Digital Radiological Techniques for Corrosion Inspection

Uwe Zscherpel, Oleksandr Alekseychuk, Uwe Ewert,

Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM)
Unter den Eichen 87, D 12205 Berlin, Germany
Telephone: +49 30 8104 3677
Telefax: +49 30 8115089
E-mail: uwe.zscherpel@bam.de

Peter Rost,
BASF AG,
D 67056 Ludwigshafen, Germany

Abstract

The radiographic corrosion inspection of pipes and similar objects is based on the
evaluation of shadow projections. The wall thickness can be determined from the
distance of the projected outer and inner surface of the pipe wall, corrected by the
magnification factor due to the central projection. Visual evaluation uncertainties and
the geometrical unsharpness of the edge projection can provoke considerable
measurement errors. The numerical analysis of digital profiles across the pipe image
enhances the accuracy of the wall thickness measurements. The digital data can be
obtained from digitised radiographic films, imaging plates (Computed Radiography) or
flat panel detectors. The automated detection of the outer and inner wall surface of the
pipe is done usually by edge detection and filter algorithms of the profile line at the
position under investigation. These algorithms will usually fail with low signal-to-noise-
ratio, with increasing unsharpness and increasing wall thickness, but allow still a wider
application range than the visual film inspection on a light box. The tangential
technique can be complemented by the evaluation of corrosion defects elsewhere in the
pipe. This eliminates the need to re-inspect pipe sections with other orientations of
radiographic source and detector using the tangential technique. The digital data of
defect indications can be evaluated to access the defect depth in radiation direction.

1. Introduction

Since more than 50 years the radiographic tangential projection technique is used in
German chemical industries for on-line quality assessment of insulated pipe
installations. The inspection principle is shown in fig.1. In a research project between
BASF and BAM a PC based software tool was developed /1/ and validated to replace
the visual film evaluation on a light box with a ruler or caliper by an interactive program
with integrated protocol features for routine usage in the chemical industry. The digital
data can be obtained from digitised radiographic films, imaging plates (Computed
Radiography) or flat panel detectors.

2. Computer based tangential projection technique

The wall thickness measurement in tangential projection technique is based on the

evaluation of profile plots along the pipe diameter as shown in fig.1. For practical
reasons (wall thickness range, mobile application) Iridium 192 is used dominantly as
radiation source. The detection of the profile edges gives the projected wall thickness in
pixels of the image data. The next step of data processing is the compensation of the
magnification factor in the used tangential projection method. The exact calculation
procedure of the magnification factor is found in /2/.

a) classical set-up: pipe

film,
line
radiation source, imaging
Ir 192 plate,
or
flate
panel

b) typical exposure:
insulation

profile line

Fig.1: Tangential inspection technique for insulated pipes, a) experimental set-up

for the enlarged shadow projection of the pipe on the different image detectors, b)
typical exposure with evaluation points for wall thickness measurement.

Fig.2 shows the developed user interface. The user draws the profile plot interactively
with the mouse across the wall of the pipe. The computer returns the calculated wall
thickness according to our specially designed edge detection algorithm and marks the
detected edge positions of the profile in the image (ticks perpendicular to the profile
indication). Depending on the look up table, which is used to display the image on the
monitor, the position of these ticks can appear at “wrong” positions in the displayed
image for the visual evaluation. Therefore, it is very important to detect the edges of the
profile on the original data set, which has a gray value resolution of 12 to 16 bits
(depending on the AD converter implemented). For calculation of the measurement
accuracy several parallel profiles are evaluated and their mean values and standard
deviations are used as measurement result. The standard deviation enables the
evaluation of the measurement accuracy in dependence on the wall thickness.
All measured wall thickness results as well as an overview image can be stored in a one
page report generated by this program for export into further quality management
software.
The basic advantage of the computer based algorithms is the higher precision of
measurement and an enlarged application range for the tangential technique compared
with the visual film inspection. The accuracy of the presented method was verified
using test pipes with various diameters and wall thicknesses (see fig.3). The wall
thickness could be determined within an accuracy of better than 0.2 mm. A newly
developed algorithm, CTPWT, derived from Computed Tomography, enhances the
accuracy and stability of this technique /3/.

a)

b)

c)

d)

Fig. 2: User Interface of the program “wtScope”. a) window with geometrical set-
up and input parameters, b) table with list of wall thickness measurements, c)
profile plot with detected wall positions, d) wall thickness deviations in the
measurement region for error calculation

a) steel test pipe DN 200 b) steel test pipe DN 150

0,6 0,6

0,4 0,4

0,2 0,2
deviation / mm

d ev iatio n / m m

0 BASF alt 0 BASF alt

BASF neu BASF neu
-0,2 CTPWT -0,2 CTPWT

-0,4 -0,4

-0,6 -0,6

-0,8 -0,8
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
wall thickness / mm wall thickness / mm

Fig. 3: Validation results for different stepped steel pipes and different wall
detection algorithms, a) steel pipe with 200 mm diameter and up to 8 mm wall
thickness, b) steel pipe with 150 mm diameter and up to 10 mm wall thickness;
deviations up to ± 0.2mm are acceptable for practical applications.
3. Corrosion Assessment from Local Intensity Changes

The tangential technique can be complemented by the evaluation of corrosion defects

elsewhere in the pipe /4/. This eliminates the need to re-inspect pipe sections from other
orientations using the tangential technique. The digital data of the indications can be
used to calculate the defect depth in radiation direction. An intensity change caused by a
corrosion indication relative to the non-corroded pipe is evaluated according to Beer’s
absorption law (see fig.4).

pipe erosion
source
w-∆w
intensity change, ∆I

detector

absorption law : Iw = I0 e -µw µ-effective absorption coefficient

relative measurement: 2 step algorithm

1. Calibration : µeff = ln ( IREF / IIQI ) / ∆wIQI

2. Measurement : ∆w = ln ( IREF / IMEAS ) / µeff
Fig. 4: Measurement principle for corrosion assessment from local density
changes. Only wall thickness changes relative to a reference wall thickness can be
calculated.

In practice the simple equation in fig. 4 does not apply exactly due to the fact that µ
depends on the radiation energy and the influence of scattered radiation generated by
the penetrated object and the near environment (e.g. concrete support). In principle it is
only possible to determine a changed wall thickness in penetration direction from
absorption variation. No absolute wall thickness values can be obtained in this way
contrary to the tangential method. Modern NDT film systems (with Pb screens) are very
linear X-ray detectors as well as CR with imaging plates or flat panel detectors.
To determine the wall thickness change ∆w it is necessary to know the effective
absorption coefficient µeff for the given radiation energy and the nominal wall thickness
w. The coefficient µeff can be determined from the digital image, if a wall thickness
change is known. E.g. a step hole IQI according to ASTM or a CEN test wedge may be
used as such a wall thickness gauge for ∆wIQI.
There are many practical applications where no known wall thickness changes can be
obtained from the radiographic film, because the operator did not know that such a
feature is important for the evaluation. Our investigation shows that in this case µeff can
be determined also from a step wedge exposure with the same film system class, the
same radiation energy and the same nominal wall thickness.
The implemented user interface is shown in fig. 5. For noise suppression the linearised
gray values are integrated over areas, which are displayed as dashed red overlays on the
image. These overlays can be moved with the PC-mouse to any reference and
measurement positions.

Measurement of
local corrosion

measure point
pitting depth: 3mm

known wall thickness

at reference point reference point

result : local penetrated

wall thickness in mm
(error ca. 0.2 mm)

Fig. 5: User interface for local corrosion measurements in “wtScope”.

4. Conclusions

The presented PC-program allows determining wall thicknesses interactively employing

different automated algorithms. Data from any kind of digital image detectors can be
evaluated. The result includes not only mean values, but also measurement errors. The
basic advantages of the computer based evaluation are the higher precision of
measurement and an enlarged application range compared with visual film inspection.

References

/1/ U. Zscherpel, O. Alekseychuk, C. Bellon, U. Ewert, BAM Berlin, P. Rost, M.

Schmid, BASF AG Ludwigshafen: Korrosionsmapping an Rohrleitungen,
DGZfP-Berichtsband 80 auf CD, Jahrestagung 2002 Weimar
/2/ P. Willems, B. Vaessen, W. Hueck, U. Ewert, U. Zscherpel "Applicability of CR
for corrosion and Wall Thickness Measurements", proceedings of the 7th
ECNDT, Copenhagen, 1998, pp 2774 - 2781
/3/ Y. Onel, U. Ewert, P. Willems, "Radiographic Wall Thickness Measurement of
Pipes by a New Tomographic Algorithm", proceedings of the 15th WCNDT,
Roma, 2000, Paper 369
/4/ U. Zscherpel, C. Bellon, R. Nimtz, "Wall Thickness Estimation from Digitized
Radiographs", proceedings of the 7th ECNDT, Copenhagen, 1998, pp 2819 -
2825