Over a span of a century, Cargo Ships have been trading crude oil across the globe. Often the crude oil tankers are loaded and discharge through Jetty Pipelines which are connected to shore facilities.
These Jetty Lines operate in a saline environment and thus are prone to corrosion, may it be internal or external.
Jetty pipelines are comparatively very short than those of cross country crude oil lines and hence are non-piggable. Also, the elbows and Splash zone coating over the pipeline makes inspection with traditional in-line inspection tools a real tough challenge to asset owners.
So how we really monitor these Jetty Pipelines without even removing the Splash Zone coating?
Pulsed Eddy Current (PEC) is the technology to address your real-time inspection challenges!
What is Pulsed Eddy Current (PEC)?
Pulsed Eddy Current (PEC) is an electromagnetic inspection technique used to detect wall loss on ferromagnetic structures such as carbon steel and cast iron. It provides a relative volumetric measurement converted into an averaged thickness measurement based on the calibration area.
Advantages of Jetty Pipelines Inspection by PEC Technology :
- It is not required to remove splash zone coating or marine growth above the cladding, thus eliminating the cost of re-coating.
- PEC inspection is not affected by the flow of fluids within Jetty Pipelines, thus eliminating the shutdown factor i.e. In-service inspection is easily possible.
- It can inspect the parent pipeline with 250mm thick insulation coating/splash zone coating.
- PEC can be applied at high temperatures up to 550°C of metal under insulation.
- Measurement accuracy of ±10% of measured wall thickness.
- Strong waves and sea currents do not de-stabilize readings and it is easy to maintain a steady probe contact during inspection data recording
- No surface preparation required.
- Battery-powered instrument, thus perfect for remote locations.
- PEC is one of the fastest screening techniques available for monitoring Corrosion under Splash Zone / Insulation coat in-service condition.
Standards guiding PEC Inspection : ISO 20669
