A novel ACFM probe for oil and gas pipe in-line inspection
Yijing Feng, Fan Yang, Laibin Zhang, Wenpei Zheng, Haitao Liu
Abstract
Recently, pipeline are widely used in oil and gas transportation. But due to corrosion and external forces, corrosion, material failure and damage may occur. In this paper, a novel alternating current field measurement (ACFM) probe and inspection system are developed for pipeline in-line inspection. To optimize inspection ability of the system, various lift-off distances and inducing frequencies are analyzed. By finite element analysis and experimental testing, the probe with a frequency of 2500Hz and a lift-off distance of 12 mm has a smaller relative error in length, and also has higher inspection sensitivity. The minimum crack inspected by the probe is 10 mm in length. The present study should be helpful to design and application of pipeline inspecting probes.