Technical Brief

blown through and supposedly clean. This bitumen

LRUT Inspection of Bitumen had cooled below the softening point into a semi-
lines solid, thus highly attenuating the guided wave signal.

Introduction: Plant Integrity Limited inspected

bitumen pipelines on a jetty and the transfer lines at a
Storage Depot in Norway.

Guided Waves were deemed a suitable inspection

technique because the bitumen containing pipelines
were elevated and insulated, which would require
very extensive scaffold erection and insulation
removal for conventional NDT techniques to be
utilized.

Teletest Focus guided wave ultrasonic testing was

used to screen the 10 jetty line and the two 6
transfer lines. The jetty line was operating at a Figure 2. Data collected from the 10 Jetty line at less than 70C
temperature of less than 70C and the transfer lines
were operating at temperatures of between 90C - From the storage tanks, two 6 lines run to the loading
100C which was well within the maximum gantry. These lines are also insulated and heated.
temperature capability of the system.

Technique: The bitumen lines at the storage facility

comprised of a 10 line running from the jetty to two
storage tanks. This line has electrical trace heating
under the insulation which did not hinder the
inspection. The temperature of the line at this location
at the time of testing was less than 70C. No product
was being off loaded at the time and so the pipeline
was empty (the line gets blown through after
unloading in an attempt to completely empty it).

A typical tool location with the Teletest Collar

positioned on the pipe is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 3. Data collected from one of the 6 transfer lines at
between 90C - 100C

In Figure 3, a much greater signal to noise ratio can

be observed. This scan was taken from one of the 6
transfer lines that runs from the storage tank to the
loading gantry. This line runs at around 20C - 30C
hotter than the jetty line. This higher temperature is
above the softening point of the bitumen, turning it
into a semi-liquid and lowering its viscosity to the
point where the guided waves display much lower
attenuation rates significantly increasing the
diagnostic length and inspection possible.
Figure 1. Heated transfer line at between 90C - 100C

The data shown in Figure 2, was collected from the

10 Jetty line and shows that the signal is very highly
attenuative and the diagnostic length very short.
This is likely to be due to a bitumen coating on inside
surface of the pipeline even though the line has been
For information on how we can support your pipeline
integrity management programme, please contact us by
email at info@plantintegrity.com or by telephone at our
Cambridge, UK headquarters on 0044 1223 893994.

Plant Integrity Ltd

Granta Park, Gt Abington, Cambridge CB21 6GP
T: +44 (0) 1223 893994 F: +44 (0) 1223 893944
info@plantintegrity.com
www.plantintegrity.com A TWI Group Company