Vahdati Nader, Wang Xueting, Shiryayev Oleg, Rostron Paul, Yap Fook Fah
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Sas Al Nakhl Campus, Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alaska, Anchorage, AK 99508, USA.
Sensors (Basel). 2020 Jan 26;20(3):684. doi: 10.3390/s20030684.
Oil flowlines, the first "pipeline" system connected to the wellhead, are pipelines that are 5 to 30.5 cm (two to twelve inches) in diameter, most susceptible to corrosion, and very difficult to inspect. Herein, an external corrosion detection sensor for oil and gas pipelines, consisting of a semicircular plastic strip, a flat dog-bone-shaped sacrificial metal plate made out of the same pipeline material, and an optical fiber with Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors, is described. In the actual application, multiple FBG optical fibers are attached to an oil and gas pipeline using straps or strips or very large hose clamps, and, every few meters, our proposed corrosion detection sensor will be glued to the FBG sensors. When the plastic parts are attached to the sacrificial metals, the plastic parts will be deformed and stressed; thus, placing the FBG sensors in tension. When corrosion is severe at any given pipeline location, the sacrificial metal at that location will corrode till failure and the tension strain is relieved at that FBG Sensor location, and therefore, a signal is detected at the interrogator. Herein, the external corrosion detection sensor and its design equations are described, and experimental results, verifying our theory, are presented.
输油管道是连接到井口的首个“管道”系统，其直径为5至30.5厘米（2至12英寸），极易受到腐蚀，且检查难度极大。本文介绍了一种用于油气管道的外部腐蚀检测传感器，它由一个半圆形塑料条、一块由相同管道材料制成的扁平狗骨形牺牲金属板以及带有光纤布拉格光栅（FBG）传感器的光纤组成。在实际应用中，多根FBG光纤通过绑带、条带或非常大的软管夹固定在油气管道上，每隔几米，我们提出的腐蚀检测传感器就会粘贴到FBG传感器上。当塑料部件附着在牺牲金属上时，塑料部件会发生变形并产生应力，从而使FBG传感器处于拉伸状态。当给定管道位置的腐蚀严重时，该位置的牺牲金属会腐蚀直至失效，该FBG传感器位置的拉伸应变得以释放，因此，在询问器处会检测到信号。本文描述了外部腐蚀检测传感器及其设计方程，并给出了验证我们理论的实验结果。
