1Welded Field Joints for Internally

Lined Pipelines

José Anisio de Oliveira e Silva1, Ryan Sears2

1CTO - Lined Pipe Systems, 2CEO - Lined Pipe Systems

Organized by

Proceedings of the 2023 Pipeline Technology Conference (ISSN 2510-6716).

www.pipeline-conference.com/conferences

Copyright ©2023 by EITEP Institute.

 Pipeline Technology Conference 2023, Berlin

1 ABSTRACT
Not all pipelines are made equal.
Some steel pipelines transport media that is neither abrasive nor corrosive and the internal surface
of the steel pipe wall may be left bare, as there is no need for additional protection.
Other steel pipelines, intended to transport aggressive media, are internally lined with protective
materials that are often heat sensitive. Depending on the transported media, these liners may be
thin film bonded liners (liquid epoxy, fusion bonded epoxy, or polyurethane paint), thick bonded
liners (rubber or polyurethane), thick unbonded liners, (high density polyethylene (HDPE),
polyacetal (PA11 or PA12)), or other heat-sensitive protective materials.
Welding is universally recognized as the safest, most efficient, and most economical method of
building onshore and offshore pipelines from individual pipe sections. However, welding pipes
which have been internally lined with thermally sensitive materials is not a straightforward process.
The high temperatures from the welding processes will degrade or destroy the internal lining at
the weld zone, leading to corrosion that will reduce the lifespan of the entire pipeline.
This paper focuses on welded joint systems that answer this technical and economical challenge.
The desirable characteristics of an ideal welding system for pipes provided with thermally sensitive
linings are discussed, and welding systems already developed for the following welded and lined
pipeline combinations are presented:
• Butt welds, butt strap lap welds and bell and spigot lap welds for lined pipes with thin film
bonded liners: liquid epoxy and fusion bonded epoxy
• Butt welds for pipe with thick bonded liners: rubber and thermoplastic polyurethane
• Butt welds for pipe with thick unbonded liners: high density polyethylene (HDPE)
In-house qualification tests, third party qualification processes as well actual field applications are
also presented and discussed, demonstrating that the welding systems developed are both
technically and economically feasible.

2 INTRODUCTION: THE PROBLEM

Internal corrosion of steel pipelines is one of the leading causes of pipeline failure. Pipelines
transporting aggressive media are usually required to be internally lined to protect the steel from
corrosion and/or to prevent contamination of the media with corrosion by-products.
Various internal lining materials may be selected by engineers depending on project requirements
and engineer preferences. Most linings for carbon steel pipes are thermally sensitive materials
such as liquid epoxy, fusion bonded epoxy, rubber, polyurethane, polyacetal (PA11 or PA12), or
high-density polyethylene (HDPE)).
However, the problem of joining lined carbon steel pipes to build a pipeline does not have a simple
solution. Welding the joints is simple, economic, and effective, but the welding heat may severely
damage the lining at the vicinity of the welded joints. The use of mechanical joints is a possibility
but brings several disadvantages that are widely known and will not be discussed here. Another
possibility for pipe with thin film epoxy linings is for robots or humans to patch the joint after
welding, but this has been proved to have several limitations that may severely impact joint patch
quality and construction schedule/costs. Manual or robotic joint patching is not a realistic option
for thick bonded or unbonded liners.

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There is an outstanding need in the onshore and offshore pipeline industry for a cost effective
welding system for pipe sections lined with heat sensitive materials that: (i) protects the internal
liner materials from damage or degradation; (ii) ensures the continuity of the liner protection
through the welded joints; (iii) makes use of ordinary pipeline construction procedures and
techniques to perform all the operations involved in the welding of field joints; (iv) employs
essentially the same welding and nondestructive inspection processes that are used in regular
pipeline construction; (v) produces certified, high quality, full penetration welded joints, covered
by the pipeline construction codes; (vi) does not significantly increase the duration of welding
operations; (vii) does not significantly increase the head loss of the pipeline.
In order to provide an answer to this need, Lined Pipe Systems has developed and tested two
different solutions: FlexSleeve® for thin liners (fusion bonded epoxy, liquid epoxy or polyurethane
paint) and SealSleeve® for thick unbonded liners (polyacetal (PA11 or PA12), or high-density
polyethylene (HDPE)).

3 THIN FILM LINERS – THE FLEXSLEEVE® SOLUTION

The most common welded joint methods required for pipe provided with thin linings are butt-
welds, bell and spigot lap welds, and butt strap lap welds. To prevent the internal lining from being
damaged by the welding heat at the immediate vicinity of the weld joint, it is held back in this area
and usually patched afterwards by manual or robotic means.
Proper patching of epoxies and polyurethanes requires abrasive blasting, cleaning, material
application, curing, and inspection of each joint. This process is very time consuming and slows
down pipeline construction. Furthermore, there exists a significant risk of patch failure due to
common factors that affect the quality of field-applied protective materials: temperature, humidity,
dust, difficulty in inspecting surface preparation, and a host of other factors that are difficult to
control in the ever-changing field environment. Lastly, putting humans inside of pipelines to patch
joints brings safety risks typical of confined space entry: asphyxiation from carbon monoxide or
other gases, explosion hazards, poisonous animals that may have sneaked into the pipeline, and
difficulty extracting injured personnel.
Internal joint protection sleeves have been used in the past to protect the interior of butt-welded
steel pipe joints from corrosion. During new construction, an internal sleeve is inserted into pipe
ends and protects the bare steel of the weld zone from corrosion. The internal sleeve is made of
carbon steel with a thermally sensitive lining like the parent pipe lining material and uses rubber
O-rings and an epoxy paste to prevent water from reaching the weld zone. Insulation is
incorporated into the sleeve body to prevent the welding heat from damaging the sleeve lining.
Historically internal sleeves have mostly been used on small diameter pipelines due to their rigid
construction which makes installation and sealing challenging in larger diameter pipe ends that
are out of round. In any case, industry standards for the tolerances on the internal diameter of the
pipes generally prevent the O-rings from properly sealing the sleeves against the pipe lining.
FlexSleeve® is a new internal joint protection sleeve which has been developed by Lined Pipe
Systems. The sleeve is made from two layers of thin sheet metal and uses a proprietary rubber
seal design that eliminates the need for an epoxy paste. FlexSleeve® is flexible and lightweight,
which allows for easy installation and is crucial to achieve proper sealing. It allows for much easier
installation in larger diameter pipelines which have pipe ends that are more out of round than
small diameter pipe. Importantly for many waterworks pipeline projects, it is suitable for use with
externally welded lap weld joints where thin-film linings have often not been used due to the
difficulty patching the internal joint area. FlexSleeve® opens the possibility of using well-proven,

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lightweight, and flexible thin-film linings for both water and oil & gas pipelines and entirely avoids
the time-consuming and error-prone process of patching after the weld is complete.

3.1 DESIGN
The internal joint protection sleeve is comprised of two layers of rolled sheet metal with an
insulation material sandwiched between them. The inside of the sleeve and the external seats for
the proprietary rubber bore seals are coated with a thermally sensitive protective material that
prevents corrosion of the internal sleeve. It may or may not be the same protective material used
to protect the interior of the steel pipe. A proprietary rubber bore seal is placed at each end of the
internal sleeve. When installed, the seal is compressed between the end of the internal sleeve and
the pipe internal lining.

Figure 1 - Internal Joint Protection Sleeve

When used with butt-weld joints the root pass of the weld fuses with the external metal of the
internal sleeve to hold the sleeve in place, as shown in Figure 2 below. When used with lap-weld
joints, the sleeve is held in place due to a hump on the external surface of the sleeve that is
sandwiched between the end of the spigot and the bell (or pipe end in the case of butt-strap joints),
as shown in Figure 3 below.

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Figure 2 - Cross Section of Assembled Butt-Weld Joint (sheet metal cross section not shown)

Figure 3 - Cross section of Assembled Lap-Weld Bell and Spigot Joint

3.2 FUNCTIONALITY
The primary function of FlexSleeve® is to protect the bare steel of the weld zone from corrosion.
To do so it must ensure the continuity of the lining protection through the welded joints, to prevent
the water in the pipeline from corroding the bare steel wall at the lining hold back behind the
sleeve. This is accomplished through the use of proprietary rubber bore seals that fit onto the
sleeve ends and are pinched between the sleeve and the internal pipe lining, as shown in Figure 2.

The flexibility of the internal sleeve is vital to achieving a seal because it a) allows the sleeve to
conform to the shape of the pipe end and b) allows the sleeve to expand under pipeline pressure.
When the sleeve conforms to the pipe shape, it creates an even sealing pressure around the entire
internal circumference of the pipe. When the sleeve expands under pipeline pressure it further
compresses the seal to assure the watertightness of the joint. Hydrostatic tests prove time and
time again the sealing of the internal sleeve, as shown in the In-House Testing section of this paper.

The sleeve lining must also remain intact after being exposed to the welding heat. The insulation
layer embedded in the sleeve prevents weld heat from transferring straight underneath the weld
to the sleeve coating. Instead, the heat travels through the large heat sink that is the pipe wall. The
sleeve coating slowly heats up after several weld passes but peak temperatures remain under 155º
C (311º F) on small diameter pipe, and then only for a few minutes as shown in the In-HouseTesting
section of this paper. Large diameter pipe does not generally pose heat concerns to the sleeve
coating because the joint has time to cool down before the subsequent weld pass arrives in the
same location again.

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Lastly, the internal joint protection sleeve must be easily and quickly installed. The fact that the
sleeve is fabricated from sheet metal allows it to sufficiently flex and conform to the shape of pipe
ends that are within the roundness tolerance specified in the pipe manufacturing codes. A silicone
lubricant is used to reduce friction of the rubber seals against the bare steel and internal pipe lining
during insertion. This allows for fast construction cycles employing widely-used welding processes
and construction procedures.

3.3 IN-HOUSE TESTING

Hydrostatic tests are performed on fully assembled joints with FlexSleeve® to prove the sealing
functionality. Prior to the hydrostatic test, holes are drilled through the pipe wall at the location
where the sleeve is, a gap is left in the weld, or the joint is assembled without a weld. Any water
that leaks behind the bore seals during pressurization would be seen exiting the holes or unwelded
joint. The following are two hydrostatic test arrangements and results that are typical of the various
hydrostatic tests that have been performed:

Hydrostatic Test A

Test Description: 12” diameter sch. 40 pipe. Girth weld completed with a 1” gap left in weld. Pipe
pressurized to 38 bar (551 psi) and held for 30 minutes. No water leakage out of weld gap and no
loss of pressure during the test. Joint assembly, welding, and hydrostatic test witnessed by client
in Oakland, CA on November 2, 2021. See Figures 4 & 5.

Figure 4 - 12” dia. sch. 40 joint assembled with FlexSleeve® and being welded.

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Figure 5 - Hydrostatic test on 12” dia. sch. 40 pipe joint with internal sleeve. Tested at 38 bar (551
psi) for 30 minutes.

Hydrostatic Test B

6” diameter sch. 80 pipe. Joint was left unwelded after assembly. Pipe pressurized in stages to 315
bar (4,480 psi) over the course of 7 hours and held for 2 hours at 315 bar. No water leakage out of
unwelded joint and no loss of pressure at any stage during test. Test date December 1, 2020. See
Figure 6 for a collage of photos from this test.

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Figure 6 - Hydrostatic test on 6” dia. sch. 80 pipe. Incrementally raised to 315 bar (4,480 psi). Total
test duration was 9 hours. Photos of test setup, unwelded joint, and post-test sleeve inspection.

Welding tests have been performed on pipe joints with FlexSleeve® to ascertain the sleeve lining’s’
exposure to heat and verify it is below the dry heat temperature limits that the sleeve lining can
withstand. The tests involved thermocouples attached to the sleeve coating and infrared imaging.
See Chart 1 for sleeve coating heat exposure results from 7 different welding tests. Note that the
welding tests were performed with the same parameters but with different insulation materials
embedded in the sleeve.

Sleeve Coating Heat Exposure Test Parameters

6” diameter sch. 40 pipe (7.11mm / .280” thick pipe wall). Joint welded with 3mm E6010 stick rod,
downhill stringers. 120ºC (248º F) maximum interpass temperature. Thermocouples attached to
sleeve center and ends.

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Chart 1 - Sleeve coating heat exposure test results of 7 different weld tests on 6” dia. sch. 40 pipe
joints.

3.4 FIELD TRIAL

An oil & gas client in California, USA installed a FlexSleeve® in a pipeline to determine its
effectiveness in protecting the joint interior from corrosion. It was decided to place the sleeve in
the most challenging application in their network of pipelines in order to approve it for use in any
pipeline in their system.

Field Trial Description

6” diameter sch. 80 pipeline. Internal sleeve installed in a joint immediately after a 4” x 6” dia.
reducing elbow that connected to a pump with a 4” outlet. Flow is extremely turbulent at this
location with a rate of 4m / second. Pipeline operating pressure is 103 – 124 bar (1,500 – 1,800 psi).
Service is produced water injection with a temperature of 43º - 88º C (110º - 190º F).

Results: The pipeline was taken out of service and the FlexSleeve® was inspected using a video
camera after 4.5 months of service. No adverse issues were observed on the sleeve, but the pipe
internal lining had several blisters. The pipeline was put back into service and as of the writing of
this paper the sleeve has been in service for 10 months.

See Figure 7 for a collage of photographs from the field trial installation.

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Figure 7 – FlexSleeve® installed for field trial in 6” dia. sch. 80 pipe under aggressive conditions.
Video still from inspection after 4.5 months of service. No adverse issues reported during
inspection.

3.5 FIELD INSTALLATION

The internal joint protection sleeve was used for a 28” diameter and 24” diameter x 92 kilometer
potable water pipeline in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The pipeline was constructed with spiral
welded steel pipe provided with butt-strap joints, which are similar to bell and spigot joints. One
edge of the butt strap was fillet welded to the exterior of the “bell” pipe end at the pipe mill and
the other edge was fillet welded to the exterior of the “spigot” pipe at the field.

The contractor was falling behind schedule on the project due to the slow process of manually
patching the bare steel on the interior of each field-welded joint with an epoxy putty. Additionally,
joint patching quality issues and safety issues from personnel entering the pipe were of concern.
COPASA, the water agency for the State of Minas Gerais, approved the use of the sleeve after
witnessing and manually inspecting a sleeve installation in a pipe joint using the project pipe, and
after witnessing an 8 day hydrostatic test of a joint using the sleeve without a weld.

The contractor ended up installing 432 internal joint protection sleeves for the project, utilizing
them on some construction spreads for the tie-in welds. Short strings of 4 ea. pipes were welded

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outside the trench and tied into the pipeline. The sleeves were used only for tie-in joints in the
trench, and manual joint patching was used for the joints welded outside the trench.

The contractor compared construction speed when the internal joint protection sleeve was used
vs. construction speed when only manual joint patching was used and found that the sleeve
increased productivity by 28%.

As of the writing of this paper the sleeves have been in service for 9 months with no adverse issues
reported. See Figure 8 for a collage of photos from this project.

Figure 8 - Internal joint protection sleeve used in 28” and 24” diameter x 92km potable water
pipeline utilizing butt-strap joints. Project was for COPASA water agency in the State of Minas
Gerais, Brazil.

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3.6 CONCLUSION
In-house tests and field trials have proven the internal joint protection sleeve to be an effective
method for protecting the internal bare steel of a welded pipeline joint from corrosion. A full-scale
installation has proven the sleeve to be consistently installed with a speed that outperformed
manual patching of the internal joint lining while eliminating quality concerns associated with
manual field patching.

FlexSleeve® is a viable and proven option to facilitate construction of steel water pipelines
internally lined with thin-film thermally sensitive materials. It reduces risks of internal joint patch
failure due to environmental conditions or manual error and significantly increases construction
speed when compared to manually or robotically applied internal joint patches.

4 UNBONDED THERMOPLASTIC LINERS – THE

SEALSLEEVE™ SYSTEM
Carbon steel is a highly desirable material for building pipelines due to their strength and ductility
but lacks corrosion resistance to transport aggressive media. Thermoplastic materials are highly
desirable for building pipelines due to their corrosion-resistant properties, but they lack the
strength to resist high pressures. Combining the two by pulling thermoplastic liners through steel
pipe makes the best characteristics of steel pipe and thermoplastic pipe complement each other
and has been widely used to prevent internal corrosion of steel pipelines.

Carbon steel pipe with thermoplastic internal liners provides the optimal solution for safely
transporting most hazardous liquids and aggressive slurries. The strength and ductility of steel
combined with the corrosion and abrasion resistance of thick thermoplastic liners ensures that
high-pressure pipelines last a very long time.

However, a welded joint solution that protects the weld zone of the carbon steel pipe with the
plastic liner and permits fast joint assembly has eluded the industry. Methods used to date include
the use of corrosion-resistant alloy (CRA) connectors that place the plastic liner far enough away
from the weld zone to prevent heat from damaging the liner, and thermoplastic connectors that
utilize insulation and/or air gap to prevent heat from damaging the plastic liner at the weld zone.
In the case of the latter the thermoplastic connectors require electrofusion of the connector to the
liner in the pipe, which is 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. The new
welded joint sealing system described in this paper avoids both CRA welding and the plastic
electrofusion process by using a thermoplastic connector that is mechanically sealed to the plastic
liner in the pipe. The mechanical seal is self-energizing: sealing pressure increases proportionately
to the pipeline pressure. It is designed to withstand whichever pressure the parent steel pipe can
withstand.

Lined Pipe Systems’ SealSleeve™ utilizes a highly repeatable and proven sealing technology to
bridge the weld zone with the plastic liner. Offshore installation time is a matter of seconds per
joint, and onshore installations no longer have to use expensive and leak-prone mechanical joints.

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4.1 DESIGN
The key to making the mechanical seal of the welded joint sealing system work is the method of
locking the liner the pipe to the pipe wall. Without this a mechanical seal would not be possible, as
the liner would be free to move inside the steel pipe due to thermal expansion/contraction,
pressures, etc., breaking the mechanical seal.

A steel Locking Ring is connected to a machined recess in the OD of the liner. Fastening the Locking
Ring to the liner OD is done during the insertion of the liner into the pipe, which in the case of
offshore pipelines, would be performed at an onshore spool base.

Figure 9 - Locking Ring on Liner End

After the liner is inserted into the pipe, a proprietary method is used to create an interference fit
of the Locking Ring to the pipe wall. Testing of the resistance of the Locking Ring to movement has
proven the Locking Ring to withstand at least 30 metric tons of force, which is sufficient to prevent
the liner from moving inside the pipe under any thermal and pressure conditions. The end of the
liner is machined to create a seat for the aforementioned mechanical seal on of the thermoplastic
connector.

Figure 10 - Cross Section of Liner End Installed in Steel Pipe

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In a typical offshore construction project, the liner installation and locking the Locking Ring to the
pipe wall are done onshore. The pipe is then ready for joint assembly and welding on the lay vessel,
where a thermoplastic connector, “SealSleeve™”, is inserted into the pipe ends to bridge the space
between the mating pipe ends with liners installed.

SealSleeve™ is constructed of a thermoplastic material which may be different from the

thermoplastic liner material in the pipe. A metal sleeve with insulation material behind it is placed
around the exterior of the thermoplastic liner. The pipe girth weld takes place directly on top of
the metal insulating sleeve and the insulation material prevents the welding heat from damaging
the thermoplastic liner.

The ends of SealSleeve™ are manufactured to mate to the ends of the liner in the pipe, and to
accept an elastomeric seal that seals between the ends of the SealSleeve™ and the liner ends in
the pipe. SealSleeve™ is easily and quickly installed just before the offshore girth weld is
performed.

Figure 11 - Thermoplastic Connector “SealSleeve™”

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Figure 12 - SealSleeve™ Inserted Into Pipe End

Figure 13 - ID of SealSleeve™ assembled joint

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4.2 IN-HOUSE TESTING

In-house tests have proven that the SealSleeve™ system prevents liquids from reaching the bare
steel behind the thermoplastic 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 O-ring seals were used to seal the opposite ends of the liner against the face of the blind
flanges. A small hole was drilled through the pipe wall in the location of the SealSleeve™.

Figure 14 - Hydrostatic Test Jig

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The pipe 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.

A test was performed to ascertain the force that the Locking Ring could withstand when installed
and interference fit with the pipe wall. A hydraulic press was used to attempt to dislodge the
Locking Ring from its 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.

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 thermoplastic material of the connector to extreme weld heat. In this test holes
were drilled through the thermoplastic connector and thermocouples inserted through the holes
to measure the temperature exposure to the exterior of the thermoplastic. The girth weld was
performed with maximum heat input, with no delay between passes, and without any method to
chill the thermoplastic liner during welding. The thermoplastic 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 thermoplastic material much closer to the
weld zone than normal.

Figures 15 & 16 - Destructive Welding Heat Test

The temperature of the SealSleeve™ near each end - which is where it would seal against the liner
end in the 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 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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Chart 2 - Temperature recordings of thermocouples during destructive weld test

4.3 CONCLUSIONS
The SealSleeve™ system provides a fast, cost-efficient, highly repeatable means for protecting the
weld zone of thermoplastic lined pipe from corrosion. It avoids the costly and time-consuming
tasks of CRA welding and thermoplastic electrofusion associated with other welded joint systems
and makes it economically feasible to construct thermoplastic-lined pipe with S-Lay and J-Lay
vessels. It also opens the possibility of using specialty thermoplastic liners for transport of high
temperature sour oil and gas where more welded joint connectors are required than with
traditional HDPE liners.

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