Simulations and experiments for the detection of flow-assisted corrosion in pipes

Abstract

Flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC) is a phenomenon which causes wall thinning of pipes, fittings, vessels, and other components in the metal based piping systems that carry water or water-steam mixture in power plants and refineries. Currently used nondestructive techniques, such as radiographic testing (RT), ultrasonic testing (UT), and pulsed eddy current (PEC) testing in order to determine the remaining wall thickness, are time consuming and not economical. Hence, in this work, the use of the fundamental torsional mode ultrasonic guided wave to detect FAC was investigated using the finite element method (FEM) simulations and that were validated with experiments. The torsional wave was generated by the magnetostriction principle using surface mounted strips made of magnetostrictive Hyperco (FeCo) material that provided the source for the surface tractions required to generate the ultrasonic guided wave. The transient electric field was provided through a solenoid coil wound over the strips and permanent magnets were employed to provide the bias magnetic field. From this work, it was observed that the pulse-echo method is not suitable for the FAC detection because of the insignificant reflections from FAC defect region that could not be effectively detected. The through-transmission method was found to be more suitable for the FAC detection because the amplitude of transmitted signal decreased with increase in radial depth of FAC in both the simulation and experiment.