating
tain to a certain extend plasticizer agents. During the lifetime can be applied independent of environmental influences and
of a pipe-coating these plasticizers diffuse out of the PVC human factor. Field coatings are confronted not only with the
carrier film. This results in an embrittlement of the carrier film required mechanical and corrosive protection of at least the
and a decrease of adhesion, when the plasticizers accumulate same quality as the corresponding mill coating, but also with
in the interface of the adhesive to the steel surface. Due to material properties of easy application and tolerability to ap-
this effect only minor residues of the tape remain on the pipe plication faults under changing conditions on site.
surface when the pipe is excavated after years of service – Due to the versatility of application for field coating sys-
the mechanical and corrosive protection is no longer in place. tems, general worldwide standards for all materials do not
Also PE and butyl rubber based two-ply tapes, which gen- exist. German and European Standards for corrosion field
erally did not suffer from such material drawbacks, failed as coating materials are among the highest in the world and ap-
well. The reason for an unsuitability of two-ply tapes for cor- plied in several countries worldwide. The relevant standards
rosion prevention purposes is the very high risk of spiral cor- DIN 30672 and EN 12068 for field coating materials differ-
rosion. entiate into three mechanical stress classes (A, B and C) and
Corrosion protective coatings have to provide a prima- three operating temperature classes (up to 30° C, up to 50°
ry protection, which is achieved by covering the entire met- C, and HT (high temperatures)).
al surface with a material that prevents the condensation of
water on the steel surface. Suitable materials for covering and Self-Amalgamating Three-ply Tapes
sealing the whole surface are permanently plastic compounds At first sight it seems contradictory to recommend tape sys-
(petrolatum, butyl rubber) as well as rigid compounds (poly- tems for the rehabilitation of pipeline coatings, when the re-
urethane, epoxy resins), which also prevent the interdiffusion furbishment measures have become necessary due to the
or penetration of water and oxygen. failure of a tape system originally applied to the pipe surface.
Two-ply tapes generally contain a carrier film that is coat- Yet it has to be clearly distinguished between two-ply
ed with an adhesive on only one side. Due to this structure tapes and real co-extruded self-amalgamating three-ply
two-ply tapes can provide certain primary protection against tapes. The latter one contain a carrier film of stabilised poly-
corrosion, because of their adhesion to the steel surface, when ethylene, which is coated with a butyl rubber adhesive on both
supported by a primer paint. But the sealing properties in the sides. Carrier films of co-extruded 3-ply tapes are manu­
overlapping areas of two-ply tape systems can not completely factured with a intermediate adhesive layers, ensuring that
prevent the penetration of corrosive agents. In the remaining no clearly defined interface remains between carrier film and
and clearly defined interface between the layers of a two-ply adhesive layer. When three-ply tapes are wrapped spiral-
tape system micro channels may exist. This facilitates a pos- ly around a pipe, the adhesive layers self-amalgamate in the

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Corrosion Protection

overlap areas, forming a homogenous sleeve type coating without tion in the overlap areas, resulting in a completely sealed,
any remaining interface (figure 3). impermeable and sleeve-type coating.
The self-amalgamation process (figure 4) and the “free of
cavities”-sealing of the steel surface is based on an important prop- Pipeline Rehabilitation “Isarschiene” Germany
erty of the butyl rubber: from a physical point of view, butyl rubber is In autumn of 2003 segments of a 27 years old pipeline
more a liquid than a solid. In the overlap area molecules of the former- (“Isarschiene”, running from Moosburg to Straubing/Germa-
ly different layers migrate into each other layer. After a certain period ny, owned by Erdgas Südbayern (ESB)) had to be excavated
of time the originally existing interface has disappeared (figure 5). for bypassing. This offered the unique opportunity for assess-
A high percentage of negative experiences with two-ply tape ment of the mill coating and field joint coating performance.
coatings in the past originate from the effect of spiral corrosion, The field joints of the polyethylene factory coated pipeline
which is shown in figure 6. In the remaining and clearly defined inter- had been wrapped with four layers of co-extruded self-amal-
face between the layers of a two-ply tape system micro channels ex- gamating three-ply DENSOLEN® tape in 1976. At the time
ist, which facilitate a possible penetration path for water and oxygen. of construction of the pipeline in 1976 this four layer coat-
After some time of operation of the pipeline, the incompletely ing system was in accordance with the DVGW-leaflet GW7,
sealed tape overlaps inevitably lead to spiral corrosion followed by which was the valid technical specification for field coatings
complete undermining corrosion. at that time. When excavated in 2003 all field joint coatings
Compared to two-ply tapes, no interface or penetration paths applied in 1976 showed no failure of the coating system and
remains in overlapping zones of high-performance co-extruded the steel surface presented itself like new. This is by far the
three-ply tapes. The outstanding feature of co-extruded three-ply best reference for a coating system – 27 years in operation
tapes and their layer of butyl rubber is its ability of self-amalgama- without any mechanical or corrosive impact. Although today‘s

Table 2: Standards for passive corrosion field coating

material

Standard Scope Issue

DIN 30672 Coatings from tapes and heat shrinkable 12-2000
materials (for pipes with operating
temperatures up to +50 °C without
cathodic protection)
ISO 21809-3 Coatings for transit pipelines 12-2008
EN 10289 Steel pipes and fittings fur burried or 08-2004
immersed pipelines – epoxy coatings
EN 10290 Steel pipes and fittings fur burried or 08-2004
Figure 3: Sealing by self-amalgamation: immersed pipelines – polyurethane and
modified polyurethane coatings
co-extruded three-ply tapes
EN 10329 Field coatings for welded joints of burried 04-2006
steel pipes
EN 12068 Coatings from tapes and heat shrinkable 03-1999
materials (for burried pipes with cathodic
protection)

Table 3: Stress classes according to EN 12068 [3]

Figure 4: Self-amalgamation process
Stress- Petrolatum- Bitumen- Plastic- Heat
class Tapes Tapes Tapes Shrinkable
Materials
A-30 + + n.a. n.a.
B-30 – + + n.a.
B-50 – n.a. + +
C-30 – – + +
C-50 – – + +

Figure 5: Incom- + well suited

pletely sealed tape n.a. not applicable
overlap of two-ply - not suited
tape wrapping

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corrosion protection standards and stress-classes had been
further developed since 1976, this co-extruded self-amal-
gamating three-ply tape-system developed in 1976 would
even fulfil today’s requirements of stress-class C-50 – more
than 35 years later.
Tape coating systems for rehabilitation of pipelines should
in any case involve at least two layers of a co-extruded three-
ply tape or butyl rubber tape to make use of a homogeneous,
nearly impermeable layer within the new coating. This self- Figure 6:
amalgamating tape could be combined with several supple- Spiral corrosion
mentary tapes and primer coatings to obtain a maximum me-
chanical and corrosion protective performance on differently
prepared steel surfaces.
As a minimum requirement to avoid spiral corrosion, the
inner wrap tape (or corrosion protection tape) should always
be of a co-extruded three-ply structure with butyl rubber
adhesive layers on both sides of a PE carrier-film. This inner
wrap can then be covered with a mechanical protection tape
as an outer wrap tape.
Among the above presented structures of 3-ply tapes
(figure 8), the asymmetrical tape is to be preferred, because
its thick inner adhesive layer ensuring better filling of sur- Figure 7: Cross sectional view of a one-tape and a two-tape system
face irregularities and potential hollows. Furthermore state-
of-the-art asymmetrical corrosion prevention tapes like the
DENSOLEN®-Tapes AS39P or AS50 have a four-ply structure,
containing an additional layer between carrier film and adhe-
sive. This intermediate layer is co-extruded from a blend of
butyl rubber and polyethylene and thus ensures a homoge-
nous transition from butyl rubber to PE. Due to the unique pro-
duction technology of co-extrusion of 3-ply tapes, the well
asymmetrical symmetrical
known delamination effect of non-co-extruded tapes, and re-
sulting failure of the protection system, is avoided (figure 9).
Figure 8: Cross sectional view of a 3-ply corrosion
prevention tape
Pipeline Rehabilitation Case Study
South Africa
Sections of one of the major pipelines in South Africa had to
undergo a rehabilitation in 2012. Several failures in the fac-
tory or mill coating lead to the following definition of the re-
quired properties for the new rehabilitation coating:
Ease of handling and application
Good adhesion
Figure 9: Delamination
effect during peel-test of
UV resistance non-co-extruded tapes
Resistance to cathodic disbondment
High insulating properties
High resistance to indentation/penetration
Resistance to bacterial attack
Minimum shielding of CP current DENSOLEN® AS50 was originally designed for an “in-one-go
Ease of inspection during application wrapping”. With one wrapping turn, with only an overlap of 50%,
the operator will achieve already the stress class B 50.
After investigating and testing of different coating sys- In combination with the white coloured two-ply outer tape DEN-
tems, the pipeline operator decided in favour of a new de- SOLEN® R20HT a structure will be applied which will by far exceed
veloped cold applied co-extruded tape system according to even the highest stress class C 50 according to EN 12068.
the standard EN 12068. With a three-ply tape inner layer and To ensure a constant tape tension and required tape overlap, the
a two-ply tape outer layer, 50% overlapping and a total coat- tape wrapping was carried out with hand wrapping machines, suitable
ing thickness of 3.2 mm, the DENSOLEN®/BUTYLEN AS50/ to the tape system. By using tape rolls of a length of up to 50 m for the
R20HT System was chosen. This system is especially suited inner wrap and 80 m for the outer wrap, the wrapping machines re-
for rehabilitation purposes. quire a minimum pipe clearance of only 45 cm. At the same time a max-

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Corrosion Protection

Figure 10: Blasting of defected areas Figure 11: Application of primer HT

Figure 12: Application of inner wrap AS50 Figure 13: Application of outer wrap R20H

imum of roll change intervals is provided, ensuring a safe and est range to meet the diverse conditions on site. Those sys-
economic application. This rehabilitation project was executed tems can be applied at ambient temperatures from -35° C to
in small sections in a bell-hole procedure. For larger sections +60° C, even under difficult jobsite conditions.
a DENSOMAT® motor driven application device can be used. The new developed system DENSOLEN® AS50/R20HT
The operator of the pipeline, third party engineers and (see figure 12 and figure 13) is designed to combine an
the contractor were very much satisfied with the perform- ease of application, economical pricing with excellent me-
ance of this new tape system as it fulfilled all their requests. chanical resistance and outstanding corrosion prevention, not
only for larger scale rehabilitation projects.

Conclusion
There are many pipeline rehabilitation systems available in
the market of corrosion prevention material and all of them
may have there advantages and disadvantages. The evalua- Author
tion of an appropriate rehabilitation system is depending on
many specific circumstances and has to be chosen in coordi-
nation with the material and on site requirements. Further- Michael Schad
more it has to be suited for the relevant and unique project DENSO GmbH, Leverkusen, Germany
Tel. +49 214 2602-260
conditions, especially taking into account an easy and eco-
E-Mail: [email protected]
nomic way of applicability of the system.
For standard temperatures up to +50° C state-of-the
art real co-extruded three-ply tape systems offer the wid-

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