Corrosion mapping in action

Carbon steel is the most widely used material for piping systems and components across diverse manufacturing and industrial settings such as power plants, oil refineries, and petrochemical plants. However, carbon steel pipes are susceptible to corrosion and other damage, such as metal loss, cracking, and welding defects. These issues pose a grave risk to pipeline integrity and cause serious safety issues. Consequently, it’s essential to perform routine inspections to assess and monitor potential damage, helping prevent unexpected breakdowns, environmental harm, and serious accidents.

Pipeline inspection technology is a growing field, with new technology being used all the time. A critical feature of pipeline inspection is nondestructive testing (NDT), which enables inspectors to examine pipelines for corrosion and mechanical damage without permanently altering the original equipment or structure. Phased array ultrasonic testing (PAUT) is an advanced NDT method that is widely used in pipeline inspections.

Phased array technology involves the use of multielement transducers that are electronically controlled to emit ultrasonic waves at precise angles and timings. By manipulating these parameters, phased array testing can create focused beams of ultrasound that can be steered, scanned, and controlled to effectively examine complex geometries and detect defects such as cracks, corrosion, and weld flaws. This technology offers greater flexibility, accuracy, and efficiency compared to traditional UT methods, making it widely used in the oil and gas industry for quality assurance and asset integrity assessment.

Using PAUT, the Evident HydroFORMTM corrosion scanner provides inspectors with a reliable technique to inspect pipelines quickly and efficiently. Using the next-generation HydroFORM corrosion scanner with the OmniScanTM X3 flaw detector provides a complete solution for corrosion mapping. This pairing facilitates precise measurement of material thickness, simultaneous mapping of internal and external corrosion, and the detection of midwall damage, significantly streamlining the corrosion inspection process.

A streamlined inspection process with dual-axis encoders

Building on the field-validated design of its predecessor, the semi-automated HydroFORM scanner now integrates dual-axis encoders, delivering a complete 2-axis corrosion mapping solution without the need for an auxiliary scanner. This advancement facilitates the capture of high-resolution data of large surfaces in minimal time, providing more reliable data and deeper insights for repair and longevity assessment.

The HydroFORM scanner is a proven solution for inspecting internal corrosion in pipes. Its distinctive low-flow water-column design, coupled with foam gaskets, conforms seamlessly to surfaces, eliminating the need for a wedge. The reduced water requirement in the new probe streamlines efficiency, particularly during operations where continuous water feed might not be available. This accelerates the entire process, which can be particularly important when working in more dangerous or physically demanding environments.

Providing excellent surface conformance and coupling conditions, even on rough surfaces, the HydroFORM scanner easily facilitates phased array pipeline inspections. When used with a multigroup instrument, inspectors can map external corrosion simultaneously with internal corrosion in a single scan. This approach provides C-scan mapping that can be analysed directly on the OmniScan X3 flaw detector, streamlining the inspection process and enhancing…

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Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/special-reports/20062024/corrosion-mapping-in-action/