Short range guided wave inspection (SRUT GW) is widely used for the screening and mapping of

corrosion damages in the annular ring and under-patch bottom segments in the above ground storage
tanks, corrosion under pipe support (CUPS), corrosion under paint / insulation in the tubes, touch point
corrosion, and the like. As there are no standard regulations applied to such inspection so far the
inspection companies do calibrate the inspection sensitivity using various types of artificial reflectors
machined at one or both surfaces of flat (plates) or curved (segments of pipes walls, etc) calibration and
performance demonstration blocks such as hemispherical and conical slits, flat bottom holes, half-
cylindrical slits, and the like.

Sonotron NDT manufactures and delivers standard portable instruments, probes and other accessories
used for SRUT GW inspection and support the customers methodologically since 1999. Today the SRUT
GW inspection may be implemented using either:

conventional modality (special mono-element probes) utilizing ISONIC 3505, 3507 advanced ultrasonic
flaw detectors and recorders

OR

phased array (PA) modality utilizing portable PA instruments of ISONIC series (ISONIC 3510, ISONIC 2010,
ISONIC 2009) and high energy PA probes

The most common question of the asset owners, insurance companies to the providers of inspection
services relates to the correlation between signals / indications obtained from real corrosion damages
and artificial reflectors. Since 1999 Sonotron NDT collects and studies cut-off segments of the pipe walls,
annular rings, tank bottoms with real corrosion damages; the said specimens allow permanent improving
of the instrumentation and settling recommendations to the clients performing SRIT GW inspections
worldwide. Two videos below answer the said fundamental question; both relate to the piece of annular
ring plate taken out of service once the corrosion damages were detected. Along with a number of
various natural defects the specimen carries several artificial reflectors, namely hemispherical and half-
cylindrical slits. ISONIC 3505 instrument was used for the scanning of the said specimen with 100% SRUT
GW raw data capturing over 140 dB amplitude range:

During off-line manipulation of the data recorded on the specimen above the lower limit of echo
amplitudes representation on the CB-Scan image was re-settled for the DAC-normalized color palette
and gain re-settling was performed upon applying the linear palette to the mapping. It is clear that along
with artificial reflectors all natural corrosion damages were recorded and imaged and may be well-
distinguished, even those, which are located behind the large and deep slits. On the other hand it is
proven that there is no correlation between echo amplitudes produced by the natural damages and
artificial reflectors and their depth (degree of material loss), that’s why SRUT GW inspection may be
considered as the screening technique only:
Whilst performing SRUT GW inspection the echo amplitudes produced by corrosion damages
significantly depend on the degree of scattered surface and inter-crystal corrosion of the material, type
of the surface painting / coating and presence of the product inside the tank or pipe – all these factors
affect intensity of SRUT GW signal along all way of it’s propagation. Thus DAC calibration is absolutely
necessary and should be performed using the desired reference reflector as it is illustrated on by
exemplary video below. It is clear that DAC signatures of different reflectors are very close to each other:
Short range guided wave inspection (SRUT GW) is widely used for the screening and mapping of
corrosion damages in the annular ring and under-patch bottom segments in the above ground storage
tanks, corrosion under pipe support (CUPS), corrosion under paint / insulation in the tubes, touch point
corrosion, and the like. As there are no standard regulations applied to such inspection so far the
inspection companies do calibrate the inspection sensitivity using various types of artificial reflectors
machined at one or both surfaces of flat (plates) or curved (segments of pipes walls, etc) calibration and
performance demonstration blocks such as hemispherical and conical slits, flat bottom holes, half-
cylindrical slits, and the like.

Sonotron NDT manufactures and delivers standard portable instruments, probes and other accessories
used for SRUT GW inspection and support the customers methodologically since 1999. Today the SRUT
GW inspection may be implemented using either:

conventional modality (special mono-element probes) utilizing ISONIC 3505, 3507 advanced ultrasonic
flaw detectors and recorders

OR