Abstract

JAIMES-SAAVEDRA, Cristian Fabian  and  ROA-PRADA, Sebastián. Sensitivity analysis of a magnetic circuit for non-destructive testing by the magnetic flux leakage technique. Prospect. [online]. 2016, vol.14, n.2, pp.22-30. ISSN 1692-8261.  https://doi.org/10.15665/rp.v14i2.678.

Monitoring the integrity of structures in the oil and gas industry is a mandatory task to prevent both natural disasters and economical losses. This paper presents the optimization of the geometry of a magnetic circuit for the detection of defects in pipelines by the magnetic flux leakage method. The main goal is to perform a sensitivity analysis on the geometrical parameters of the circuit to find configurations that improve the performance of the defect searching tool. The sensitivity analysis of the design parameters of the magnetic circuit is based on numerical evaluations of the performance of the tool using the finite element method. The commercial finite elements software utilized for this analysis is COMSOL Multiphysics(r). The results obtained in this investigation serve to identify the geometrical configurations that provide better performance, with respect to other configurations, for the detection of the same defect. Also, by using the analytical model of the magnetic flux leakage, the results obtained by means of the analytical model can be compared to the results from the finite elements model. The findings of this investigation can be utilized as guidelines for the design of magnetic circuits for non-destructive testing using the magnetic flux leakage technique.

Keywords : Magnetic flux leakage; Non-destructive testing; Magnetic circuit; Sensitivity analysis; Finite elements.

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