Objective
The aim of the project is to demonstrate by field tests in an operating 36" crude oil pipeline, that corrosion inspection of pipelines can be essentially improved and extended with respect to the application range (thinner pipe walls), completeness (increased testability) and data evaluation (reduction of misinterpretation) by using a new ultrasonic technology.
After the demonstration run (May 1997) the raw data were first processed such that the existing visualisation program developed by TPX for the old technology could be used for the new technology as well. In order to compare the performance of the new technology with the old one, RRP had selected 15 internal corrosion features already known from an inspection run carried out in 1993 by means of the old technology. The inspection data for the corresponding 15 locations were evaluated and the results were compared with those obtained with the old technology. It turned out that the data obtained with the new technology confirmed the expected improvements. In particular, the echo loss rate was considerably reduced enabling a more precise measurement of the defect dephts and thus a more reliable assessment of the defects concerned.
Assessment of the data was performed by Shell. Advanced models for MAOP-calculations were applied involving in particular the depth profiles of the defects as obtained from the inspection data. Based on the severity of the evaluated defects two pipe joints were selected by RRP for excavation in order to verify the inspection results. The verification excavations are scheduled for June 1998.
The project takes advantage of a new ultrasonic technology recently developed by the contractor for ultrasonic crack inspection. In the crack detection pig (UltraScan CD) this technology is specially used for the detection of axial cracks using 45" shear wave. For the inspection of corrosion damage, the corresponding algorithms are to be adapted and optimized. This involves the use of multiple echo sequences for wall thickness measurement as well as the implementation of algorithms for distinguishing corrosion, inclusions, laminations etc. Because the new technique yields both the amplitudes and the times-of-flight of several back wall echoes (typically 4-6 back wall echoes) instead of just two measuring values (wall thickness stand-off) as obtained with the old technique, accordingly more data need to be processed on-line. This means that the data compression and storage have to be adapted to the requirements specific fro corrosion inspection. In addition, the off-line data processing has to be adapted to the new data formats in order to visualize the recorded data with the existing visualisation software.
For the test survey run in a real pipeline, an existing 24"/26" tool will be mechanically adapted to the diameter a 36" pipeline. Ultrasonic measurements will be performed on pipe segments with real corrosion damages as well as on special test sheets with both the old and the new techniques. These tests are expected to demonstrate the improvements concerning :
* extension of the ultrasonic corrosion inspection down to smaller remaining wall thicknesses,
* testability of pipeline regions with poor surface conditions due to a much wider dynamic range of the new technology,
* improved signal evaluation and thus a reduction of misinterpretation by using digital techniques for measuring and processing the ultrasonic signals.
The performance of the whole system will be checked in a small test loop containing several artificial, corrosion-like defects. Then the new technique will be validated by a test run in an operating oil pipeline.
Improvements achieved with the new technique are to be quantified by comparing the actual data with those obtained using the old technique. On the basis of the quantitative damage information (extent of corrosion, remaining wall thickness), the state of the damaged linepipes can be assessed. This includes an MAOP analysis (MAOP - maximal allowable operation pressure) as well as an estimation of the remaining lifetime by the third project partner (Shell).
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences computer and information sciences software
- natural sciences computer and information sciences data science data processing
- natural sciences physical sciences acoustics ultrasound
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Coordinator
76297 Stutensee
Germany
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