Engineering

Flange

Mechanical engineering

Pipeline (software)

Pipeline transport

Forensic engineering

Eddy current

Electrical engineering

BARC through MoU’s with Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), have developed several in-line-inspection (ILI) tools for non-destructive evaluation (NDE) of cross country petroleum pipelines. These tools, called ‘Instrumented pipeline inspection gauge’ (IPIG) have the ability to detect, characterize and geographically localize metal loss (corrosion or gauging) defects on or within the buried pipelines as-well-as major pipe features (welds, flange, support, valve etc). Pipeline operators are required to periodically get their pipelines inspected by IPIGs, thereby ensuring its heath through corrective measures in case possibilities of pipe leak arise. To keep pace with the ever advancing ILI technology available globally to cater for the stringent inspection specifications laid down by apex agencies like Pipeline Operator Forum (POF), there is an urgent need for undertaking new indigenous technology developments in the areas of sensing and inspection capability of ILI tools. Existing technology developed and delivered by BARC has limited ability to distinguish a metal loss defect on the exterior pipe-wall to that on the interior, particularly if it the defect is shallow and small in surface extent. This distinction is of paramount importance as regard to the preventive measures to be taken up by the pipeline operators to circumvent corrosion growth within or on the pipe surface. With this in mind, secondary sensors based on eddy current technology is developed by BARC to replace the earlier, less efficient sensors based on remnant magnetism. The sensor carriage has also been re-engineered to a novel parallelogram mechanism to ensure minimum effects of sensor lift-offs. The technologies reported in the paper have been integrated with the existing ILI tools (IPIGs) with enhanced inspection capability for different sizes of oil and gas pipelines.

Development of Secondary Sensor System based on Eddy Current Technology for In-line Inspection Tool