Gas Pipeline Corrosion Mapping Using Pulsed Eddy Current Technique

Oil and gas transmission pipelines are critical items of infrastructure in providing energy sources to regions and countries. Steel pipes are commonly used which can be subject to both internal and external corrosion. This paper presents an advanced nondestructive inspection technique for detection of oil-gas pipeline corrosion defect. The Pulsed Eddy Current (PEC) method has been successfully applied in corrosion detection of unburied gas pipeline without removing the insulation. First, the principles of pulse eddy current method is pointed out then, the pulsed eddy current test on a pipe is simulated by Maxwell software to obtain optimum test parameters. To test the new technique, some artificial defects are fabricated on the inner surface of a gas pipe to simulate different corrosions phenomena in practice. Three isolation layers are applied to the pipe in order to show the efficiency of PEC in the detection of wall thinning areas without removing the insulation.