Guided UT wave inspection of insulated feedwater piping using magnetostrictive sensors

摘要

Abstract: Due to failures in power plant feedwater piping, inspection of these components has become a priority item. The major reason for the failures is wall loss due to flow-accelerated corrosion on the inside diameter (ID) of the pipes. It can be very costly to use standard nondestructive testing (NDT) techniques for a comprehensive inspection due to the need to remove large areas of insulation. Guided UT waves can travel through the pipe over long distances and detect cross- sectional changes in the pipe wall with minimal insulation removal. This makes the guided UT wave an excellent candidate for locating significant wall loss due to corrosion and pitting. Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has developed a simple and robust technology for generating and receiving guided UT waves based on magnetorestrictive sensors. Signals are generated and detected in the pipe via multi-turn coils acting as transmitters and receivers. Insulation removal is only required where the coils are attached to the pipe and this allows many meters of pipe to be inspected from a single location. Guided UT waves detect cross-sectional changes from corrosion on both the ID and outside diameter of the pipe and can also be used to map weld locations. This paper describes SwRIs systems and the preliminary results from testing on a feedwater pipe mockup containing simulated flow-accelerated corrosion. !7