INNOVATIVE ELECTROMAGNETIC SENSORS FOR PIPELINE CRAWLERS

Internal inspection of pipelines is an important tool for ensuring safe and reliable delivery of fossil energy products. However, not all pipelines can be inspected with current systems that move inside the pipeline propelled by the product flow. Inspection platforms that crawl slowly inside a pipeline are being developed to maneuver past the physical barriers that limit inspection. Battelle is building innovative electromagnetic sensors for pipeline crawlers. The various sensor types will assess a wide range of pipeline anomalies including corrosion, mechanical damage, cracking and seam weld defects. An implementation of two electromagnetic sensors were designed and tested. A pulsed eddy current system that uses sensors to measure the decay of induced eddy currents to establish the wall thickness has excellent potential. The results of experiments are comparable with magnetic flux leakage detecting 10% metal loss steps following a monotonic increase in signal strength. A rotating permanent remote field eddy current exciter was designed and built to produce strong signal levels at the receiver and reduce power consumption. Midway through the development of each technology, both sensor systems have produced results that warrant further development