Virtual–Dig Up – Breaking the Boundaries

High-pressure pipelines have to be operated safely, efficiently and in compliance with regulations. Ensuring mechanical integrity is a paramount requirement and confirming safe MAOP is part of the equation.

In order to assess the fitness-for-purpose reliably, data on safety relevant features and defects must be collected, analyzed and turned into useful information.

In-line inspection (ILI) tools have been used in the industry for over 50 years now. They collect data on defects such as metal loss. The quality of data collected influences the refinement of the integrity assessment that can subsequently be performed.

ILI tools utilizing magnetic flux leakage (MFL) technology are the work-horses of the industry regarding metal loss inspection. They are reliable, robust and can collect high quality metal loss data. A big advantage of this technology is direct use in a gas environment. MFL utilizes electro-magnetic principles and does not require a liquid couplant. Ideal for gas pipelines.

Corrosion experts confirm that it is advantageous if ILI tools can also record the geometry or 3D-profile of a metal loss. In case of corrosion this helps to understand the morphology of a corrosion feature and provides a better understanding of the corrosion behavior. Precise knowledge of the geometry or contour of a feature also helps to further enhance sizing and MAOP confirmation, especially for complex shape corrosion and interacting features.

Laser-like 3D profiling provides a virtual picture of metal loss features found during inspection, showing what is actually in the ground. This additional information will benefit an effective dig up prioritization as well as providing a solution for the verification of features located in difficult to access areas. In general, this will support a route to more effective maintenance spending.

Unfortunately, 3D-profiling was not available for ILI tools utilizing MFL until now.

But now, as a technology leader and innovator ROSEN is breaking the boundaries and taking MFL technology to the next level.

ROSEN is proud to present a revolutionary new technology, which enhances the level of information that can be drawn from data that is implicitly available in high resolution MFL and collected during ILI runs.

This new technology, only available from ROSEN is called Deep Field Analyze and uses high quality data from axial and circumferential MFL inspections to provide laser-like 3D profiles of a metal loss feature, visualizing the true shape of any corrosion or gouging, even before digging up.

This truly unprecedented approach breaks the boundaries, taking us beyond boxing based on feature length and depth!

Virtual−Dig Up is a new service offering built around Deep Field Analyze.