Application and Advancement of EMAT ILI Technologies for the Inspection of Cracks in Dents

Pipeline dents and mechanical damage remain an integrity threat within the Oil & Gas pipeline industry. Such features typically consist of a localized deformation of the pipe wall.Under certain conditions, cracking may develop within or adjacent to the area of deformation due to stress concentration factors resulting from the deformation itself or from secondary damage such as a scrape or gouge.Conventional inline inspection technologies consistently to date have not explicitly addressed inspection capabilities for cracking within dents.This paper presents the results of a collaborative technical effort to assess and advance the abilities of EMAT inline inspection technologies to identify and characterize such mechanical damage features as found in liquid pipelines.The background and application of these advanced technologies for the targeted threats is discussed, as well as the experimental testing performed and results achieved.Copyright © 2014 by ASME