Open Access

Pipelines and industrial piping systems are particularly relevant regarding technical safety, availability and maintenance. Large flow rates of hazardous substances imply that even smallest leakages can lead to high environmental impacts. Therefore, and to ensure the availability of infrastructure, an early detection and localization of potentially hazardous degradations to the walls (e.g. cracks, pittings, sedimentation, etc.) of the containments is necessary. However, in many cases it is not feasible to equip pipelines with a large number of point sensors at reasonable expense. The principle of distributed fibre optic sensing relies on one single optical fibre, which simultaneously acts as a spatially continuous sensor as well as the signal transducer. Therefore, extensive structures can be provided with this type of sensor with comparatively low efforts. As a consequence, monitoring oil and gas pipelines using distributed fibre optic sensors is on the upswing. Besides the established methods to measure temperature and strain, distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) has lately received considerable attention as a means to detect and localize third party threats to pipelines (approach of vehicles, digging, mechanical manipulation). The so far not utilized potential of DAS as a means for continuous condition monitoring of pipes by detecting and localizing acoustic signals that point to certain damage scenarios, is currently under investigation in an interdisciplinary research project at BAM (AGIFAMOR, Ageing Infrastructures – Fibre Optic Monitoring of Pipes). In order to qualify distributed acoustic fibre optic sensors for this application area, we especially focus on detecting and identifying the relevant acoustic emissions of interesting degradations as well as on the optimal way of application of the optical fibres to the specimen to achieve an optimal signal transmission of acoustic signals.

The roll-on-roll-off passenger ferry MV ESTONIA sank during the night of 28 September 1994 in the Baltic Sea. In October 2000, divers recovered two palm-sized test pieces from the front bulkhead of the wreck. The investigators analysed these specimens to determine whether there were any indications of deliberate blasting. Since the wreck had been submerged for almost six years, it was clear that chemical traces would not be present on the surfaces of the test pieces. Therefore, the investigators performed comparative tests on shipbuilding steel to find a microstructural criterion that exclusively characterises a blast. The shipyard Jos. L. Meyer, Germany, had built the ESTONIA and supplied shipbuilding steel plates similar to that used for building the vessel in 1979/1980. The comparative tests comprised mechanical tests, shot peening tests and blasting tests using different explosives. Testing demonstrated that blasting always formed twinned ferrite grains in the microstructure over the whole cross-section of each of the 8 mm thick comparative plates. Although one of the original test pieces of the ESTONIA showed deformation twins, this was only confined up to 0.4 mm underneath the surfaces and not spread over the whole cross-section. Comparative shot peening tests produced the very same pattern of subsurface deformation twins. Therefore, the twins detected in the microsection of the test pieces of the ESTONIA wreck traced back to the shot peening process performed by the shipyard in 1979/1980 and not to a deliberate blast.

A steel pipeline segment of 2.5 m length was subjected to quasi-static four-point bending load in three steps for studying the initial cracking and damage accumulation based on the Acoustic Emission (AE) technique and by the direct current potential drop (DCPD) technique. For the latter, a new post-test analysis method was established. AE is found more sensitive to crack initiation than DCPD. Formation of mesoscopic and macroscopic cracks as well as their closure and the resulting friction generate weighted peak frequencies below 400 kHz, whereas microscopic cracking produces AE with broad band spectra identifiable by weighted peak frequencies above 400 kHz. Critical states alike the maximum load level and the leak opening were accompanied by peak amplitudes above 85 dBAE. This rather fundamental study provides a data base for possibly developing advanced strategies of detection and alarm systems based on acoustic monitoring of pipelines, or at least, steel structures.

Ferritic spheroidal graphite cast iron (SGI) materials have a remarkable technical poten-tial and economic impact in modern industry. These features are closely related to the question of how the cast materials can be produced without structural defects and graphite degenerations such as for example chunky graphite. Although the chunky graphite degeneration superficially seems to be well known, its metallurgical background is still controversially discussed, appropriate field-tested non-destructive tools for its quantification in castings are lacking and the knowledge on its impact on material properties is fairly limited. Addressing this status, the article is providing a current overview on the subject. Existing theories on formation and growth mechanisms of chunky graphite are briefly reviewed. Furthermore, from a metallurgical point of view, causes for the appearance of chunky graphite as well as preventive measures are concisely summarized. Particular attention is paid to the morphology of chunky graphite and how it can be characterized by destructive and non-destructive techniques. Special emphasis was laid on providing a comprehensive overview on the impact of chunky graphite on strength, ductility, fatigue limit, fatigue crack growth rate as well as fracture tough-ness of ferritic SGI materials based on experimental data. Moreover, conclusions for the assessment of castings affected by chunky graphite are drawn.