Arno Volker: Guided Wave Travel Time Tomography for Quantitative wall thickness mapping



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The concept of predictive maintenance using permanent sensors that monitor the integrity of an installation is an interesting addition to the current method of periodic inspections. Guided wave tomography had been developed to create a map of the wall thickness using the travel times of guided waves. It can be used for both monitoring and for inspection of pipe-segments that are difficult to access, for instance at the location of pipe-supports. An important outcome of the tomography is the minimum remaining wall thickness, as this is critical in the scheduling of a replacement of the pipe-segment. In order to improve the sizing accuracy we have improved the tomography scheme. A number of major improvements have been realized allowing to extend the application envelope to pipes with a larger wall thickness and to larger distances between the transducer rings. Simulation results indicate that the sizing accuracy has improved and that is now possible to have a spacing of 8 meter between the source-ring and the receiver-ring. Good sizing performance is achieved even for deep, nearly through the wall, corrosion spots. Additionally a reduction of the number of sensors required might be possible as well. Experimental results using EMAT’s indicate the high quality sizing of the remaining wall thickness. Read more at http://www.ndt.net/search/docs.php3?id=16407&content=1

Published by: NDT.net Published at: 9 years ago Category: علمی و تکنولوژی