NDTnet 1998 Aug, Vol.3 No.8

Full-Text - Abstract

The need for rapid inspection of pipes and plates on offshore installations and petrochemical plant for corrosion or cracking has lead to the development of a novel ultrasonic technique called CHIME. In contrast to convential ultrasonic techniques which require movement of the probes to cover large surface areas, the CHIME method is a medium range technique which provides coverage of the full volume between the probes separated by a distance of one metreor more. The potential characteristics include:
• Large area, single pass corrosion, pitting and crack detection
• wall thickness measurementfull volume inspection over lm or more
• suited for pipe, plate, inaccessible geometries including pipe supports and clamps.
The method has been successfully demonstrated on corroded pipe samples and has undergoneblind validation trials and several field trials. The illustration below shows a possibledeployment option for pipe inspection. This technique has been developed within the HarwellOffshore Inspection R&D Service (HOIS).

The paper will describe the method of deployment, results of validation trials and the potential applications of the technique including examples from recent field trials.

Fig.: System 1: Backe-to-back (circumferential) scanner

Abstract Source:
Book of Abstracts, 7th European Conference on Non-Destructive Testing, 26-29 May 1998, ISBN: 87-986898-0-00

Full-Text Source:
Proceedings of the 7th European Conference on Non-Destructive Testing, 26-29 May 1998, ISBN:

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