There have been significant advances in the development of the strain-based design (SBD) methodology from the mid-2000s to the early 2010s in anticipation of new pipeline construction in northern regions of North America. Many of the expected pipelines have not been built due to changes in producing regions. SBD has been used on smaller scales on a number of onshore projects. At the same time, strain-based assessment (SBA) has gained wider use for vintage and new in-service pipelines that were designed using traditional stress-based design.

This paper provides an overview of conceptual understandings and practical implementations of SBDA. Key...