Abstract:
Internal corrosion is one of the major problems affecting the integrity of pipelines and process equipment. For this reason, the internal corrosion monitoring becomes essential to anticipate eventual problems and select the most appropriate strategy to mitigate the corrosive process. Due to the problems related to the cost, logistics and safety inherent to coupon and electric resistance (ER) probe retrieving, it is very important to seek alternatives to the current methods, in order to optimize the monitoring tasks. The use of non-intrusive equipment (NIE) to monitor internal corrosion is an alternative that aims to optimize this step, as well as NIE has easy installation and maintenance, higher data reliability and faster results. These systems consist of estimating the trend of the corrosion rate through devices installed on the external side of pipelines without the need of access fittings, unlike conventional techniques. The great advantage of using this technique is the absence of interventions for components retrieving, minimizing operational risks. To evaluate such equipment, tests were carried out under dynamic conditions, varying the fluid characteristics in order to verify the speed of response of some commercial devices, always comparing them to conventional methods (coupon and ER probe). The results showed good correlation between both techniques (intrusive and non-intrusive). However, in one of the test conditions, there was a divergence in the result due to difference in position between NIE and intrusive equipments, which caused more wear in the coupons and ER probes than in the pipe wall.
Access to the article on the Journal’s website:
https://abraco.org.br/src/uploads/2020/05/RevistaABRACO_ed70.pdf
Internal corrosion is one of the major problems affecting the integrity of pipelines and process equipment. For this reason, the internal corrosion monitoring becomes essential to anticipate eventual problems and select the most appropriate strategy to mitigate the corrosive process. Due to the problems related to the cost, logistics and safety inherent to coupon and electric resistance (ER) probe retrieving, it is very important to seek alternatives to the current methods, in order to optimize the monitoring tasks. The use of non-intrusive equipment (NIE) to monitor internal corrosion is an alternative that aims to optimize this step, as well as NIE has easy installation and maintenance, higher data reliability and faster results. These systems consist of estimating the trend of the corrosion rate through devices installed on the external side of pipelines without the need of access fittings, unlike conventional techniques. The great advantage of using this technique is the absence of interventions for components retrieving, minimizing operational risks. To evaluate such equipment, tests were carried out under dynamic conditions, varying the fluid characteristics in order to verify the speed of response of some commercial devices, always comparing them to conventional methods (coupon and ER probe). The results showed good correlation between both techniques (intrusive and non-intrusive). However, in one of the test conditions, there was a divergence in the result due to difference in position between NIE and intrusive equipments, which caused more wear in the coupons and ER probes than in the pipe wall.
Access to the article on the Journal’s website:
https://abraco.org.br/src/uploads/2020/05/RevistaABRACO_ed70.pdf
