A Transmitter-Less Inspection Tool for Pipe Defect Detection and Characterization

Pipe strings are commonly employed in the oil and gas sector, where they are subjected to immense strains and highly corrosive fluids. Electromagnetic (EM) based inspection tools are widely used and typically require one or more excitation sources (i.e., transmitter coil(s)), as well as sensing devices, which adds complexity and expense. By utilizing the inductive sensing principle, this work introduces a novel inspection method with no transmitter coil(s) capable of characterizing inner and full metal loss on the pipe's body. The proposed technique has been modeled and simulated using the commercial EM solver ANSYS Maxwell, as well as a proof of concept prototype, has been built. The results reveal that the tool could detect full and partial metal loss and fully characterize the defect's size, location, and depth.