Preliminary studies for monitoring erosion in pipelines by the acoustic emission technique

Abstract

The aim of this work is to present some applications of Acoustic Emission (AE), which is a powerful technique for non-destructive testing in Tribology, treated here as tests of friction, wear by contact fatigue, wear by slip and wear by erosion. In this work a special attention is given to solid particle erosion and hydro-abrasive erosion, problems found in almost every pipeline that lead to local loss of material and eventually rupture of the line. The technique of AE can be used as an efficient online tool when, primarily, to monitor tribologycal aspects such as the rate of wear of materials, as well as detect the spread of flaws in them. In wear by erosion, specifically, the parameters of RMS and acoustic energy are capable of correlation with the type of mechanism for removal of material. As a preliminary goal, erosive tests were performed with gas (air) without erosive particles, monitored by AE, varying the surface of the samples and the internal diameter the nozzle, taking the differences in signs of AE. Correlation between parameters of RMS and amplitude were noticed with the variables of the tests, such as roughness and fluid velocity. The RMS parameter showed a exponential correction with the fluid velocity, however the amplitude signals had a linear behavior. The knowledge of these parameters is essential for the development of a system that is able to quantify the wear rate of a pipeline without taking it out of operation.