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PRCI PR-185-04500
- Ultrsonic Inspection of Hot Tap Branch Connections and Weld Sleeve-Fillet Weld using Phased Arrays
- Report / Survey by Pipeline Research Council International, 08/09/2006
- Publisher: PRCI
$98.00$195.00
L52236e
Edison Welding Institute
Need: Given the critical nature of pipelines and the consequences of structural failure, designers are adopting reliability and fitness-for-purpose (FFP) design methods to ensure that structural integrity can be guaranteed throughout the entire design life. The use of reliability and FFP-based design methods requires the use of improved assessment and inspection techniques that can reliably detect and size fabrication flaws produced during construction and repair. Over the last five years, automated ultrasonic testing (AUT) has been used increasingly in cross-country and offshore pipeline construction to improve defect detection and sizing reliability. However, even with advanced AUT methods, there are still uncertainties in defect detection and sizing using the current zonal discrimination, amplitude-based approach. In order to reliably apply FFP-based design and construction methods to both current and next-generation high-strength, high-pressure, cross-country, and offshore pipelines there is a need to define the performance and limitations of current AUT methods and develop improved multi-transducer AUT and phased-array (PA) AUT systems to detect, locate, and size flaws and to resolve distance between potentially interacting defects.
Result: During the course of this study, various imaging and data fusion (data-combining) techniques were evaluated to determine their effectiveness for improving flaw detection and sizing. The popular imaging techniques, as well as recent advancements that can be beneficial for girth weld inspection are explained in the report. The effort on the development of improved AUT imaging program is described. A methodology in representing PA UT inspection data in 3D has been investigated, and some promising results were found. Additionally, some of the filtering techniques that proved to be useful in real-work applications are also demonstrated.
Benefit: This report presents results from a project jointly supported by U.S. DOT/PRCI/EWI and that extends previous EWI work to include an evaluation of the emerging phased-array (PA) automated ultrasonic testing (AUT) method and further assess the performance of AUT and PA AUT techniques to detect and size flaws in the current pipelines with a relatively wide range of wall thickness. During the course of this study, various imaging and data fusion (data-combining) techniques were evaluated to determine their effectiveness for improving flaw detection and sizing. The popular imaging techniques, as well as recent advancements that can be beneficial for girth weld inspection are explained in the report. The effort on the development of improved AUT imaging program is described. A methodology in representing PA UT inspection data in 3D has been investigated, and some promising results were found. Additionally, some of the filtering techniques that proved to be useful in real-work applications are also demonstrated.
Edison Welding Institute
Need: Given the critical nature of pipelines and the consequences of structural failure, designers are adopting reliability and fitness-for-purpose (FFP) design methods to ensure that structural integrity can be guaranteed throughout the entire design life. The use of reliability and FFP-based design methods requires the use of improved assessment and inspection techniques that can reliably detect and size fabrication flaws produced during construction and repair. Over the last five years, automated ultrasonic testing (AUT) has been used increasingly in cross-country and offshore pipeline construction to improve defect detection and sizing reliability. However, even with advanced AUT methods, there are still uncertainties in defect detection and sizing using the current zonal discrimination, amplitude-based approach. In order to reliably apply FFP-based design and construction methods to both current and next-generation high-strength, high-pressure, cross-country, and offshore pipelines there is a need to define the performance and limitations of current AUT methods and develop improved multi-transducer AUT and phased-array (PA) AUT systems to detect, locate, and size flaws and to resolve distance between potentially interacting defects.
Result: During the course of this study, various imaging and data fusion (data-combining) techniques were evaluated to determine their effectiveness for improving flaw detection and sizing. The popular imaging techniques, as well as recent advancements that can be beneficial for girth weld inspection are explained in the report. The effort on the development of improved AUT imaging program is described. A methodology in representing PA UT inspection data in 3D has been investigated, and some promising results were found. Additionally, some of the filtering techniques that proved to be useful in real-work applications are also demonstrated.
Benefit: This report presents results from a project jointly supported by U.S. DOT/PRCI/EWI and that extends previous EWI work to include an evaluation of the emerging phased-array (PA) automated ultrasonic testing (AUT) method and further assess the performance of AUT and PA AUT techniques to detect and size flaws in the current pipelines with a relatively wide range of wall thickness. During the course of this study, various imaging and data fusion (data-combining) techniques were evaluated to determine their effectiveness for improving flaw detection and sizing. The popular imaging techniques, as well as recent advancements that can be beneficial for girth weld inspection are explained in the report. The effort on the development of improved AUT imaging program is described. A methodology in representing PA UT inspection data in 3D has been investigated, and some promising results were found. Additionally, some of the filtering techniques that proved to be useful in real-work applications are also demonstrated.
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