Inspection of surface and near-surface indications has been always a challenge in the oil and gas industry due to the limitations of the commonly utilized conventional Nondestructive Testing (NDT) methods and their implementation difficulties such as surface preparation requirements, reliance on operator skills, slow deployment and inability to archive inspection data. Keeping pace with industrial revolution (IR) 4.0, Nondestructive testing (NDT) methods have been evolving to be digitized by automated data evaluation and visualization of inspection results while improving detection capability, decision making processes and speeding up the inspection activities. This paper will discuss and analyze the trials conducted to validate the capability of the new digital generation of Eddy Current Test (ECT); namely Eddy Current Array (ECA), based on comparisons made against alternate methods. The paper will also illustrate the principles, applications and benefits of ECA technology. ECA technology shows significant potential as a replacement for conventional NDT methods, i.e., Magnetic Particle Inspection (MPI) and Penetrant Testing (PT) that are used for the inspection of surface-breaking and near-surface indications including Environmental-Assisted Cracking.

Subject
Nondestructive testing, Coating inspection, Materials, Surface defects, Probes, Inspection, Corrosion detection, Crack depth, Defects, Crack length, Coating defects, Cracks, Stress corrosion cracking
Keywords:
Eddy Current, Nondestructive Testing, Eddy Current Array (ECA), Surface Indications, Near-Surface Indications, Inspection, Stress Corrosion Cracking, Welds
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2023
Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP)
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