CURVATURE ANALYSYS FOR PIPELINE LAYING RECONSTRUCTION WITH ULTRASONIC INSPECTION GAUGE

Abstract

This paper presents a pipeline curvature analysis using a device instrumented with ultrasound transducers. The device is conceptualized as a capsule with radial-fixed ultrasonic transducers, thus we have an alternative to conventional devices, which use mobile transducers (mounted on mechanical arms). The proposed configuration enables conventional ultrasonic inspection and simultaneously geometric inspection. Another advantage of the configuration is that the device does not use mechanical arms, so physical equipment space is reduced, increasing its mobility in reduced sections (smaller diameter). The pipeline inspection can be separated into two groups, straight sections and curved sections; in the straight sections are maintained at all times perpendicularity between ultrasound transducers and the pipeline wall, always guaranteeing the detection of echoes in the transducers. However, in the curved sections, can lose the perpendicularity, which can cause loss of ultrasound signals, this is corrected with the proposed configuration, since the perpendicularity of at least one section of transducers is ensured. This article focuses on the analysis of curvature for three dimensional pipeline laying reconstruction, using the orthogonality property of the tangent line between the pipeline surface and the direction of the ultrasonic wave emitted by the transducers.