NDTnet 1998 Aug, Vol.3 No.8

Full-Text - Abstract

Pipelines are considered the safest and most economic way of transporting gas or liquids over long distances. Material degradation such as corrosion or cracking, however, can lead to premature failure with sometimes catastrophic consequences. On the other hand, many pipelines are still in sound condition at the end of their design life thus enabling safe future operation. In any case non-destructive inspection techniques for the detection and sizing of material damage are required if the integrity of particularly older pipeline is to be reliably assessed. This is achieved by means of so-called intelligent pigs which allow to inspect up to several hundred kilometers of pipeline in one run for certain damage types.

Whereas the detection of corrosion damage using ultrasound or magnetic techniques is state-of-the-art for some time, reliable crack inspection was not feasible in the past due to the extreme technical requirements needed for this application. With the UltraScan CD developed by Pipetronix in cooperation with the Fraunhofer-Institute for Nondestructive Testing and the Research Center Karlsruhe an advanced crack inspection tool is available since the end of 1994. More than 1500 kilometers of pipeline were successfully inspected thus leading to the approval of the tool in conjunction with UltraScan WM (corrosion, wall thickness measurement) and CalScan (location and calibration) as a substitute for in-service hydrotesting.

In this contribution, the tool set-up is described and an overview on inspection requirements, testing concept and data evaluation is given. In particular, inspection results as obtained on German crude oil pipelines are presented and discussed.

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:

Publication Contact:
7th ECNDT, Park Alle 345, DK-2605 Broendby, Denmark, Fax: +45 46 26 70 11, Email: 101373.3414@compuserve.com