Modelling Magnetic Flux Leakage Signals From Dents

Author(s):  
Lynann Clapham ◽  
Vijay Babbar ◽  
Kris Marble ◽  
Alex Rubinshteyn ◽  
Mures Zarea

The Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) technique is sensitive both to pipe wall geometry and pipe wall strain, therefore MFL inspection tools have the potential to locate and characterize mechanical damage in pipelines. However, the combined influence of strain and geometry makes MFL signals from dents and gouges difficult to interpret for a number of reasons: 1) the MFL signal from mechanical damage is a superposition of geometrical and strain effects, 2) the strain distribution around a mechanically damaged region can be very complex, often consisting of plastic deformation and residual (elastic) strain, 3) the effect of strain on magnetic behaviour is not well understood. Accurate magnetic models that can incorporate both strain and geometry effects are essential in order to understand MFL signals from mechanical damage. This paper reviews work conducted over the past few years involving magnetic finite element analysis (FEA) modeling of MFL dent signals and comparison with experimental results obtained both from laboratory-dented samples and dented pipe sections.

Author(s):  
Lynann Clapham ◽  
Vijay Babbar ◽  
Alex Rubinshteyn

The Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) technique is sensitive both to pipe wall geometry and pipe wall stresses, therefore MFL inspection tools have the potential to locate and characterize mechanical damage in pipelines. However, the combined influence of stress and geometry make MFL signal interpretation difficult for a number of reasons: 1) the MFL signal from mechanical damage is a superposition of geometrical and stress effects, 2) the stress distribution around a mechanically damaged region is very complex, consisting of plastic deformation and residual (elastic) stresses, 3) the effect of stress on magnetic behaviour is not well understood. Accurate magnetic models that can incorporate both stress and geometry effects are essential in order to understand MFL signals from dents. This paper reports on work where FEA magnetic modeling is combined with experimental studies to better understand dents from MFL signals. In experimental studies, mechanical damage was simulated using a tool and die press to produce dents of varying aspect ratios (1:1, 2:1, 4:1), orientations (axial, circumferential) and depths (3–8 mm) in plate samples. MFL measurements were made before and after selective stress-relieving heat treatments. These annealing treatments enabled the stress and geometry components of the MFL signal to be separated. Geometry and stress ‘peaks’ tend in most cases to overlap — however stress features are most prominent in the dent rim region and geometry peaks over central region. In general the geometry signal scales directly with depth. The stress scales less significantly with depth. As a result deep dents will display a ‘geometry’ signature while in shallow dents the stress signature will dominate. In the finite element analysis work, stress was incorporated by modifying the magnetic permeability in the residual stress regions of the modeled dent. Both stress and geometry contributions to the MFL signal were examined separately. Despite using a number of simplifying assumptions, the modeled results matched the experimental results very closely, and were used to aid in interpretation of the MFL signals.


Author(s):  
Lynann Clapham ◽  
Vijay Babbar ◽  
Jian Dien Chen ◽  
Chris Alexander

The Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) technique is sensitive both to pipe wall geometry and pipe wall strain, therefore MFL inspection tools have the potential to locate and characterize mechanical damage in pipelines. The present work is the first stage of a study focused on developing an understanding of how MFL signals arise from pipeline gouges. A defect set of 10 gouges were introduced into sections of 12″diameter, 5m long, end capped and pressurized X60 grade pipe sections. The gouging tool displacement ranged (before tool removal) between 2.5 to 12.5mm. Gouges were approximately 50mm in length. The shallowest indentation created only a very slight scratch on the pipe surface, the deepest created a very significant gouge. All gouges were axially oriented. Experimental MFL measurements were made on the external pipe wall surface (pressurized) as well as the internal surface (unpressurized). The early results of the experimental MFL studies, and a hypothesis for the origin of the MFLaxial signal “dipole” are discussed in this paper.


Author(s):  
Lynann Clapham ◽  
Vijay Babbar ◽  
James Byrne

Since magnetism is strongly stress dependent, Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) inspection tools have the potential to locate and characterize mechanical damage in pipelines. However, MFL application to mechanical damage detection faces hurdles which make signal interpretation problematic: 1) the MFL signal is a superposition of geometrical and stress effects, 2) the stress distribution around a mechanically damaged region is very complex, consisting of plastic deformation and residual (elastic) stresses, 3) the effect of stress on magnetic behaviour is not well understood. This paper summarizes recent results of experimental and modeling studies of MFL signals resulting from mechanical damage. In experimental studies, mechanical damage was simulated using a tool and die press to produce dents of varying depths in plate samples. Radial component MFL measurements were made before and after selective stress-relieving heat treatments. These annealing treatments enabled the stress and geometry components of the MFL signal to be separated. Geometry and stress effects generate separate MFL peaks — the geometry effects lead to central peak regions while the stress effects produce ‘shoulder’ peaks. In general the geometry peaks tend to scale with depth, while the shoulder peaks remain approximately constant. This implies that deep dents will display a ‘geometry’ signature while shallow or rerounded dents will have a stress signature. Finally, the influence of other parameters such as flux density and topside/bottomside inspection was also quantified. In the finite element analysis work, stress was incorporated by modifying the magnetic permeability in the residual stress regions of the modeled dent. Both stress and geometry contributions to the MFL signal were examined separately. Despite using a number of simplifying assumptions, the modeled results matched the experimental results very closely, and were used to aid in interpretation of the MFL signals.


2011 ◽  
Vol 474-476 ◽  
pp. 1187-1190
Author(s):  
Qiang Song

Magnetic flux leakage (MFL) is a non-destructive testing method used to inspect the pipe and magnetization of the pipe wall to saturation is essential for anomalies to be reliably and accurately detected and characterized. Axial components of magnetic flux density obtained during the MFL inspection have been simulated using three-dimensional finite element analysis and the effects of magnetizing exciter parameters on magnetic flux density are investigated. The pipe modeled in this paper has an outer diameter of 127mm (5 in.) with a wall thickness of 9 mm (0.354 in.). According to numerical simulations, an increase in the magnetic flux density of pipe wall is observed with an increase in the permanent magnet length and height. It clearly illustrates that Nd-Fe-B permanent magnet assembly with 70 mm length and 40 mm height may magnetize pipe wall to near saturation.


Author(s):  
L. Clapham ◽  
Vijay Babbar ◽  
Thana Rahim ◽  
David Atherton

Since magnetism is strongly stress dependent, Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) inspection tools have the potential to locate and characterize mechanical damage in pipelines. However, MFL application to mechanical damage detection faces major hurdles, which make signal interpretation problematic: 1) the MFL signal will be a superposition of geometrical and stress effects, 2) the stress distribution around a mechanically damaged region is very complex, consisting of plastic deformation and residual (elastic) stresses, 3) the effect of stress on magnetic behaviour is not well understood. This paper summarizes a number of our studies concerned with mechanical damage and the effects of elastic and plastic deformation on MFL signals. The first series of experiments was conducted using uniaxial loading into the plastic deformation regime. Magnetic measurements made in situ with this uniaxial deformation showed that magnetic behaviour is far more sensitive to elastic, compared to plastic, deformation. Unloading the samples resulted in a combination of plastic deformation and residual stress. Subsequent ‘staged’ stress relieving heat treatments enabled us to progressively remove the residual stresses, and characterize their effects on magnetic behaviour and MFL signals. In a second series of experiments we simulated mechanical damage using a tool and die press to progressively ‘dent’ a number of plate samples. As with true mechanical damage, the resulting MFL signals arise from both geometrical and residual stress effects. Subsequent stress relieving heat treatments were used to separate and compare the ‘geometrical’ MFL signal from the ‘residual stress’ MFL signal.


Author(s):  
Lynann Clapham ◽  
Vijay Babbar

The current study was designed to model the dynamic effects of detector ride and magnet liftoff on Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) signals from dents as well as gouges that have significant denting. The MFL tools have long been used for the detection and sizing of corrosion defects. This is comparatively straightforward for a number of reasons, one of which is that the MFL detector assembly can ride relatively smoothly along the inner pipe wall surface. This is not the case when significant denting is present, since the dent presents a perturbation in the pipe wall that can cause liftoff of the detector or magnet system. Since the tool travels at relatively high speeds down the pipe, the dent itself can cause the detector to lose contact with the trailing half of the dent. In addition, the magnet pole piece may experience partial liftoff as it traverses the dent, thus causing a change in the local flux density. In this study results from ‘static’ measurements are compared with a dynamic case in which detector liftoff is simulated through modeling and experiment. Results are discussed regarding the severity of MFL signal loss at the trailing edge of the defect as a result of detector liftoff. The effect of partial liftoff of the magnet as it passes over the dent is also examined. Magnet liftoff is found to increase the local magnetic flux near the liftoff region, causing the MFL signal from the dent wall to increase rather than decrease in the vicinity of magnet liftoff region.


2014 ◽  
Vol 599-601 ◽  
pp. 321-325
Author(s):  
Li Qiang Sun ◽  
Hong Bo Zhu ◽  
Ming Xie ◽  
Ji Xia Li

In view of the petroleum and petrochemical characteristics of horizontal tank, ANSYS software of finite element analysis was carried out on the horizontal tank within the magnetic flux leakage testing, analyzes the influencing factors of defect magnetic flux leakage signals. Experiments verify the finite element analysis results, the experimental results show that the research of horizontal tank within the magnetic flux leakage detection effect is obvious.


2016 ◽  
Vol 853 ◽  
pp. 514-518
Author(s):  
Zhi Jun Yang ◽  
De Shu Chen ◽  
Liang Chen ◽  
Yu Zhuo Liu ◽  
Ran An ◽  
...  

Storage tank is an essential vessel in petrochemical industry, and the corrosion of tank is an important reason for the safety hazard. The corrosion of tank bottom plate is more serious than the tank wall, and it is not easy to check and repair, when damaged to a certain extent it will cause the leakage of the media, then lead to waste of energy, environmental pollution, at the same time it will cause a major accident. Magnetic flux leakage testing is widely used in the field of tank floor inspection with the advantages of fast scanning speed, accurate results and so on. In this paper, the finite element simulation and analysis of the corrosion defect leakage magnetic field is used to obtain the data, and the characteristic of the leakage magnetic field is extracted. The effect of defect depth and width and shape on the magnetic flux leakage field is studied, and the distribution curve of the magnetic flux leakage field is obtained.


2014 ◽  
Vol 989-994 ◽  
pp. 891-897 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao Wen Xi ◽  
Shang Kun Ren ◽  
Yin Huang

To study the mechanism of metal magnetic memory (MMM) testing technology, the stress-magnetization effect on 20 steel specimens with different notch angles under exercise of the geomagnetic field and tensile load is simulated by using the finite element analysis (FEA) software ANSYS. With the stimulation, the stress and magnetic flux leakage distribution of the specimens is given. The results showed that internal stress distribution of different notch specimens under external tensile effects is different; The curves of relationship between damage degree of stress concentration and the distribution of magnetic flux leakage is also related to the defect shape and structure; Magnetization decreases with increases of stress at first and then increases with continuing increase of stress, which is called stress magnetization reversal. It provides an important reference for the quantitative research of metal magnetic memory technology.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document