STUDY OF CORROSION

INSPECTION TECHNIQUES IN
UNDERWATER PIPELINE
TRANSPORTATION

Presentation by
DEEPAK RAMESH
Reg. No:10002635

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Under the guidance of
NAVEEN S
Dept. Of Mechanical Engineering
Amal Jyothi College Of Engineering
 INTRODUCTION
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 Underwater pipelines are main way of oil & gas
transportation, for the sea field
 After continuous usage, it is affected by corrosion and
hence leakage takes place
 It causes a huge loss in economy and affects environment
seriously
 For smooth transportation through it, defects are to be
inspected and detected timely
 Take necessary actions against it after analysing the
position of defect and prevent leakage
 Most favoured inspection techniques are Ultrasonic
inspection and Magnetic Flux Leakage inspection
 Corrosion inspections can be done reliably and precisely,
with these non destructive techniques
 LITERATURE SURVEY
3  1964- Statistics in U.S found 42.73% of pipeline faults results
from corrosion
 1965- Tuboscope company in U.S first applied magnetic flux
leakage device for inspection
 Early of 70’s- Germany pipetronix company made ultrasonic
scan inline inspection device
 Early of 90’s- Shanghai university researched into ultrasonic
pig with probes to scan images
 1990- Brazil adapted instrumented pig for inspection
 2002- improvement in ultrasonic system with guided waves
 2005- development of gas coupled ultrasonic system, first
feeler pig was developed
 2006- inspection using feeler snake pig
 ULTRASONIC INSPECTION
4  PRINCIPLE
 Ultrasonic echoes are emitted by probe on pipe wall
 Time interval for each reflected signals are monitored after
inline inspection
 Variation in signal indicate defects
 Time period of obtained echoes are
proportional to wall thickness
 Thickness can be inspected from:
d=v/f
 distance obtained from 2 successive
reflected echoes gives thickness and
sizing defect
  BASIC STRUCTURE OF DEVICE
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Arrangement of device,
as a vehicle for
inspection is called PIG
(pipeline inspection
gauges)

Sl. no. Parts Functions

1. Probe array Houses a group of probes, for transmit &
receive echoes
2. Inspection module Carry out signal processing
3. Battery module Provide power supply for entire operation
4. Course wheel Used for measuring moving distance
5. Computer module Collects data of signal processing and course
wheel
  MODES OF POWER SPECTRAL ESTIMATION
Sl. no. Off-line estimation On-line estimation
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1. Storing & delivering data after Along with inspection,
completing on-line inspection frequency & wall thickness are
estimated
2. Data storage is high Data storage is greatly
minimised
3. Huge difficulty on data No difficulty at all
compression
4. Have high resolution, test Lacks high speed, poor
accuracy & better anti noise resolution and accuracy
ability

 GAS COUPLED ULTRASONIC TECHNIQUE

 An improvement of conventional ultrasonic technique
 Ordinary technique cannot be used in gas pipelines and need
for liquid couplant(medium)
 Uses newly developed transducers that uses gas as coupling
media
 Compressed nitrogen or methane can be used as it has higher
sound velocity of about 334 & 430 m/s
 ULTRASONIC GUIDED WAVE TECHNIQUE
7  enhancing inspection to different areas, such as in
underground pipelines
 Difference from ordinary technique is boundary is required
for wave propagation
 Uses very low ultrasonic frequencies, between 10- 100 kHz
 Detection range reduced with increase frequencies
 Techniques for generating guide waves:
 Using angle-beam transducer

 Using comb transducer

 ULTRASONIC GUIDED WAVE TECHNIQUE(cont.)
8  ADVANTAGES OF USING GUIDE WAVES
 Inspection over long distances
 100’s of metres can inspected from single probe location
 High sensitivity, instrument become more precise
 Ability to inspect over coatings, insulation and multilayer coating
 Cost effectiveness because of inspection simplicity & speed
 less than 1/20 the cost of normal beam Ultrasonic technique

 ADVANTAGES OF COMB TRANSDUCER

 Can also produce guided waves in low wave velocity composite
materials
 Simple manufacturing technologies are available
 Reduced energy losses
 Higher resolution ability
 More robust & compact
 MAGNET FLUX LEAKAGE INSPECTION
9  ABOUT TECHNIQUE
 Operate in both liquid & gas pipelines
 Detects pitting/ generalised corrosion
 Indirect method, as signal is function of volume of defect
 Pig detect region having change in magnetic response
 BASIC PRINCIPLE
 Smooth surface: flux passes, low reluctance, high permeability
 Defect surface: flux deviates, high reluctance, low permeability
  BASIC STRUCTURE OF DEVICE
 Drive package houses battery for power supply throughout inspection
10  Brushes
 protection against debris & damages
 act as transmitter of flux from detector

 Permanent magnets
 supplies strong magnetic field,
 oriented in opposite direction

 Sensors
 flux leak out is acquired by sensor
 Three sensors oriented within sensor head, measures axial, radial &
circumferential components

 Recorder package collects data from flux passes through magnetic circuit
 FEELER PIGS FOR INSPECTION
11  LIMITATIONS OF CONVENTIONAL PIGS
 Ultrasonic pig- need homogeneity and good acoustic property in
fluids
 Magnetic pigs- need standard diameter, cleaning system, less wall
thickness and inability to inspect welds
 FEELER PIGS
 Consists feeler type sensors distributed over pig’s body
 Measures with angle variation of sticks
 New design- feeler snake pig
 ADVANTAGES
 High tolerance to geometric variations
 Can inspect wide range of wall thickness
 Circumferential welds can be inspected
 FEELER PIGS FOR INSPECTION(cont.)
12  SOME FIELD RESULTS

Sl. Date Inspection tool No. of Results obtained

No. sensors

1 January 16” feeler pig 180 • All welds were detected

2oo5 • No corrosion found
2 July 8” snake feeler 144 • 7.6 km of offshore pipeline
2006 pig were inspected
• Able to inspect welds
3 Novem 24” feeler pig 300 • Founded corrosion in
ber 2007 lower quadrant of pipeline
 CONCLUSION
13  Great deal of R&D is needed to find more reliable methods
than available for preventing hazards related underwater
transportation
 Sufficient study and experiments are conducted over the
past few years & up to a level, achievements are obtained
 Improvements in various parameters of previous
technologies also helps in improving the quality of
techniques
 Improvement in the combined technologies can be achieved
for inspecting underwater & underground pipelines
 Taking suitable preventive measures while laying or during
construction time can prevent corrosion up to an extend
 REFERENCES
14  Shufen Qi, Jiao Liu, Guangfen Jia, “Study of Submarine Pipeline
Corrosion Based on Ultrasonic Detection and wavelet analysis”, IEEE
Journal, 2010
 Dai Bo, Zhang Huiping, Sheng Sha, Dong Jinxi, “An Ultrasonic In-line
Inspection System on Crude Oil Pipelines”, Chinese Control
Conference, Hunan, China, July 26-31, 2007
 Bo Dai, Sha Sheng, Xiaoping Tian, “Research on Multi-probe
Ultrasonic Automated In-line Inspection System of Pipeline
Corrosion”, IEEE journal, China, August 5 - 8, 2007
 SUN LiYing, LI YiBo, “Comparison of Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL)
and Acoustic Emission(AE) Techniques in corrosion Inspection for
Pressure Pipelines”, 31st Chinese Conference, Hefei, China, July 25-
27, 2012
 Bo Dai, Sha Sheng, Xiaoping Tian, “Research on Multi probe
Ultrasonic Automated Inline Inspection System of pipeline corrosion”,
IEEE Journal, 2007
 Joseph L. Rose, “A Baseline and Vision of Ultrasonic Guided Wave
Inspection Potential”, Journal of Pressure Vessel Technology,
AUGUST 2002
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 Paul Shuttleworth, Julie Maupin, Albert Teitsma, “Gas Coupled
Ultrasonic Measurement of Pipeline Wall Thickness”, Journal of
Pressure vessel technology, AUGUST 2005
 Claudio Camerini, Jean Pierre von Der Weid, Miguel Freitas, and
Thiago Salcedo, “The Feeler Snake Pig: A sample way to inspect and
Size corrosion”, The Journal Of Pipeline Engineering, 2-4 October
2007
 Bob Eiber, “Overview of Integrity Assessment Methods for
Pipelines”, Pipeline Safety Consortium, November 2003, page 3-4
 Xing Li, Liang Chen, Xiaohong Zeng, “FEA of Pipeline Magnetic
Flux Leakage NDE”, IEEE Journal, 2009
 Li Xiang, Li Xunbo, CHEN Liang, “Steel pipeline testing using
magnetic flux leakage method”, IEEE Journal, 2008
 Won-Bae Na, Tribikram Kundu, “ Underwater Pipeline Inspection
Using Guided Waves”, ASME Journal, 2002
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