Ultrasonic crack detection focusses on liquid product pipelines, like oil, petroleum products, water, free from gas ingress and homogeneous liquid. For gas pipelines, it can through liquid batching to adapt the process performance and provide accurate data collection and reporting.
Accurate inspection and diagnosis of cracks
In some pipelines that carrying multiphase fluids, slurry, crude, condensate, and raw natural gas often at elevated temperatures are more prone to cracks and crack-like threats than downstream pipelines that deliver refined petroleum products and processed pipeline quality gas. Axial cracking or crack propagation occurs due to hoop-stress generated in pipe wall resulting from operating pressure contained in the pipeline.
Circumferential cracking or crack propagation occurs due to bending and longitudinal stresses caused due to geotechnical movements in soil or operational extremities. So, initiation of all such cracks require a structural anomaly created in the pipe wall at any stage such as During pipe manufacture in pipe mill or transportation, During pipeline construction as a result of fabrication or welding, During pipeline operation due to mechanical stress or damage.
Wohner Power System ensure prudent QA/QC procedures that minimize the creation of such structural anomalies during line pipe procurement and pipeline construction.
Ultrasonic Crack Detection has been developed based on the basic principle of wall thickness measurement of pipelines through the use of Piezoelectric transducers – Piezoelectric crystals undergo a repeated change in size and shape with the application of AC voltage causing oscillation and generation of ultrasonic sound frequency.