Guided Wave Testing for the detection of Corrosion Under Insulation (CUI) in pipes and pipelines.

摘要

Corrosion under insulation is a degradation phenomenon that affects pipes and pipelines in the petrochemical and other industries. The removal of the insulation to enable a close visual inspection of the pipes is generally expensive and alternative inspection methods that would enable early detection of problems under the insulation are highly desirable. Guided Wave Testing enables inspection of a relative long length of pipe from a single test location. In order to carry out the test on an insulated pipe a small length of insulation needs to be removed. This is therefore an approach that can be used in which the insulation removal is kept to a minimum while up to 100% of the axial section under investigation can be covered. Both Guided Wave Screening and Guided Wave monitoring concepts can be very useful for detection of CUI and examples of these approaches are presented in this article.