Subsea sensing

Sindre Halse Kristiansen, ClampOn AS, Norway, details the specifics of

non-intrusive corrosion-erosion monitoring for subsea applications.
D
etection and monitoring of corrosion and erosion are essential prognostic
means in preserving material integrity and reducing the lifecycle cost of industrial
infrastructure, ships, aircrafts, ground vehicles, pipelines, oil installations, etc. Even
topside the conditions of operation can be extremely hostile, facing problems like
surface roughness, fluid loading issues, temperature variations, and a host of other factors
that make development of a robust wall thickness assessment tool a challenging task.
Deploying a monitoring system subsea makes the application even more demanding when
you have to take into account factors like high pressure and limited access. The ClampOn
Corrosion-Erosion Monitor has already been installed successfully at several locations
topside and is now in the finishing stages of the subsea development. Non-invasiveness,
high repeatability and high coverage are amongst the selling points making it an excellent
candidate for subsea use. The technology is based on dispersion of ultrasonic guided wave
modes, and by using electromagnetism these waves can be transmitted through the pipe
wall without the sensor being in direct contact with the metallic surface. It is installed on the
outer pipe wall to produce real-time wall thickness information, not as a spot measurement,
but as a unique average path wall thickness.
Introduction
Corrosion and erosion in subsea installations can be detected by several methods. Pigable
pipelines are normally inspected at regular intervals and tracking of pipeline integrity is
generally not a big problem. Some unpiggable pipelines can be inspected using cable-
operated tools, but such inspections are expensive and may require a shutdown of
production. However, subsea production templates, flow jumpers, manifolds and flowlines
can only be inspected by pre-installation of corrosion/erosion sensors or by use of ROV-
operated sensors. Current pre-installed sensor systems for monitoring pipeline integrity
have proven to be of limited value to the operators and ROV-operated sensors only provide
indicative and unreliable readings. A major challenge is that hot spots, i.e., areas particularly
susceptible to erosion/corrosion, are often detected after the template has been in operation
for a while. Accordingly, the ability to retrofit a corrosion-erosion monitor (CEM) on identified
hot spots subsea is crucial. Today, there are no such reliable systems commercially available.
The main objective of ClampOns subsea CEM project is to provide a reliable solution to
these problems.
ClampOns CEM utilises acoustic guided Lamb waves (AGLW), a technology that
gives an average wall thickness reading for larger pipe sections. The transducers are fixed
at pre-determined spots on the pipe to monitor the wall thickness loss in larger stretches
of the pipe, typically up to 2 m. The absence of any transducer movement or mechanical
motion adds a high degree of robustness to the instrument. As it is permanently installed
and needs no recalibration, it will be both more cost effective and reliable than other ROV-
controlled methods. A variety of system configurations are possible, ranging from stand-
alone monitoring stations with data logging to full real-time integration into existing data
infrastructure. This technique has been installed topside and is now ready to be taken
forward for subsea installation. Both a retrofitted ROV-solution and a solution where the
system is installed in advance of subsea deployment have been worked out.

Working principle
The use of guided waves for defect detection in layered
structures and media have been investigated extensively, both
in academia and industry. However, effective use of these
complex Lamb waves for thickness assessment has not been
often exploited to provide a reliable quantitative estimate of wall
thickness loss in a structure. Guided wave inspection has the
potential to extend ultrasonic corrosion measurements in pipes
over long distances.
1
The robust thickness assessment procedure involves
a comprehensive analysis of the phase and group velocity
dispersion characteristics of appropriate wave modes. The
choice of modes for the analysis constitutes an important
part of the design, as not all modes are equally sensitive to
variations in wall thickness. Also, complications arising owing
to mode overlapping and distortion have to be handled and
overcome. Long-term monitoring has to necessarily face the
fact that there might exist local thickness variations that are a
significant percentage of the average wall thickness, and most
guided wave modes do not display the robustness required
to smoothly integrate these changes into a quantitative (rather
than qualitative) thickness assessment. The CEM system
algorithm incorporates the use of modes (constant group
velocity or CGV modes) that provide maximum sensitivity to
changes in wall thickness within the constraints imposed by
the necessary robustness which the technique needs. In other
words, the presence of highly localised damage and defects will
be quantitatively incorporated into a robust average thickness
measurement, with the use of an effective spectral and temporal
dispersive analysis of the generated and received waveform.
Figure 1 shows the phase and group velocity dispersion curves
for Lamb waves in steel. The fundamental flexural mode A0
is especially well suited for wall thickness measurement in the
vicinity of its constant group velocity (CGV) point, as marked
in the figure. The position of this peak is, as we can see from
the figure, decided by the frequency x thickness product,
meaning the inspection frequency will be dependent on the wall
thickness of the inspected pipe. This CGV measurement is a
relative measurement, meaning that the system needs an initial
thickness value (measured during/prior to system installation),
which it uses as a baseline reading, and calculates changes in
average thickness from this initial value.
System operation
The CEM system consists of up to eight transducers and
an electronics unit that handles all signal acquisition and
processing. Two and two transducers operate consecutive
in a pitch catch mode of operation giving the average wall
thickness of the area between the transducers, which can be
up to 2 m in length. By choosing the transducer positions with
care, normally unavailable areas can be monitored, e.g. buried
parts of a pipeline. Requirements imposed by important factors
such as mode separation and spurious arrivals place limits on
the maximum and minimum distance between transducers.
These limits are functions of pipe thickness and diameter, and
need to be decided for each installation in order to be able
to maximise coverage area. In most cases, the transducers
will be placed on two rings around the pipe, as illustrated in
Figure 1. Normalised phase and group velocity curves for
the first acoustic guided Lamb waves.
Figure 2. An example of a transducer set up with six sensors.
Usually the transducers are installed on two rings, and the
areas between the transducers are monitored. The red area
indicates the size of the area monitored by one transducer
pair.
Figure 3. Pre-installed solution with transducers mounted
underneath the coating.

March
Reprinted from World Pipelines
Figure 2, and set up to monitor the area between the rings and,
if possible, the area along the ring. Because of wave diffraction,
the covered area stretches beyond the physical dimension of
the transducers, also indicated in Figure 2. Clearly, with the
transducers being permanently installed, the coverage area of
the system will be a certain fraction of the area over which the
system is deployed. Typically, this
fraction will be greater than 0.65, or
65%, and can reach almost 90%.
Wall thickness trends are
generated automatically and can
be observed in real-time on a
computer running ClampOn CEM
software, or logged internally in
a data logger. The topside of the
instrument is usually hard-wired to
a power supply and a computer
in a safe area, but it has also been
delivered with a battery pack and
an industrial computer with internal
logging. At many subsea locations
it may not be applicable or possible
to hard-wire the instrument, and the
only option will be to use a battery
pack. ClampOn have developed a
battery powered solution for subsea
use with a battery design time of
five years. Replacement of the
battery pack can be done with an
ROV. Data will be saved to internal
memory and can be retrieved by an
acoustic modem, which allows for
two way communication. The system is designed to be easily
scalable for 8 24 in. pipe dimensions. Inherent limitations
imposed by transducer sensitivity limits, coupled with the CEM
ultrasonic technique, indicates that the system will perform
as expected on thicknesses varying from 5 - 35 mm, giving a
sensitivity of better than 1% of the wall thickness.
Subsea development
Even though the AGLW technique used by ClampOns CEM
system makes it a good candidate for subsea use, there will
always be uncertainties when adapting a proven topside
solution to the subsea environment. As this is an instrument
based on ultrasound, we also have to take into account
changes in the acoustic premises, e.g. much better acoustic
coupling between pipe wall and water than pipe wall and air.
You will also have to face the fact that there will be limited
access to the instrument after installation and you will not have
the same opportunities when it comes to troubleshooting and
repair as when first installing an instrument topside. With this
in mind, many of the solutions selected for the subsea CEM
are inspired by other well-proven ClampOn products. The
electronics are based on the solution used for the topside
CEM version and the housing design are based on ClampOns
existing Deepwater model, rated to more than 3000 m.
For existing non-piggable pipelines, only ultrasonic spot
measurement techniques are capable of ROV-installation.
Based on our knowledge and experience, the main reason for
the problems encountered with these retrofitted systems is the
piezoelectric transducers themselves. Such transducers are
highly affected by temperature, ageing effects and the acoustic
coupling between the ultrasonic sensor and the pipe wall. Lack
of long-term stability is the key issue. In order to maintain the
repeatability of the system, frequent
re-calibrations are needed. This is
not suitable for long term subsea
monitoring. In order to overcome
this stability issue, ClampOn has
developed electromagnetic acoustic
transducers (EMATs). EMATs allow
ultrasonic waves to be created and
picked up without being acoustically
coupled to the pipe wall, making
this a very stable solution that will
not change over time. The EMATs
have been designed with increased
sensitivity to make them less
vulnerable to installation deviation,
and to make it possible to place them
on the outside of the pipe coating.
The existing surface coating on the
pipe can remain in place and does
not have to be modified in any way.
Conclusion
As mentioned earlier, two different
solutions have been taken forward;
one ROV-installable and one pre-
installable solution. There will be
no difference in the way they operate and they will give the
same results when it comes to reliability and repeatability. The
pre-installable will have have the transducers fixed by more or
less the same mechanism as topside, and only the electronics
will be made ROV-retrievable. All transducers can be put
underneath the coating for better protection if desireable, as
indicated in Figure 3. Depending on the system set-up, the ROV
solution can consist of a main clamp containing the electronics
and one or two separate transducers clamps. The transducers
are based on a wet-mateable design and only need a clean
spot/location before being installe on a pipe structure. This is
achieved by running a cleaning tool to remove any fouling. The
ROV-installable system is flexible and installation both in bends
and straight sections are possible. A sketch of the ROV-clamp
for straight sections with electronic canisters and transducer
clamps are shown in Figure 4. As a part of the development
effort, it has been imperative to design and conduct
representative experimental work to verify design assumptions,
and to test the functionality of the ROV installable clamp, data
acquisition and acoustic properties. This development project is
now in its final stages and will shortly be deployed subsea for a
field trial.
References
1. INSTANES, Geir; KRISTIANSEN, Sindre Halse; TOPPE, Mads and NAGY, Peter B.,
The use of non-intrusive ultrasonic intelligent sensors for corrosion and erosion
monitoring, NACE 2010.
Figure 4. The ROV solution for ClampOns subsea
CEM. The main clamp with the electronics chamber
and a battery pack is in the middle and there is
one transducer clamp on each side.

March
Reprinted from World Pipelines