Internal Inspection Research Articles

Desenvolvimento e homologação de ferramentas de limpeza e inspeção interna para o sistema integrado de escoamento de gás do Pré-sal da Bacia de Santos

The internal inspection of the Rota 1, 2, and 3 gas pipelines is considered a technological milestone for deepwater exploration. The challenge of developing cleaning and inspection PIGs involved pipelines with a large variation in diameter, ranging from 18 to 24 inches, long distances of up to 450 kilometers, high operating pressures of up to 250 kgf/cm², water depths of up to 2400 meters, and passage through equipment with complex geometries. The risk of this operation, in terms of the possibility of PIGs getting stuck, was considered medium/high. To reduce this risk, a phase of tool homologation was planned. After a thorough verification of the documentation of the subsea system components, the minimum tests necessary to assess the operational performance of the tools in scenarios of high pressure exposure, displacement at low flow rates, detection of anomalies at high speeds, and durability/wear over long distances were defined. At the end of the homologation phase, full-scale tests were carried out in a circuit containing 51 components that represented the restrictive geometries of the subsea system. Another measure taken was the use of radioactive isotope transmitters, increasing the autonomy in case the PIG needed to be located. So far, 03 out of 04 pipelines have been inspected with these tools.

Examining Factory Process Safety Management Systems And Studying Lean Improvement Methods

Many factories have set up a safety management system (PSM), and there is an increasing rate of safety management systems. This is increasingly in line with the development of industrial plants. External and internal inspection of security management processes are the core of Process Safety Management (PSM) and are an essential opportunity to improve operational solutions. The problems of security inspection arise due to unclear and unplanned inspection issues, resulting in unsystematic monitoring of factual information and opinions and loss of opportunities to achieve goals throughout the organization. This research aims to improve the inspection process by using computer software technology in auditing. After improving the process according to the Lean Process Management (ECRS) concept to reduce waste, the workflow was reduced by 40.74%, and 60% efficiency was increased. In addition, the assessment results from a sample of PSM auditors showed 93.4% satisfaction as the most appropriate. Therefore, this study demonstrated the potential and benefits of implementing the Process Safety Management System (PSM) audit program and applying Lean theory to improve auditing, which can be used as an essential reference for future research and program development.

Visualization of Surface Layer Defects in Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Using an Infrared Radiation Based on the Infrared Absorption Properties of CO2

Non-destructive testing methods for quality assurance are essential for the widespread use of all-solid-state electrochemical devices such as Solid Oxide Fuel cell (SOFC) and All-solid-state Lithium ion batteries (AS-LiB). Since these are laminates of ceramics from different materials, they can be subject to mechanical damage during operating and manufacturing. These damages can significantly reduce the electrochemical performance or durability. Therefore, it is important to detect these damages by rapid and non-destructive methods and to determine whether they should be repaired or discarded in order to assure the quality of them. In conventional methods, human visual tests have been used for external inspections and internal inspections have been conducted by operational tests. This process takes a long time and unable to unify inspection standards due to human errors. In addition, these operation tests are subjected to repeated operation and shutdown, thus placing a load on the test specimens. Therefore, attempt is being made to apply various type of wave-based Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) methods to these inspections. However, none of these method is all-purpose, and they all have their strengths and weaknesses. The purpose of this study is to develop a new method to visualize and detect mechanical defects, by utilizing the infrared absorption properties of CO2.Fig.1(a) shows an overview of detection mechanism. The detection flow is as follow. First, the lower part of the specimen is filled with CO2 and apply a little pressure. Then, CO2 leaks out of the defect. The leaked CO2 is visualized by an infrared absorption property to locate the leakage area and detect the defect. We predict the characteristics of this method as follow. First, because we can get the image data, this method can detect the defect in real-time and can be automated through image processing. However, since CO2 may diffuse from the defect point, the exact shape and size of the defect cannot be determined.Next, the CO2 visualization method is described. CO2 absorbs infrared radiation which is the same frequency as CO2 vibrational motion’s caused by CO2 molecular structure. Fig. 1(b) shows absorption spectra for CO2. There are three absorption wavelength bands: 2.5~3, 4~5, around 15 µm. To visualize CO2, it is necessary to focus on the infrared wavelength band that CO2 absorbs. In this study, 15 µm is selected as the observation wavelength, which is more easily detectable at room temperature. Fig. 1(c) shows the infrared transmittance at each wavelength for the band pass filter. The infrared reflection properties of the observed surface were also measured to determine whether it reflects infrared rays of the observation wavelength used in this study. In this case, Attenuated Total Reflection (ATR) was measured using a Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR). This time, SOFC was used as the detection target, and the infrared reflectance property of the surface of the cathode (LSCF) was measured. Focusing on the infrared reflection property around the wavelength of 15 µm observed by this method, it was found that the reflectance was more than 98.5, indicating that it was almost completely reflected. Therefore, it can be said that the use of infrared rays at a wavelength of 15 µm is reasonable based on the infrared reflectance properties of the specimen.The detection device assembled in this experiment will be described. Fig. 1(e) shows the detection device. In order to perform this testing method, a mechanism is needed to hold the cell in place while filling the anode side with CO2. A schematic diagram of the jig fabricated in this study is shown in Fig. 1(d). It has a mechanism for injecting and exhausting gas, and seals are provided to prevent gas leakage from lower part of the cell while holding the cell in place.We conducted an experiment to see if we could visualize CO2 in a bottle with the device used in this study. An incandescent light bulb was used to wait until the ambient temperature was contact, then CO2 gas was sprayed in front of the lens and the image was taken. It was found that this detection device can capture CO2 gas, and we believe that it can be applied to a detection model in the future.Based on these results, our future policy is to measure the resolution and time required for evaluation when actual detection is performed. In addition, we would like to compare it with other method and investigate what it is good at detecting. Figure 1

Ultrasonic Interrogation Technique for Detecting Hatch Angle Variations in Additive Manufacturing by Phononic Lattice Structures

Abstract Additive manufacturing/3D printing (AM/3DP) has revolutionized part production by enabling the creation of intricate internal structures and complex geometries from diverse materials directly from digital design files. Among powder-based metal AM/3DP methods, selective laser melting (SLM) is widely used in advanced applications such as biomedical devices and aerospace parts. Despite considerable progress in AM/3DP and SLM, at present, challenges in print quality persist, and vast resources for post-production quality assessment are allocated. The quality of SLM prints is influenced by various process and design parameters, such as the accuracy of hatch angle deposition, laser intensity/power, scanning speed of the laser beam, print line spacing, layer depth, printing chamber conditions, and the material's physical and chemical properties. Direct ultrasonic non-destructive evaluation (NDE) offers comprehensive internal inspection and real-time data acquisition ability; however, in AM/3DP, it faces severe limitations due to a build's intricate internal and external geometric features. In the current study, we present a phononic crystal artifact (PCA)-based real-time ultrasonic NDE quality monitoring framework and show offline its utility in detecting and evaluating hatch angle variations, a critical process parameter. A PCA is substantially simpler and smaller than the actual build but represents its critical geometric and structural intricacies and mechanical properties. The current offline study demonstrates that hatch angle variations can be monitored from ultrasonic responses' spectral modal frequency peaks and wave dispersion relations.

Analytical modeling and non-dimensionalization study for endoscopic ultrasound acoustic field in tubular structure

The concept of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) has been introduced to non-destructive testing for the internal inspection of tubular structure. It is a typical inspection application on layered media with a non-planar interface. Existing research in this area is hindered by two significant limitations: i) the absence of an EUS acoustic field model that is adaptable to the layered medium with non-planar interfaces; ii) the lack of a generalizable analysis and regularity of the EUS acoustic field distribution. This paper derives a refraction model for the tube interface and delay law. By combining these with the angular spectrum model, an analytical acoustic field model for EUS in tubular structure is developed, providing the theoretical framework for acoustic field analysis and interpretation. Subsequently, the geometric and acoustic parameters of the transducer and the tubular object are non-dimensionalized to normalize diverse EUS inspection scenarios. A parametric analysis is then conducted to identify and comprehend the regularity of the EUS acoustic field distribution, which is the main object of this study. The derived EUS acoustic field regularity is validated through an EUS inspection experiment of a tube using control variate method. The quantitative analysis result of the EUS imaging aligns with the expectations from beam analysis. The proposed analytical model is applicable to any scenarios with multi-layered media and with arbitrary interfaces. Its primary strength lies in its intuitive ability to demonstrate the impact of various parameters on the acoustic field distribution. The methodology of non-dimensionalization provides a paradigm for deriving generalizable regularities in the field of ultrasonic testing and imaging.

Internal inspection method for crack defects in ferromagnetic pipelines under remanent magnetization

Magnetic flux leakage (MFL) testing is effective in detecting corrosion in ferromagnetic pipelines. However, the MFL generated at the crack is highly weak and is easily drowned in the strong background magnetic field and difficult to detect. Therefore, this paper creatively proposes a remanent magnetic flux leakage (RMFL) detection method. This method utilizes the hysteresis state of the pipeline after MFL detection and identifies crack defects by collecting the remanent magnetic flux density near the inner wall surface of the pipeline. The remanent magnetic field distribution near the pipeline surface is examined at different crack sizes, magnetization speeds, and lift-off values via theoretical analysis, finite element simulation, and experimental verification. In addition, experiments have demonstrated that in terms of crack detection capability, RMFL is superior to MFL. Therefore, adding a RMFL measurement module to the conventional MFL detector has important practical value. It can realize the targeted collaborative application of these two technologies, namely the synchronous detection of corrosion and crack defects, which greatly improves the detection coverage and detection efficiency.

Automated matching and visualisation of magnetic flux leakage data in shale gas pipeline based on ICP and DBSCAN algorithm

ABSTRACT Magnetic flux leakage (MFL) is a non-destructive testing method for shale gas pipeline safety monitoring. Despite many pipelines have completed two or more rounds of internal inspection and have accumulated substantial data, effectively analyzing and utilizing this MFL data remains a significant challenge. To that end, this study proposes a novel combined model that integrates Iterative Closest Point (ICP) and DBSCAN (Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise) fusion to match multiple MFL data. The model outputs the matching result and visualisation images of MFL data acquired in different years. Furthermore, RMSE (root mean square error) and overlap rate have been used to evaluate the model. The results indicate that the average distance error of matched defects between two datasets decreased by 72.5%, and the overlap rate increased by 20%. Additionally, the DBSCAN Fusion shows better computational efficiency with an increase in defect quantity within the pipe segments. Finally, the impact of different datasets on the model’s matching accuracy is discussed in this study. The findings show that small-scale datasets or higher false detection rates lead to decreased accuracy. The proposed model fully leverages MFL data to achieve rapid matching of defects, offering a dependable and effective technical solution for safety monitoring and corrosion prediction in shale gas pipelines.

A Novel Method for Online Diagnostic Analysis of Partial Discharge in Instrument Transformers and Surge Arresters from the Correlation of HFCT and IEC Methods

In this work, a new methodology is proposed for the online and non-invasive extraction of partial discharge (PD) pulses from raw measurement data obtained using a simplified setup. This method enables the creation of sub-windows with optimized size, each containing a single candidate PD pulse. The proposed approach integrates mathematical morphological filtering (MMF) with kurtosis, a first-order Savitzky-Golay smoothing filter, the Otsu method for thresholding, and a specific technique to associate each sub-window with the phase angle of the applied voltage waveform, enabling the construction of phase-resolved PD (PRPD) patterns. The methodology was validated against a commercial PD detection device adhering to the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) standard. Experimental results demonstrated that the proposed method, utilizing an off-the-shelf 8-bit resolution data acquisition system and a low-cost high-frequency current transformer (HFCT) sensor, effectively diagnoses and characterizes PD activity in high-voltage equipment, such as surge arresters and instrument transformers, even in noisy environments. It was able to characterize PD activity using only a few cycles of the applied voltage waveform and identify low amplitude PD pulses with low signal-to-noise ratio signals. Other contribution of this work is the diagnosis and fault signature obtained from a real surge arrester (SA) with a nominal voltage of 192 kV, corroborated by destructive disassembly and internal inspection of the tested equipment. This work provides a cost-effective and accurate tool for real-time PD monitoring, which can be embedded in hardware for continuous evaluation of electrical equipment integrity.

Increasing trainee engagement and laboratory feedback during an internal laboratory inspection.

Increasing trainee engagement and laboratory feedback during an internal laboratory inspection.

Internal Quality Inspection and Characterization of Casting Billets Based on Ultrasonic Microscopy

Abstract For evaluating the internal quality of casting billets, the low-power experimental and metallographic methods have the disadvantages of the complex process, the small detection range and the destructive evaluation. In addition, the internal defects of the casting billet are analyzed by the one-dimensional waveform and two-dimensional image for the traditional ultrasonic testing, which can not describe directly the three-dimensional spatial information. Hence, a new method is proposed based on ultrasonic microscopy to detect and characterize the internal defection of the casting billet. In this paper, 42CrMo casting billet is regarded as objective, five sets of samples are fabricated by adjusting temperature gradient field and the number of presses. The ultrasonic sequence images of the present samples are achieved by using ultrasonic microscopy, and the spatial distributions, number, and sizes are obtained for the defects of the casting billet by reconstructing the three-dimensional appearance of microdefects to characterize the internal mass of the casting billet. Finally, the effective and accuracy of the proposed method are validated by using metallographic method.

X-ray radiography and deep learning for internal quality inspection of pear fruit

X-ray radiography and deep learning for internal quality inspection of pear fruit

The effectiveness of food safety self-checking systems in institutional catering

Internal and external food safety audits and inspections are commonly implemented in food service establishments to uphold and enhance food safety standards. While the processes for various types of inspections are similar, each has distinct roles and implications. Self-checking involves inspections conducted by local staff within the food business. However, experts question the efficacy of this process, as it often fails to uncover food safety issues.This indicative study aimed to investigate whether self-checking can reveal food safety risks associated with primary and additional activities and identify which activities, if any, are misjudged by internal staff. An in-depth survey was conducted over four months in 10 school kitchens using a food safety control checklist, which was completed monthly by internal staff, an internal auditor, and an external auditor.The evaluations from external auditors consistently rated the kitchens lower than those from internal auditors and local catering managers. The most divergent judgments centered on personal hygiene practices, storage procedures, cleaning methods, and disinfection processes.Based on this data, food handlers tend to perceive their adherence to food safety practices as more robust than it is.

In-field grading and sorting technology of apples: A state-of-the-art review

Apple is one of the most popular fruits. In-field grading and sorting of apples would enhance growers’ economic benefits by lowering production costs. This study reviews the key components and progress of the quality inspection algorithm for in-field grading and sorting of apples. Four key components (e.g., conveyor, imaging chamber, sorting actuator, and bin filler) are presented in detail, followed by summarizing the shortcomings of these components. The apple’s external (color, size, and defects) and internal quality inspection technologies, such as optical technologies of visible light, near-infrared (NIR), hyperspectral/multispectral imaging (HSI/MSI), and structured illumination (SI) were presented. Despite the excellent detection performance of emerging technologies (e.g., HSI, MSI, and SI), visible light is still dominantly used for in-filed grading. Challenges in getting information on the whole surface area of the apple, uneven lighting, machine size, throughput, and associated costs hamper the commercialization of apple in-field grading and sorting equipment. At present, more efforts should be devoted to internal quality inspection, by developing reliable, fast, and accurate detection equipment and algorithms. With the advancement of sensors and automation algorithms, as well as the emergence of mechanical systems that are suitable for in-field use, it is anticipated that the apple in-field grading and sorting equipment that inspects both external and internal quality will be realized and commercialized in the near future.

Investigations on corrosion rate, mechanical properties and structural homogeneity of interpulse TIG dissimilar weldments

This manuscript aims to investigate the welding characteristics, bead profile, structural integrity and corrosion behavior of low-carbon steel and Monel grade 400 dissimilar joints. The structures were developed using advanced welding technique, gas tungsten constricted arc welding, with Mo-based filler wire. Dissimilar metals after welding have been tested for internal inspection using X-ray radiography and confirmed to be free from all welding defects. Corrosion tests were carried out at various zones of weldment and characterized in a 3.5 wt% NaCl solution at 10 mV/s scan rate. The welding characteristics have been studied by conducting various tests including Vickers hardness, tensile and impact test. To reveal the structural integrity and perform chemical composition analysis of constricted arc weldment, OM/SEM techniques were used. Corrosion rate at steel interface is lower than that at the Monel 400 interface by 9.7% due to the less accumulation of heat. Uniform grain distribution and structural homogeneity were also observed along the weld zone due to constricted arc and controlled heat input.

Intelligent identification method for pipeline ultrasonic internal inspection

ABSTRACT In pipeline ultrasonic testing, the accurate identification of defect types is a prerequisite for quantifying defect sizes. To this end, this paper proposes a defect identification algorithm based on the combination of Wavelet Packet Transform (WPT), Distance Evaluation Technique (DET) and GA-SVM to precisely identify defect boundaries. First, the ultrasonic echo signals are processed using WPT to more accurately extract defect information. Then, DET is employed to eliminate redundant feature parameters, which are sorted by sensitivity to determine the input feature parameters for the GA-SVM. On this basis, a self-developed ultrasonic testing experimental system is used to collect ultrasonic echo signals from Q235 steel pipes with cylindrical, spherical, and conical defects at different spatial orientations of the probe and the pipe. After processing and identifying the signals, it was found that the proposed algorithm achieves an average identification accuracy of 99% for different types of defects, thereby realising automatic identification of pipeline defects. The results provide new ideas and methods for the intelligent identification of volumetric defect types in pipeline ultrasonic internal testing and promote the development of industrial-grade ultrasonic internal detectors.

Diagnostic study on major honeybee disease, pests and predators in North Western Ethiopia.

The study was conducted in Pawe district from Benishangul-Gumuz and Jawi and Fagita Lekoma districts from the Amhara region to investigate major honeybee pests, predators and diseases. Using a purposive sampling technique, 183 households were interviewed, and 240 samples were collected for laboratory analysis of bee disease; data were analysed using descriptive statistics. The share of hive types owned by sampled respondents was 88.6%; overall, 1.1% and 10.3% were traditional, transitional and modern beehives, respectively. About 92% of the sample respondents acquired their base colonies by catching swarm bees on the apex of trees. The majority of beekeepers executed external inspections of their colony, whereas only 50% carried out internal inspections. Based on the responses of beekeepers, around 48.9%, 56.3% and 23.1% of colonies absconded every year from Pawe, Jawi and Fagita Lekoma districts, respectively. Ants, wax moths, bee lice, beetles, spiders, birds, monkeys and honey badgers were the major honeybee pests and predators discovered in study areas in decreasing order. Concerning the incidence of Varroa mites, Nosema apis and amoeba disease, 27.5%, 60% and 71.6% of samples showed positive results in study locations, respectively. From this result, we observed that ants, wax moths, bee lice, beetles, spiders, birds, monkeys and honey badgers were the major honeybee pests and predators. The prevalence of amoeba disease was comparatively higher in highland areas and in the summer season. This finding suggests the need for the alertness of beekeepers in controlling bee disease and pests and strengthening bee colonies through seasonal colony management. There should be a strict quarantine, and check-up undertaken when a new colony is purchased from one region to another is essential.

Spatial Localization of Transformer Inspection Robot Based on Adaptive Denoising and SCOT-β Generalized Cross-Correlation.

In the detection process of the internal defects of large oil-immersed transformers, due to the huge size of large transformers and metal-enclosed structures, the positional localization of miniature inspection robots inside the transformer faces great difficulties. To address this problem, this paper proposes a three-dimensional positional localization method based on adaptive denoising and the SCOT weighting function with the addition of the exponent β (SCOT-β) generalized cross-correlation for L-type ultrasonic arrays of transformer internal inspection robots. Aiming at the strong noise interference in the field, the original signal is decomposed by an improved Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) method, and the optimal center frequency and bandwidth of each mode are adaptively searched. By extracting the modes in the frequency band of the positional localization signal, suppressing the modes in the noise frequency band, and reconstructing the Intrinsic Mode Function (IMF) of the independently selected superior modal components, a signal with a high signal-to-noise ratio is obtained. In addition, for the traditional mutual correlation algorithm with a large delay estimation error at a low signal-to-noise ratio, this paper adopts an improved generalized joint weighting function, SCOT-β, which improves the anti-jamming ability of the generalized mutual correlation method at a low signal-to-noise ratio by adding an exponential function to the denominator term of the SCOT weighting function's generalized cross-correlation. Finally, the accurate positional localization of the transformer internal inspection robot is realized based on the quadratic L-array and search-based maximum likelihood estimation method. Simulation and experimental results show the following: the improved EMD denoising method better improves the signal-to-noise ratio of the positional localization signal with a lower distortion rate; in the transformer test tank, which is 120 cm in length, 100 cm in width, and 100 cm in height, based on the positional localization method in this paper, the average relative positional localization error of the transformer internal inspection robot in three-dimensional space is 2.27%, and the maximum positional localization error is less than 2 cm, which meets the requirements of engineering positional localization.

Instrumentation of Cross Electromagnetic Eddy Current Sensing for Internal Pipeline Inspection

Instrumentation of Cross Electromagnetic Eddy Current Sensing for Internal Pipeline Inspection

Additive manufacturing of copper parts using extrusion and sinter-based technology: evaluation of the influence of printing parameters and debinding method

PurposeThis work is focused on the realization of copper parts using the material extrusion additive manufacturing debinding and sintering (MEX+D&S) technology.Design/methodology/approachA highly filled filament with 90 Wt.% of copper is used to realize nine different combinations varying the printing speed and the flow rate. The following thermal debinding and sintering are performed at 483 °C and 1057 °C, respectively, burying the samples in specific refractory powder and carbon. The green and sintered density are measured and an inspection at optical microscope is implemented for a detailed internal analysis of the defects.FindingsThe samples, that reported the highest values of the green density, become the worst in the sintered condition due to evident swelling defect generated by the entrapped polymer during the thermal debinding. On the other hand, the parts with the lower values of green density allowed to achieve a satisfying density value without significant external defects.Originality/valueThe realization of copper parts through laser-based additive manufacturing technologies shows several troubles related to the rapid heat transfer and the high reflectivity of copper, which is a hinder of the absorption of the laser power. The MEX+D&S becomes an easier and economical alternative for the realization of copper parts. The internal inspection of the samples revealed the need for the improvement on the process chain, adopting a different debinding process to open channels during the thermal debinding to avoid the entrapment of the polymer.

Configuration reconstruction and all-joint synchronous measurement based on vision for segmented linkage manipulator of rigid-flexible dual-arm space robot

A rigid-flexible dual-arm space robot offers promising potential for on-orbit operation due to complementary strengths of its rigid and flexible manipulators. The rigid manipulator has the advantage of large payload capacity and high motion accuracy. The segmented linkage flexible manipulator is ideal for maneuvering in narrow, unstructured environments like internal satellite inspections and maintenance, due to its flexibility and slender body. However, there are inevitable tracking errors due to the multiple cable-driven mechanisms in the flexible manipulator. It’s difficult to get the configuration and end pose of flexible manipulator without adding external sensors. To address these issues, this paper presents a method for configuration reconstruction and all-joint synchronous measurement of the flexible manipulator. The flexible manipulator is captured by the stereovision system mounted on the rigid manipulator. The links’ equivalent center points are recognized by central moment method and edge line extraction method based on the natural characteristics. Joint-to-link kinematic model of flexible manipulator is established to measure joint angles and reconstruct configuration. Several simulations and experiments are carried out to validate the proposed method. The experimental results showed links’ average measurement position errors were less than 13 mm and joint angles reconstructed using the proposed method had an error of approximately 0.35°. These results demonstrate the accuracy and robustness of the proposed method.