Ultrasonic imaging of electrofusion welded polythene pipes employed in utilities industry

Thattaliyath Kadumberi, Arjun Prakash and O'Leary, Richard and Gachagan, Anthony; (2012) Ultrasonic imaging of electrofusion welded polythene pipes employed in utilities industry. In: 51st Annual Conference of the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing 2012 (NDT 2012). British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing, GBR, pp. 129-139. ISBN 9781622764372

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Abstract

Electrofusion welding (EFW) is a widely used technique for joining polyethylene pipes in the oil, gas and water industry. Like many welding and joining methods, the joints created by EFW can exhibit a range of flaw types that can be attributed to process variables such as: poor preparation of the parent material, contamination of the weld surfaces prior to welding and operator and/or equipment failure during the welding process. This paper describes ultrasonic testing using 128-channel linear array with a DYNARAY system to acquire data from a range of joints created using EFW. The samples were created in the laboratory with a range of defects that represent those commonly observed in the field. The samples were subsequently destructively tested using tensile testing of the coupling-pipe interface. Good corroboration was achieved between the observed weld quality from the ultrasonic data and the weld strength determined by the destructive testing.

ORCID iDs

Thattaliyath Kadumberi, Arjun Prakash ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7681-0275, O'Leary, Richard ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4092-2101 and Gachagan, Anthony ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9728-4120;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)