EMAT Guided wave technology for inline inspections of unpiggable natural gas pipelines

Main Objective

ULC's objective for this project is to evaluate an EMAT guided wave sensor for operation in cast iron and steel plates and pipes, optimize the performance, demonstrate the sensor's capabilities in the lab and perform conceptual design and evaluation for the integration of the sensor with the CIRRIS XITM robot. By the end of this project ULC would like to:
- Validate the wave propagation in the material.
- Show that the sensors detect wave and defect interactions.
- Attain optimized sensor performance.
- Show that a manual operator can use the EMAT guided wave sensor output to classify cracks, corrosion, pitting, wall thinning and dents in steel and cast iron pipes.
- Depict concepts that show how the sensors would be integrated with the CIRRIS XI robot.

- Recommend modifications to the robot and/or EMAT guided wave sensor for integration with CIRRIS XI.

Upon completion of the project, ULC would be able to begin preliminary and detailed design tasks that would lead to commercialization of the technology.

Public Abstract

The CIRRIS XI robot has made great strides in overcoming major challenges associated with internal assessment of cast iron pipelines. Most importantly the CIRRIS XI robot can measure wall thickness and stress and detect defects while providing significant improvements in accuracy and resolution using an EMAT normal beam sensor. Another promising type of EMAT technology is "EMAT guided wave" which has yet to be introduced for robotic inline inspection. It is more complex than normal beam EMAT but the use of EMAT guided wave on robots for inline inspection would advance inspection in leaps and bounds by providing 100% coverage. This would increase the confidence of detecting threats without affecting the time and speed of inspections. To this end, this project, co-funded by PHMSA, focuses on using the CIRRIS XI robot as a baseline for developing a 100% inspection robot using an EMAT guided wave sensor. The first task of the project will be the evaluation of the performance of the EMAT guided wave sensor for inspection of cast iron and steel transmission and distribution mains. Sensor performance will be evaluated using various plate and pipe sizes, sensor configurations, wave modes and scan speed. The second task will involve the assessment of the ability to detect and classify defects and flaws using feature extraction through post processing. Following this a lab demonstration of the sensor technology will be provided to PHMSA and industry participants. The third task will focus on evaluating the existing robot design and performing an initial conceptual design to incorporate the EMAT guided wave sensor and electronics into the CIRRIS XI robot. The initial application for the robot would be in distribution mains. Future enhancements to the sensor and robot would also make it possible to operate the robot in transmission mains.