Guided Wave Attenuation in Pipes Buried in Sand

摘要

Long-range ultrasonic guided wave testing of pipelines is used routinely for detection of corrosion defects in a variety of industries, e.g. petrochemical and energy. When the method is applied to pipelines that are buried in soil, test ranges tend to be significantly compromised compared to those achieved for pipelines above ground because of the attenuation of the guided wave, due to energy leaking into the embedding soil. The attenuation characteristics of guided wave propagation in a pipe buried in sand are investigated using a full scale experimental rig. The apparatus consists of an 8”-diameter, 6-meters long steel pipe embedded over 3 meters in a rectangular container filled with sand and fitted with an air-bladder for the application of overburden pressure. Measurements of the attenuation of the T(0,1) and L(0,2) guided wave modes over a range of sand conditions, including loose, compacted, water saturated and drained, are presented. Attenuation values are found to be in the range of 1-5.5 dB/m. The application of overburden pressure modifies the compaction of the sand and increases the attenuation. The attenuation decreases in the fully water-saturated sand, while it increases in drained sand to values comparable with those obtained for the compacted sand. The attenuation behavior of the torsional guided wave mode is found not to be captured by a uniform soil model; comparison with predictions obtained with the Disperse software suggest that this is likely to be due to a layer of sand adhering to the surface of the pipe.