Development of techniques for detection and dissolution enhancement of mineral deposits in petroleum pipelines using ultrasound.

Scale formation in petroleum pipelines causes progressive flow reductions, leading to large production losses and operating costs. The composition and thickness of the scale deposits vary widely, but with present technology they cannot be accurately quantified or monitored. Remedial treatments such as chemical de-scaling etc. are therefore largely based on guesswork, which can lead to expensive chemical wastage and production shutdowns. This project is intended to address some of the above problems using ultrasonic techniques. Work presented in this thesis branches out into two main areas of interest, namely: (a) developments concerning location of deposits from both top-side and down-hole locations; and (b) developments relating to enhancement of scale removal, using ultrasound. With regard to top-side scale detection, the major challenge in this work was to develop a technique by which acoustic signatures are synthetically generated, which can be used with the techniques previously developed for pipeline inspection. This required the determination of a suitable type of transducer and the study of its radiation characteristics in developing comprehensive mathematical models for artificially generating reference echoes. The model allowed the first three multiple echoes (in steel objects) to be computed for given test parameters. Close agreement of the synthesised echoes with practical measurements was demonstrated with good repeatability. An essential requirement for the detection of deposits in down-hole is the accurate alignment of the test probes with respect to the pipe-wall. In this regard, a novel technique for remote alignment of the transducers was successfully formulated. It is based on identifying symmetrical properties of the signals received from the test probe itself when scanned around the correct angular position with respect to the target. However, through extensive practical measurements, it was found that an important requirement for applying this technique is to know in advance whether a particular combination of probe, target diameter and separation distance would give satisfactory angular resolution. Extensive practical examination of these factors showed that no general conclusion can easily be drawn with respect to this requirement. Therefore a mathematical model was successfully developed, which would predict the suitability of given probe/target parameters. It has been reported in previous studies that ultrasonic irradiation could greatly enhance the chemical dissolution of localised deposits during de-scaling operations. In this regard, a major challenge was to improve the efficiency of power transducers radiating into confined spaces at elevated temperatures. That required the study of radiation characteristics of ultrasonic power transducers and compensation techniques to regain loss of efficiency at elevated temperatures. Alternative types of transducers - based on flexural-horn designs - were also investigated and their relative merits presented. Significant findings related to the performance variations of ultrasonic transducers and transmission cables at elevated temperatures have been made. After examining the transducer efficiency drop with temperature, a closed-loop compensation strategy was proposed for maintaining optimal performance. The matching requirements of the cables transmitting power from top-side to down-hole power transducers were also investigated as part of optimisation of ultrasonic power output. From this study it was found that, within the temperature range of interest, the cable in itself does not require changes to the matching requirements as the environmental temperature fluctuates. However, it was noted that the transducer impedance changes rapidly with temperature and therefore a unified compensation strategy incorporating both cable and transducer impedances was proposed as a better solution. Overall, the main objectives of the project concerning pipeline scale detection were well achieved, namely: (a) modelling of a suitable type of ultrasonic transducer to synthesise the reference multiple echoes to aid top-side scale detection; and (b) development of a remote sensing technique for ultrasonic probe alignment in downhole pipes. With regard to dissolution enhancement, techniques for enhancing power output of ultrasonic transducers to aid dissolution enhancement of scale deposits have been determined. Further work includes the improvements to software algorithms developed and hardware integration to achieve the expected performance of the techniques presented

The Detection of Stress Corrosion Cracking in Natural Gas Pipelines Using Electromagnetic Acoustic Transducers

This thesis describes the refinement of a non-destructive, in-line inspection system sensor for the detection of stress corrosion cracks (SCCs) in natural gas pipelines. The sensors are prototype electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs) for noncontact ultrasonic inspection. The focus areas discussed involve the statistically validated performance improvements achieved through the addition of 12 more features, the addition of Principal Component Analysis plus Linear Discriminant Analysis (PCA+LDA) to the classification algorithm, and most significantly the creating of a training set. The training set allowed PCA+LDA to be included in the classification algorithm, as well as allowing one set of no-flaw signature features, one PCA projection matrix, and one LDA projection matrix to be used on multiple pipes and on multiple scanned paths from a pipe. A discrete wavelet decomposition is used to separate the frequency content of each EMAT sample (signature) into five distinct bands. From these decomposed signatures, features are extracted for classification. The classification begins with the projection of the features using the PCA projection matrix derived from the training set, immediately followed by the projection of the PCA projected features using the LDA projection matrix that was also derived from the training set. Finally, the PCA+LDA projected features are classified based on their Mahalanobis distances from the PCA+LDA projected no-flaw training set features. Using the improved feature set and this classification procedure, SCC identification improved 14% and there was an 80% reduction in the number of false positives. In addition, there was a 30% improvement in the detection of the most critical SCCs. SCCs whose average through wall depths were between 35% and 54%

Inspection by ultrasonic tomography (UT) leading trend in welding joint monitoring

Welding work is a connection process between the structure and the materials. This process is used in the construction, maintenance and repair especially mechanical engineering. This study discusses the type of welding used in the industry, mainly involving the pipeline welds. On-demand need to every work process when finishing weld requires quality tests to ensure compliance to the standards required. Monitoring through the display image has long been used in Non-Destructive Testing (NDT). Various methods of monitoring used in NDT focused on Ultrasonic Tomography (UT) as a method used in NDT and as an option for the future. Previous imaging result was in two-dimensional (2D) and then upgraded to a three-dimensional image (3D). Besides, there is potential of 3D imaging beyond the existing limits in terms of size, material thickness, especially for welding steel pipes. Achievement through research of existing pipe size so far outside diameter of 200 mm and a thickness of 5.8 mm should be limited in view of the obstacles to enhanced image resolution is less effective when compared to other tomography methods