Aging infrastructure pipelines used in energy distribution, water supply, and industrial processing are increasingly vulnerable to corrosion-induced wall thinning, which often goes undetected until structural failure occurs. Traditional inspection methods fall short for embedded or inaccessible pipeline sections.
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Nondestructive Testing (IZFP) are exploring guided ultrasonic waves, excited by Electromagnetic Acoustic Transducers (EMATs), as a contactless nondestructive testing approach that aims to inspect pipes over several meters without direct surface access. Using COMSOL Multiphysics®, the team simulates shear horizontal (SH) guided wave modes, SH0 and SH1 to analyze their interaction with localized wall-thickness reductions. Simulations reveal that SH1 offers higher sensitivity for early-stage corrosion, while SH0 aims to maintain detectability for deeper defects, together enabling complementary corrosion assessment across a wider severity range.
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Image courtesy: COMSOL
