Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers

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Evaluation of general corrosion on pipes using the

guided wave technique

Shiuh-Kuang Yang, Ping-Hung Lee & Jyin-Wen Cheng

To cite this article: Shiuh-Kuang Yang, Ping-Hung Lee & Jyin-Wen Cheng (2016): Evaluation of
general corrosion on pipes using the guided wave technique, Journal of the Chinese Institute of
Engineers, DOI: 10.1080/02533839.2016.1159804

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02533839.2016.1159804

Published online: 13 Apr 2016.

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 Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers, 2016
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02533839.2016.1159804

INVITED PAPER

Evaluation of general corrosion on pipes using the guided wave technique

Shiuh-Kuang Yanga, Ping-Hung Leeb and Jyin-Wen Chengc
a
Department of Mechanical and Electro-Mechanical Engineering, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan; bTaiwan Metal Quality Control
Corporation, Ltd., Kaohsiung, Taiwan; cCepstrum Technology Corporation, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

The torsional mode of a guided wave, T(0, 1), is capable of detecting features and defects in pipelines, Received 30 June 2015
especially in the cases of coated and buried pipes. However, it is hard to find or locate general corrosion, Accepted 15 November 2015
since the signals of shallow corrosion easily merge into the noise signal. The situation worsens when an KEYWORDS
inspector sets the array ring of the guided wave transducer directly on a general corrosion area of the Guided wave; general
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pipe and serious energy attenuation of the detecting signal occurs. The goal of this study is to investigate corrosion; finite element
the effects of the above-mentioned general corrosion on guided wave tests, as determined by the finite method; localized corrosion
element method, experiments, and site inspection cases. The results show that the deeper the corrosion
depth or the higher the operating frequency, the larger the attenuation rate of the guided wave; also, the
higher the operating frequency, the fewer the coherent signals caused by the general corrosion. In the case
of detecting localized severe corrosion inside a section of general corrosion on a pipe, the results show
that a higher operating frequency reduces the coherent noise of general corrosion, and gives an obvious
reflection signal of the local severe corrosion that leads to a good measurement being obtained.

1. Introduction
In a petrochemical plant, pipelines are used to transport all
kinds of fluids, and specific kinds of pipes, such as coated pipes,
are selected in response to different environmental conditions.
Although pipelines can withstand high temperature and fire
and remain stable under such conditions, water vapor can eas-
ily penetrate the gap between the pipe and the coating mate-
rial, resulting in a wide range of general corrosion mixed with
localized corrosion. Inspection in these cases is extremely dif-
ficult. The picture in Figure 1 indicates an area of severe local-
ized corrosion, circled by white chalk, embedded in the general
corrosion environment. Another problem is that the coating
material covers the entire pipe, making surface corrosion diffi-
cult to perceive. In recent years, the guided wave method has
proved its effectiveness, allowing the damaged areas of pipes
to be inspected quickly and in depth. This is achieved by dig-
ging several detection pits or by removing a part section of the
coating material in which to set the array ring. Unfortunately, a
problem occurs if general corrosion is found on the opened area
of the pipe and one has to set the array ring there. This problem
involves not only reducing the exciting energy of the guided
T(0, 1) wave, but also increasing other modes of the guided wave
propagating on the pipe, which makes the inspection more
difficult.
In 2005, the ASTM Standard G46 (ASTM 2005) defined the
related measurement and evaluation method for corrosion when
using guided waves to detect general and localized corrosion
in pipelines. Including the general corrosion on pipelines and
in accordance with the number of holes, the standard utilized
the average depth and size of the holes per unit area to clas-
sify different levels of general corrosion. Carandente, Ma, and
Cawley (2010) discussed the relationship between defects with
varying depth profiles in pipes and the defect echo. They found
the reflected signal of the tapered defect to have a trend similar to
that of a rectangular defect. Løvstad and Cawley (2011) proposed
a superimposed single-hole signal method to predict the echo
of randomly distributed holes. They pierced holes in pipes in the
cases of circumferential and axial distribution, and found that the
holes affected the reflection coefficient of the torsional guided
wave. Cobb et al. (2012) utilized different temperatures and cover-
ing parameters, such as attenuation, to determine the severity of
the general corrosion. The EPRI’s 2013 test report (EPRI 2013) also
pointed out that general corrosion on a pipeline would result in
the attenuation of guided wave energy, as well as other problems
created by signal enhancement judgment on background signals.
2.  Dispersion curve
This study utilized DISPERSE software (Pavlakovic et al. 1997) to
calculate and plot the dispersion curves of the phase and group
velocities of an ultrasonic guided wave for a 6-inch diameter,
schedule 40 steel pipe in vacuum, as shown in Figures 2(a) and

CONTACT  Shiuh-Kuang Yang  skyang@mail.nsysu.edu.tw

© 2016 The Chinese Institute of Engineers
 2    S.-K. Yanga et al.
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Figure 1. An area of severe localized corrosion, circled by white chalk, embedded in the general corrosion environment.
Figure 2. (a) Phase velocity dispersion curve for a 6-inch schedule 40 steel pipe in vacuum; (b) group velocity dispersion curve for a 6-inch schedule 40 steel pipe in
vacuum.
(b). The vertical axes are the phase and group velocity, respec-
tively, and the horizontal axes are the frequencies. There are
about 50 modes present at frequencies below 100  kHz; most
are strong dispersive modes, which have a dramatic change
of velocity with frequency. The reason for showing the fre-
quency range of the dispersion curves within 100  kHz is that
low-­frequency guided waves have a good performance on pipe
inspection due to their low attenuation behavior (Alleyne et al.
2001). Dispersion curves provide the properties of guided waves
that contain the phase velocity, group velocity, attenuation, and
wave structure. Note that the phase velocity, Vph, is the velocity
of the individual peaks within the wave packet, while the group
velocity, Vgr, is the velocity at which a guided wave packet travels
at a given frequency. The dispersion curves of the phase veloc-
ity display the information for determining the desired exciting
mode, and the dispersion curves of the group velocity are help-
ful for understanding the possible receiving modes in numerical
simulations and experimental procedures. The torsional mode,
T(0, 1), was chosen in this study as the desired incident mode
for all cases due to its non-dispersive nature. Also, note that the
excitation method of the T(0, 1) wave used in the simulation and
experiment is a circumferential disturbance on the pipe surface;
therefore, T(0, 1) and F(1, m), m = 1, 2, … , are the major modes
propagating in pipes, denoted by the bold solid lines in Figure 2.
3.  Finite element model of general corrosion
General corrosion is corrosion occurring on the entire metal
surface of the pipe and having a consistent average corro-
sion depth. Figure 3 shows numerous flat-bottomed circular
holes on the surface of a straight pipe to simulate the case
of general corrosion; the simulation model is valid as long as
the holes are grouped together (Uhlig and Revie 1985). The
flat-bottomed circular hole, treated as the basic unit defect on

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Figure 3. Finite element model of general corrosion.
Figure 4. Flow chart of the guided wave simulation using the finite element method as in Lee (2010).
the pipe surface, has an aperture of 15 mm, a depth of 1 mm
and the holes are distributed randomly in specific amounts. In
this simulation, Matlab software was used to draw the coor-
dinate points based on the random nonce selected in the cir-
cumferential and axial positions, and the coordinate values
established holes thereon. Figure 3 displays a 6-inch steel pipe
3.6 m long, with an 84 mm outer radius, 7 mm thick with two
welds, W1 and W2. Between the two welds, a 0.5-m long gen-
eral corrosion zone was constructed for the cases of Level I, II,
and III, with corrosion depths of 1, 2, and 4 mm, respectively.
The T(0, 1) guided wave is excited at the right end and received
1500 mm away from the right end.
Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers   3
4.  Simulation of T(0, 1) mode in pipe
This study utilized the commercial finite element program
ANSYS, as in Lawrence (2007), to perform the simulation of the
T(0, 1) mode propagating on the pipe. A flow chart, shown in
Figure 4, illustrates the eight-step simulation process (Lee 2010).
The important points in this chart are: (1) the element type is
the linear hexahedron element, SOLID 45 (Lawrence 2007); (2)
to simulate the wave propagation accurately, the element size
needs to be less than 5% of the wavelength, λ (Lowe, Alleyne,
and Cawley 1998). In this study, the pipe is modeled along the
axial length with the element size (Le) of 5  mm. There are 60
 4    S.-K. Yanga et al.
Figure 5. (a) Free mesh in corrosion zone; (b) circumferential loading at the pipe end.
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Figure 6. Reflection of general corrosion excited by the T(0, 1) mode of at 40 kHz.
elements around the circumference and 3 elements through
the 7.1 mm wall thickness. In Figure 5(a), free mesh is adopted
for the complex geometry in the corrosion zone. The time step
is set as 1 μs. The excitation of the T(0, 1) mode is achieved by
applying the same sequence at all of the nodes around the outer
circumference of the pipe end, as shown in Figure 5(b). A 5-cycle
Hanning-window tone burst of different frequencies is applied
as a sequence of the prescribed circumferential displacement of
a cross section at all nodes around the circumference at the pipe
end, with the circumferential displacement having a maximum
value of the absolute amplitude of 10 nm; (3) the circumferen-
tial section of the pipe is separated into 60 elements around
the circumference at the end of the pipe for the pure torsional
mode excitation; (4) the transient wave propagation problem
is solved by the implicit Newmark time integration method
in ANSYS; and (5) after solving the transient problem com-
pletely, two post-processing results, including the contour plot
of node solutions at a specific time step and the record of the
time history of the selected nodes, are presented. To determine
the amplitude of the torsional mode, T(0, 1), and the order-1
flexural modes, F(1, m), the received signals are separated into
single-mode waveforms using the mode extraction technique.
For the axially symmetric T(0, 1) mode, the 60 signals from the
nodes at the monitoring line are simply added together. For the
non-axisymmetric F(1, m) modes, a phase delay of θ/2π is added
to each signal before summing them up. The argument, θ, is the
angular distance from the top surface on the pipe.
5.  Simulation results of T(0, 1) guided wave
inspection of general corrosion
5.1.  Reflection signal of general corrosion with Levels I, II,
and III
In Figures 6 and 7, the vertical axis is the normalized amplitude,
the horizontal axis is the time, the blue line represents the pure
T(0, 1) mode and the red line is the F(1, m) mode converted by
general corrosion; the signal of the welds and general corro-
sion is enlarged for easy observation. Lowe and Cawley (2006)
discussed in detail the mode conversion phenomenon of the
torsional mode at the non-axially symmetric feature. Figure 6
shows one of the time responses of the simulated incident wave,
the reflected signal of W1 and W2 and the signal reflected when
a 40 kHz T(0, 1) wave is propagating on the pipe. It is clear that
the blue incident wave is a pure 5-cycle tune-burst type T(0, 1)
mode, since the amplitude of the red F(1, m) mode approaches
zero. The two weld signals are also pure T(0, 1) modes, as the
geometry of the welds has a symmetric nature. The reflected
signal for general corrosion is completely different, with both
the T(0, 1) and mode-converted F(1, m) modes mixed together;
sometimes, the amplitude of the F(1, m) signal is even larger
than the amplitude of the T(0, 1) signal. Note that Levels I, II,
and III represent minor, medium, and severe general corrosion
with multiple pits, respectively, and that a series of signals in the
grouping of the wave envelopes is being propagated between
the two welds. The signal induced by different levels of general
 Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers   5
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Figure 7. Coherent noise induced by the different levels of general corrosion at 20, 30, and 40 kHz. The depth of general corrosion is (a) 1 mm, (b) 2 mm, and (c) 4 mm.

corrosion is its coherent noise. As Figure 7 shows, the coherent coherent noise. The simulation results reveal that the general
noise induced by general corrosion decreases with increases corrosion can be qualitatively, but not quantitatively observed,
in frequency, and the deeper the corrosion, the greater the since the reflected signals group together.
 6    S.-K. Yanga et al.
Table 1. Coherent noise and attenuation rate induced by different levels of general corrosion.
Test frequency (kHz) Coherent noise (dB)
Level I: 1-mm 20
30
40
Level II: 2-mm 20
30
40
Level III: 4-mm 20
30
40
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Figure 8. Attenuation rate of the Guided wave caused by general corrosion.
For the case of detecting severe local corrosion within a gen-
eral corrosion section of the pipe, the amplitude of the coher-
ent noise induced by general corrosion is a key factor, since the
detection threshold of the test, in general, is 6 dB higher than the
noise level. Table 1 shows the numerical results of the coherent
noise and the corresponding detection threshold for the T(0, 1)
guided wave impinging on different levels of general corrosion.
For general corrosion Level III, severe local corrosion is hard to
detect if the coherent noise is high.
To evaluate the amount of energy of the propagating guided
wave attenuated by the general corrosion, this paper defines the
attenuation rate (dB/m) by the following equation:
20 A
Attenuation rate = log W1
L AW2
Where L is the length of the general corrosion area; AW1 is the
amplitude of the reflection of the first weld, W1, in front of the
general corrosion area; and AW2 is the amplitude of the reflection
of the second weld, W2, at the back of the general corrosion area.
Figure 8 plots the attenuation rate using the simulation results,
and shows that the general corrosion of depths of 1 and 2 mm
have only a low attenuation rate when the frequency increases
from 20 to 40 kHz. As listed in Table 1, the numbers in the Level
I case of a 1  mm depth are from −0.82 to −1.43  dB/m and, in
the Level II case of a 2  mm depth, from −1.09 to −3.03  dB/m.
However, the results in the Level III case of a 4 mm depth differ
dramatically when the frequency increases from 20 to 40  kHz,
with the attenuation rate decreasing significantly from −5.76 to
−23.19 dB/m due to a higher cross sectional loss than in the 1
and 2 mm cases. Another reason for the huge attenuation of the
case is that in the 4 mm depth, more modes convert from the
Detection threshold (dB) Attenuation rate (dB/m)
−30 −24 −0.82
−36 −30 −1.40
−39 −33 −1.43
−23 −17 −1.09
−29 −23 −2.52
−35 −29 −3.03
−14 −8 −5.76
−16 −10 −12.65
−18 −12 −23.19
T(0, 1) mode; this fact can also be observed from the large ampli-
tude of the red corrosion signal as shown in Figures 6 and 7.
5.2.  Visualization of guided wave propagation through
general corrosion in pipes
Figure 9 fulfills the possibility of visualizing guided wave prop-
agation in pipes, which contributes to our understanding of
the phenomenon of the interaction between the T(0, 1) mode
and the general corrosion on the pipe. From Figure 9, it is pos-
sible to visualize the T(0, 1) mode in the pipe reflecting some
energy when it impinges on the general corrosion, and part of
that energy propagating through the general corrosion area. A
comparison of the color distribution in Figure 9(a) and (b) shows
more energy reflected from the Level III general corrosion than
from the Level II general corrosion. It can also be seen that the
propagating energy beyond the general corrosion area is atten-
uated more seriously in the case of Level III than in the case of
Level II.
6.  Experimental setup and results
6.1.  Guided wave equipment
An array ring made of transducers generates the desired guided
wave mode by inducing a vibration on the pipe surface if the vibra-
tion matches the wave structure of the wave mode. Figure 10 shows
a photograph of the guided wave testing system, WaveMaker G3,
and a schematic diagram of the typical testing configuration used
in our experiments. The array ring, used to generate the desired
T(0, 1) mode, comprised a fixed number of shear-polarized piezo-
electric transducer elements, with the elements clamped to the
pipe surface with a collar. Note that the desired inspecting mode
of the test was implemented by adjusting the vibration type of the
array elements at the excited frequency. The transducer rings were
dry coupled to the surface, and classified as either solid (used for
pipe size ≦ 4-inch) or inflatable (used for pipe size ≧ 6-inch). The
WaveMaker Pipe Screening System G3 consists of the ultrasonic
guided wave array ring, the WaveMaker instrument, power sup-
ply, computer, and cables, as shown in Figure 10(a). To complete
the guided wave testing of a 6-inch pipe, the array ring was first
wrapped around the pipe and inflated to 20 psi, as shown in Figure
10(b). After the ring, the instrument and the computer were con-
nected, signals with different frequencies were used to generate
the torsional mode, T(0, 1), propagating forward and backward
on the pipe. Features such as bends, supports, welds, and defects
reflected the guided waves, while the same transducer ring
received the reflected signals. All features in the scanned section
 Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers   7

Figure 9. Snap shot of the guided wave propagation on general corrosion.

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Figure 10. (a) The photograph of the guided wave testing system Wavemaker G3 and; (b) the schematic diagram of a typical guided wave testing configuration.

Figure 11. A-scan and C-scan representation of the guided wave data. (a) The coordinate system used in both representations; (b) this view shows amplitude of signal both
as a function of distance from the ring and a function of location around the circumference of the pipe.

of the pipe were detected at one measurement, and the results The circumferential location was measured in a counterclockwise
presented by the A-scan and C-scan display. The coordinate system direction in the forward direction of the wave propagation, while
used in the A-scan and C-scan displays is shown in Figure 11(a). the axial location was measured from the distance between the
 8    S.-K. Yanga et al.
array ring and the feature. For example, in Figure 11(b), the lower
and upper parts of the diagram show the A- and C-scan display,
respectively; also, there is a gray band between the A- and C-scans
representing the schematic diagram of the pipe system under test.
On the gray band, a black vertical short line represents a weld, a
black dot minor corrosion, a blue exclamation point medium corro-
sion, and a red exclamation point represents severe corrosion. The
reflected signals shown in the A-scan display are the T(0, 1) mode
plotted in black and the F(1, m) mode plotted in red. The gray area
is the near field of the array ring, and the green bar is the dead zone
of the measuring distance. The horizontal axis is the distance from
the setup position of the array ring, and the vertical scale is the
reflected amplitude in millivolts. It is important to note that the sig-
nal in the dead zone at zero distance cannot be collected, and that
the amplitude of the reflected signal in the near field is for referen-
tial purposes only and neither measured nor calculated in the test.
The two dashed lines are the weld and call level distance amplitude
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correction (DAC) curves. In reference to the DAC curves, the natural
energy attenuation of the propagating wave due to the pipe itself
can be compensated for, which means that the amplitude of the
echo located at different distances from the zero position can be
rectified when reading the display. As shown in the A-scan d ­ isplay
in Figure 11(b), the weld level DAC is calculated using the four weld
reflections. Between the welds of W5 and W6, there are three dom-
inant indication echoes along the pipe: the first two echoes, CD1
and CD2, represent the reflected signals of two circumferential
defects; the third echo, P1, is the reflected signal of multiple pits.
The three signals, characterized by strong red-colored echoes,
show the red signal to be more significant than the black signal;
that is, when the symmetric T(0, 1) mode propagates through the
anti-symmetric defects, strong mode conversion behavior occurs at
that position and leads to a large reflected F(1, m) mode. The results
of the C-scan display show the circumferential distribution of the
three indications around the pipe. In the C-scan display, the hori-
zontal axis denotes the distance from the position of the array ring,
Figure 12. Photo of the guided wave experimental setup.
and the vertical axis denotes the circumferential location around
the pipe from 0° to 360°, as shown in Figure 11(a). The images of
the C-scan display, processed by imaging algorithms, show the
amplitude of the reflected signals over the unwrapped wall of the
pipe, with the three big indications, CD1, CD2, and P1, confirmed
by the three asymmetric bands of color with peaks at 90°, 90°, and
0°, respectively.
The operating frequency is an important factor for guided
wave generation and defect detection. As for the wave propa-
gation aspect, the behavior of guided wave modes in pipes is
different for different pipe sizes. The parameter of the frequency
regime (FR), associated with the pipe dimension and the operat-
ing frequency, is used to normalize the effect of the pipe dimen-
sion. The WaveMaker G3 automatically specifies the FR of the
excitation signals by a value from 0.0 to 4.0 in the experimental
study. In this standard FR, guided wave testing involves long-
range inspection of both the bare pipe and the coated pipe, and
the estimated results of any reflected features in the C-scan are
determined in the standard FR. Note that the operating frequency
range of the 6-inch pipe used in our experiment was 21–34 kHz.
6.2.  Experimental results of detecting severe corrosion on
medium level general corrosion
Figure 12 shows a photograph of a refinery factory. The
WaveMaker G3 was used to measure the extent of the severe
corrosion in the general overall corrosion of the pipeline. The
6-inch test pipe used in the experiment was made to resemble
the actual configuration by the welding of a new pipe and an old
pipe cut from an out-of-service pipeline in the refinery factory.
When the old bitumen coating was removed from the old pipe,
medium general corrosion was revealed, as expected. Since the
original bitumen coating of the old pipe had degraded during
the period of service, the corrosive nature of the environment
had induced a certain wall loss on the pipe. Figure 13 shows

Figure 13. Reflected signal of the test pipe at (a) 20 kHz and (b) 30 kHz.
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Figure 14. Photo and 3D laser profile of the corrosion B.
the test pipe with four welds and one naturally corroded sec-
tion: the section from weld W1 to W2 is the new pipe, and the
rest is the old pipe; the array ring was set between W1 and W2
to avoid the occurrence of false signals. The complete testing
signal included all the features of the test pipe: four welds, the
overall general corrosion and one area of severe local corrosion,
which was considered severe since the reflected signals of T(0, 1)
and F(1, m) exceeded the call level DAC curve, as shown in Figure
13(b). The W2 and W3 signs, shown in Figure 14, represent the
location of the welds on the test pipe, with distances from the
array ring of 4.5 and 7.7  m, respectively. The corrosion at the
location between W2 and W3 are designated as corrosion A and
corrosion B. The general corrosion A has disorderly distribution
in area and untidy change in depth, which led to lower ampli-
tudes of coherent noise along the axial direction. A compari-
son of Figures 13(a) and (b) shows the coherent noise induced
by general corrosion A to be greater at 20 kHz than at 30 kHz;
the attenuation of the guided wave was −0.05 dB/m at 20 kHz
and less than −1.66 dB/m at 30 kHz. Note that in Figure 13(b),
the higher frequency used to reduce the coherent noise led to
the finding of the dominant signal of corrosion B; in addition, the
Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers   9
dominant reflection at the high frequency revealed corrosion B
to be an area of localized severe corrosion around the circum-
ference of the pipe. The Figure 14 photograph of the test pipe
shows corrosion B and its 3D laser profile. The corrosion map
was plotted as an image from the data measured by the 3D laser
technique; the maximum depth of corrosion B was 3.49 mm, 0.5
times the original wall thickness of the pipe.
7.  Inspection of general corrosion on pipeline in a
culvert
Guided wave testing can also be used to inspect inaccessi-
ble areas of pipelines. The following details two cases of a
pipe in a culvert, where the pipe is prone to corrosion due to
the combined effect of a corrosive atmosphere and a humid
environment.
7.1.  Case I: medium general corrosion
The guided wave inspection was conducted on a 15  m-long
­section of pipe in a culvert. As shown in the upper right of Figure
 10    S.-K. Yanga et al.
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Figure 15. Testing signal and photo of medium general corrosion on pipe.
Figure 16. Testing signal and photo of severe general corrosion on pipe.
15, the array ring was set on the pipe near the entrance of the
culvert and configured to generate and receive the torsional
mode, T(0, 1). In Figure 15, each peak in the A-scan display rep-
resents a reflection from a pipe feature, such as pipe supports,
welds and the expected corrosion; the reflection of the pipe
supports and welds shows a high amplitude, while the reflec-
tion of the corrosion shows a lower amplitude. The figure also
shows that a number of small peaks distributed near the weld
+F5 induced the general corrosion; they resulted in coherent
noise and attenuated the propagating guided wave at the rate
of −2.4 dB/m. To compare the guided wave analysis result with
the real condition of the general corrosion, visual testing (VT)
was also performed on this pipe. The VT result showed general
corrosion with a depth of 1.5–2.5 mm distributed along one sec-
tion of the 5 m-long pipe.
7.2.  Case II: severe general corrosion
The guided wave inspection was conducted on an 18 m-long sec-
tion of pipe in a culvert, as shown on the right side of Figure 16. The
reflections from the pipe supports and welds are shown on the
left side of the figure. In the negative direction, the reflection of
the welds showed a higher amplitude, and the base of the signal
showed lower coherent noise. In the positive direction, the area
indicated as +F1 and located 2.0 m away from the array ring was
identified as severe general corrosion, since its reflected signals
of T(0, 1) and F(1, m) almost exceeded the call level DAC curve.
The figure also shows that a number of small peaks distributed
before the bend +F4 induced general corrosion. They resulted in
the coherent noise and attenuated the propagating guided wave
at the rate of −10  dB/m. To compare the guided wave analysis
result with the real condition of the general corrosion, VT was also
performed on this pipe. The VT results showed there to be gen-
eral corrosion with a depth of 4.5–5.5 mm distributed along a 2 m
section of the pipe.
8. Conclusion
In this paper, the propagation of guided waves in general
corrosion on a pipeline was investigated by means of simu-
lation and the experimental method. The general corrosion
induced coherent noise and attenuated the wave energy of

the propagating guided wave. At the same frequency, the
deeper the general corrosion, the greater the coherent noise
and the larger the attenuation rate of the guided wave. For
the same level of general corrosion, using a higher frequency
reduced the coherent noise, but also reduced the energy of
the propagating guided wave. The qualitative results obtained
from the numerical simulations and the site inspection cases
showed a good agreement. The results obtained from this
research will help inspectors understand the impact of guided
waves impinging on areas of general corrosion, as well as how
to distinguish localized corrosion within an area of general
corrosion.
Nomenclature
Vph velocity of the individual peaks within the wave packet
Vgr velocity at which a guided wave packet travels at a given
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frequency
AW amplitude of the reflection of the weld
λ wavelength
f frequency
Le length with the element size
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Science and Technology for
financially supporting this research.
Funding
This work was financially supported by the Ministry of Science and
Technology [contract number MOST 103-2221-E-110-025].
Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers   11
References
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