Corrosion monitoring with tangential radiography and limited view computed

tomography
Uwe Ewert, Martin Tschaikner, Stefan Hohendorf, Carsten Bellon, Misty I. Haith, Peter Huthwaite, and Michael J.
S. Lowe
Citation: AIP Conference Proceedings 1706, 110003 (2016); doi: 10.1063/1.4940574
View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4940574
View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/proceeding/aipcp/1706?ver=pdfcov
Published by the AIP Publishing
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Corrosion Monitoring with Tangential Radiography and

Limited View Computed Tomography
Uwe Ewert1a), Martin Tschaikner1, Stefan Hohendorf1, Carsten Bellon1, Misty I.
Haith2b, Peter Huthwaite2, Michael J.S. Lowe2
1

BAM Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, Berlin, Germany
Imperial College, Department of Mechanical Engineering, London, United Kingdom
a)

Corresponding authors: uwe.ewert@bam.de

b)
misty.haith09@imperial.ac.uk

Abstract. Accurate and reliable detection of subsea pipeline corrosion is required in order to verify the integrity of the
pipeline. A laboratory trial was conducted with a representative pipe sample. The accurate measurement of the wall
thickness and corrosion was performed with high energy X-rays and a digital detector array. A 7.5 MV betatron was used
to penetrate a stepped pipe and a welded test pipe of 3 m length and 327 mm outer diameter, with different artificial
corrosion areas in the 24 mm thick steel wall. The radiographs were taken with a 40 x 40 cm digital detector array, which
was not large enough to cover the complete pipe diameter after magnification. A C-arm based geometry was tested to
evaluate the potential for automated inspection in field. The primary goal was the accurate measurement of wall thickness
conforming to the standard. The same geometry was used to explore the ability of a C-arm based scanner in asymmetric
mode for computed tomography (CT) measurement, taking projections covering only two thirds of the pipe diameter. The
technique was optimized with the modelling software aRTist. A full volume of the pipe was reconstructed and the CT data
set was used for reverse engineering, providing a CAD file for further aRTist simulations to explore the technique for
subsea inspections.

INTRODUCTION
Accurate and reliable detection of pipeline corrosion is required in order to verify integrity of pipelines in the
petrochemical industry. The radiographic inspection of corrosion and the measurement of wall thickness loss have
been standardized in EN 16407, part 1 and 2: 2014 [1, 2]. For thick-walled pipes with large diameters, tangential
radiographic inspection can only be applied with high energy radiography. Tangential radiographic inspection is a
suitable method measuring accurately the wall thicknesses of pipe walls in reference to comparators [1]. Double wall
radiographic inspection with evaluation of the intensity of indications is less accurate for thickness measurements than
tangential radiographic inspection and it is not the best choice for the prediction of pipe life. For preparation of the
experiments and its evaluation, a step pipe was manufactured. The planning of experiments was performed with the
RT simulation software aRTist [3]. Wall thickness limits were estimated for tangential X-ray inspection with 7.5 MV
and the final experiments were done with a mock-up test pipe.

DETERMINATION OF WALL THICKNESS WITH TANGENTIAL RADIOGRAPHY

Standardized Techniques and Its Limits
The European standard EN 16407 part 1 describes the radiographic wall thickness measurement of pipelines.
Figure 1 shows the typical setup for tangential radiography. The radiation source is selected depending on the
maximum material thickness to penetrate in the tangential direction. The standard [1] provides guidance for the

42nd Annual Review of Progress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation

AIP Conf. Proc. 1706, 110003-1110003-8; doi: 10.1063/1.4940574
2016 AIP Publishing LLC 978-0-7354-1353-5/$30.00

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selection of source energy. The method is limited to a maximum wall thickness depending on the pipe diameter. Figure
2 shows the wall thickness limits and diameters for different source energies. Additionally, the limit for the 7.5 MV
betatron [4] has been added. The maximum penetrable wall thickness for 355 mm diameter steel pipes amounts to
about 30 mm in air. The related inspection conditions and limits for subsea conditions will differ. This was investigated
in [5].

comparator
radiation source, Ir 192

EN 16407-1

pipeline

film,
imaging
plate,
or
DDA

Typical exposure

insulation
Pipe: RT profile

Length [mm]

profile line

FIGURE 1. Tangential Radiographic Inspection Set-up (top) and digital radiograph with line profile (bottom)

The accuracy of the wall thickness determination depends on the calibration of the software evaluation tool, the
detector pixel size and the image unsharpness. More details can be obtained from [6].

Computed Tomography Transform of Profile Functions

Computed tomography (CT) was explored as tool for improving the measurement accuracy of wall thickness
measurements from single acquired profile functions [7, 8]. A measured profile function is considered as one of
hundreds of identical slice projections. In this method, the same measured projection is used instead of hundreds of
separate angular projections as required for CT reconstruction.

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EN 16704-1, basic technique TA

L max

Lmax (mm)

Betatron 7.5 MV

Lmax = 2W sqrt(Da/W 1)

W (mm)

Energy: Lmax
100 kV : 10 mm
200 kV : 30 mm
300 kV : 40 mm
400 kV : 50 mm
Se-75 : 60 mm
Ir-192 : 75 mm
Co-60 : 120 mm
Betatron estimated
7.5 MV : 200 mm

FIGURE 2. Extended Graph of DIN EN 16407-1 [1] for determination of limits of Tangential Radiography Inspection with
new line for 7.5 MV betatron radiation (reproduction of Fig. B.1 of DIN EN 16407-1 by permission of DIN e.V., BeuthVerlag GmbH)

Figure 3 shows the scheme of the algorithm which is based on a reconstruction from a single projection,
considering symmetry assumptions and the selection of the final transformed profile in the direction of measurement.
The reconstruction is comparable to an inverse Abel transform. It is well known that ring artefacts are expected in the
reconstruction due to noise correlation. Consequently, an increase of noise is visible in the area of the reconstructed
wall profile after CT transform. The result is widely independent of the image unsharpness. Therefore, the
measurement can be performed with reduced distance of source and object in relation to the standard requirements
[1]. The reduction of the source to detector distance (SSD) yields an increase of radiation intensity at the detector and
reduced noise in the profile. The reduced SDD can also be used for reduction of exposure time. Figure 3d shows wall
profiles with increasing unsharpness. The profiles become blurred but the inflection points of the profiles are in a
stable position. Suitable results were obtained even if the unsharpness is in the order of the wall thickness. This is
especially an advantage for subsea exposures to reduce the influence of the thickness of penetrated water around the
pipe. It is also a suitable technique for pipe inspection with limited access.

Limited View Computed Tomography

For preparation of the experiments, step pipes (Fig. 4) were manufactured earlier to validate the accuracy of the
wall thickness measurements with the BAM software tool ISee [9], which is used for measurement of the thickness in
field as well as for training of RT personnel in digital industrial radiography (RT-D). The step pipes were used to
perform experiments within air and water [10]. Computer Aided Designs (CAD) were generated and the modelling
tool aRTist [3] was optimized for accurate measurements of the step pipes in air and water [5].
The inspection of large pipe components with subsea automated RT inspection technology is basically designed
to visualize corrosion in double wall geometry with the source and detector positioned along the pipe diameter [11].
For more accurate measurement of corrosion depth and remaining wall thickness the tangential testing geometry is
required. The C-arm setup of source and detector is modified in a way that the source and detector are mounted for
tangential penetration along the pipe wall as shown in Fig. 5. Time efficient measurements, geometric limitations and
available digital detector array dimensions should be considered for 100% measurement of the circumference.

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d) Measurement of wall thickness

from stable inflection points.

a) Profile of single projection radiograph

real profile

c) Evaluation of CT profile
Density distribution
Wall thickness profile

Object : Pipe

b) Computed
Tomography

Position
FIGURE 3. Steps for transformation of a pipe radiograph profile by CT reconstruction and resulting density distribution
profile

FIGURE 4. Step pipes for validation of measurement techniques for wall thickness measurements

If the detector acquires only about of the projected image due to its limited size, it is called half beam geometry
(See Fig. 5). Limited view CT with half beam geometry was considered as the best solution for effective and accurate
measurements. Figure 5 shows the recommended and tested geometry. The betatron and detector are mounted
asymmetrically on a C-arm. The system is rotated around the pipe by 360. A CAD model of the step pipe was used
for radiographic simulation in order to estimate measurement errors. For simplification the C-arm setup was not moved

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but the mock-up pipe and step pipe were rotated in the simulation and laboratory trials. Two exposure geometries
were tested:
1st A large detector is used which covers the tangential projection of wall and the pipe center (see Fig. 6 left).
2nd A small detector is used which covers the tangential projection of the wall only (see Fig. 6 right).

Photograph

CT possible
C-arm with manipulator

Pipe

High Energy source

Digital detector

FIGURE 5. Tangential radiograph of a step pipe with flat bottom holes and scheme of a possible mobile inspection setup

The 2nd exposure geometry, small detector, corresponds to the real available detector size. No digital detector
arrays (DDA) are in use with a larger size than 400 x 400 mm. Figure 7 shows the measurement set up. A betatron
with a potential of 7.5 MV was used to permit the tangential penetration of the test pipe of 3 m length and 327 mm
outer diameter. See also the graph in figure 2 for energy selection. The test pipe was positioned on a turntable and
secured by a chain and a crane to avoid the risk of a fall. The electronics of the detector (XRD 1621 AN16) were
shielded by 25 mm of tungsten. The pipe was positioned for tangential projection of one wall. Both walls could not
be projected simultaneously.
The reconstruction was performed with VGStudio MAX 2.2.6, and exclusively with half beam projections
whereby the central beam through the pipe center was outside of the detector area. In the laboratory the complete
projections (full beam) could be measured if the detector is shifted to obtain a projection of the complete pipe diameter.
The stitched image is equivalent to a projection taken with a larger effective detector size. This was not considered
for subsea applications because the additional time required for the full beam geometry would reduce the potential for
mobile and time effective CT. Figure 8a shows the result of the surface reconstruction. The wall thickness is color
coded. The nominal wall thickness is coded in green. The weld root and cap is coded in blue since the thickness
exceeds the nominal thickness of the base material. Corrosion is coded in red since the remaining wall thickness falls
under the acceptable size. Figure 8b presents a reconstructed cross section at a selected position. The corrosion depth
almost reaches the full wall thickness and the pipe needs to be replaced.

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C-arm with manipulator

C-arm with manipulator

Pipe

High Energy
source

Pipe

Digital
detector

High Energy
source

No significant
artefacts

Digital
detector

Cone
artefacts

FIGURE 6. Schemes of mobile pipe inspection with large and small DDA. Cone artefacts appear if the radiographic
projection does not cover the central pipe area

FIGURE 7. Radiographic inspection setup in BAM HEXYLab for half beam CT of a test pipe of 3 m length and 327 mm
outer diameter, with different artificial corrosion areas in the 24 mm thick steel wall and a weight of about 350 kg

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FIGURE 8a. Result of half beam reconstruction of the test pipe as

surface plot with color coded wall thickness (red corrosion)

FIGURE 8b. Result of half beam reconstruction

of the test pipe as cross section image in the area
of corrosion

SUMMARY
Corrosion in thick walled and large diameter pipes can be detected and measured with high energy radiography in
tangential inspection mode (T RT). A CT based transform was applied for reduction of the SDD in tangential
inspection mode. The accuracy of wall thickness measurements is higher for tangential inspection than for double wall
inspection (DW RT). The mobile CT radiation geometry and surface reconstruction for step pipes was optimized by
modelling with the software package aRTist.
A 7.5 MV betatron was used for CT measurement of a pipe sample with 327 mm outer diameter, 24 mm wall
thickness and 2 m length in tangential inspection mode. The pipe was mounted on a turntable and inspected with a
40x40 cm DDA in asymmetric projection mode over 360 and acquiring about one half of the radiographic pipe
projections (half beam geometry). The same procedure can be applied for wall thickness measurements in field using
a C-arm based mobile manipulation system followed by tomographic volume reconstruction (3D). All corrosion types
can be visualized and their dimensions can be measured.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We thank B. Redmer and U. Zscherpel for valuable discussions and support.
We thank BP for support of the project.

REFERENCES
1.
2.
3.
4.

EN 16407-1: 2014, DIN EN 16407-1: 2014, Non-destructive testing. Radiographic inspection of corrosion and
deposits in pipes by X- and gamma rays. Tangential radiographic inspection.
EN 16407-2: 2014, DIN EN 16407-2: 2014, Non-destructive testing. Radiographic inspection of corrosion and
deposits in pipes by X- and gamma rays. Double wall radiographic inspection.
Modeling software package aRTist, analytical RT inspection simulation tool, http://www.artist.bam.de/.
JME - BETATRON 7.5MeV, http://www.jme.co.uk/JME-Products-Betatron-7mev.aspx.

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5.

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