Acoustic detection of defects in a pipeline
AssigneeRosen IP AG
InventorNourreddine Bouaoua
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention relates to an acoustic sensor system (1) for detecting a defect (2) of a pipeline wall (3), having: at least one transmitter unit (4) which is configured to emit ultrasound in the direction of a pipeline wall (3) and detect an ultrasound echo reflected by the pipeline wall (3); and a control unit (5) which is connected to the at least one transmitter unit (4) for signaling purposes and which is configured to detect a defect (2) of the pipeline wall (3) using a present change in the ultrasound echo. The invention additionally relates to an in-line inspection device comprising the sensor system (1), to a method for detecting a defect (2) in a pipeline wall (3), to a computer program, to a data carrier signal, and to a data storage unit.
Claims18
An acoustic sensor system (1) for detecting a defect (2) of a pipeline wall (3), comprising:
- at least one transceiver unit (4) configured to emit ultrasound toward the pipeline wall (3) and to detect an ultrasound echo reflected from the pipeline wall (3);
- and a control unit (5) signally connected to the at least one transceiver unit (4) and configured to detect the defect (2) of the pipeline wall (3) based on an occurring change in the ultrasonic echo;
- wherein the control unit (5) is configured to evaluate the change in the ultrasonic echo corresponding to an ultrasonic echo divergence generated by corrosion in order to detect corrosion;
- wherein the ultrasonic echo divergence corresponds to a beam cross section of an ultrasonic echo beam scattered at the pipeline wall with respect to an echo beam cross section distance created by an opening angle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.