Application of induced circumferential current for cracks inspection on pipe string

Abstract

Pipe strings (such as drill pipe, tube, pipeline, riser) are critical facilities in oil & gas industry, which are highly susceptible to cracks caused by stress corrosion and fatigue damage. The most common defects are longitudinal and transverse surface cracks on pipe strings in oil & gas industry. Conventional nondestructive testing (NDT) methods are inadequate for these surface cracks on pipe strings. In this paper, a full 360° circumferential current induced by a coaxial excitation coil is present for inspection of longitudinal and transverse surface cracks on pipe strings. The finite element method (FEM) is employed to obtain characteristics signals by analyzing the distorted electromagnetic field above the cracks. The induced circumferential current test system is set up and crack inspection experiments are carried out. The results show that both longitudinal and transverse surface cracks can be detected effectively at one pass scanning on pipe string using the induced circumferential current.