108

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 58, NO. 1, JANUARY 2009

Non-Invasive Fast Detection of Internal Fouling Layers in Tubes and Ducts by Acoustic Vibration Analysis
Jaidilson J da Silva, Antonio Marcus Nogueira Lima, Senior Member, IEEE, Franz Helmut Neff, and Jos Srgio da Rocha Neto, Member, IEEE

AbstractThe easy detection of fouling in duct systems is a persistent problem and remains a relevant demand for the chemical, oil, food, and pharmaceutical industries. The fouling process is the slow unwanted layer deposition of heavy organic and other dissolved solid materials out of transported uids onto inner wall surfaces over an extended period of time. This work presents preliminary research results of vibrational hammer excitation for easy-to-use external non-invasive nondestructive fouling detection in pipelines and other large-scale duct systems. The main goal is the localization of inner pipe-layer formation and thickness estimation of the adsorbed material. Data were taken from the vibration variation in the presence of an inner pipe fouling layer using acoustic microphone detection. The experimental setup, achievable sensitivities, and limitations of the method are outlined. Index TermsAcoustic analysis, fouling detection, hammer impact test, vibrations analysis.

I. I NTRODUCTION

SEVERE problem that occurs for uid transport in duct systems and pipelines is the slow accumulation of organic or inorganic substances on their internal surfaces over time. Such accumulation of unwanted material is known as fouling and occasionally appears simultaneously with tube corrosion. Both fouling and corrosion are major concerns for plant operation and lifetime in the chemical, petroleum, food, and pharmaceutical industries, due to their detrimental impact on reliability and security [1], [2]. Tube corrosion is related to the presence of chemically aggressive trace elements and compounds in transported materials and is usually attributed to the presence of sulfur or halogens. A sketch of the two occasionally simultaneously appearing processes is illustrated in Fig. 1, where the corrosion-related shrinking of the wall thickness is related to the growing fouling layer.

Manuscript received June 8, 2007; revised November 19, 2007. First published July 15, 2008; current version published December 9, 2008. This work was supported in part by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientco e Tecnolgico (CNPq), and by Petrleo Brasileiro S.A. The Associate Editor coordinating the review process for this paper was Dr. Yves Rolain. J. J. da Silva, A. M. N. Lima, and J. S. da Rocha Neto are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Campina Grande, 58109-970 Campina Grande, Brazil (e-mail: jaidilson@dee.ufcg.edu.br; amnlima@dee.ufcg.edu.br; zesergio@dee.ufcg.edu.br). F. H. Neff was with Vir Biosensor, DK-2630 Taastrup, Denmark. He is now with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Campina Grande, 58109-970 Campina Grande, Brazil (e-mail: hneff@get2net.dk). Color versions of one or more of the gures in this paper are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TIM.2008.927206

An example of tube fouling observed in a selected duct section of an oil rening plant is given in Fig. 2. The deposition rate is commonly very low, and it may take several years until critical thickness values are reached. Fouling in chemical plant duct systems and pipelines accounts for severe problems in plant operation such as the reduction of the internal diameter of the tube, the reduction of mechanical integrity and strength, the reduction of plant operation lifetime, an increase in applied pressure to maintain ow throughput, crack formation, and possibly catastrophic breakup. The associated increase of energy consumption also comes along with higher operation and maintenance costs. Duct systems and pipelines thus require regular periodic inspection. Several methods have been proposed for early fouling detection in ducts, based on mass ow reduction, electric resistance and eddy current sensors, and ultrasonic techniques [3][6]. Tests with hammer impact have previously been used in numerous engineering areas to analyze frequency response functions, due to the convenience and simplicity of the experiments, as well as the validity of the analysis procedures [7][9]. The physical principle is as simple and well known as the ringing bell: When the tube is mechanically excited by hammer impact, a relatively localized area of the tube section begins to vibrate at acoustic frequencies for a certain period at one or more resonance frequencies. The vibration propagates as a very fast shear sound wave within the duct wall and as a surface wave. The latter couples to the environmental air and is acoustically detectable by a closely mounted microphone. The temporal development and decay of the free vibration depends on the physical characteristics of the system/pipe geometry, particularly of the damping coefcient [7], which is determined by the wall thickness. Flaw detection in mechanical structures based on vibration methods has been reported earlier [10][12]. Some of these techniques compare recorded resonance frequencies with those obtained from a nite-element analysis [10], [11]. Mechanical vibration tests have been implemented and used for aw detection in structures [7][12]. The detection of cracks in beam structures has been reported before in [13][18], while aw detection in antique artworks has been investigated in [19] and [20]. Based on the ideas presented earlier, the acoustic hammer excitation/impact has been evaluated in this work towards simplied fouling detection in ducts and pipelines that are used for crude oil transport and plant processing. Here, we analyze

0018-9456/$25.00 2008 IEEE

DA SILVA et al.: NON-INVASIVE FAST DETECTION OF INTERNAL FOULING LAYERS IN TUBES AND DUCTS

109

Fig. 1.

Cross-sectional view of tube aging processes. (a) Inhomogeneous fouling layer. (b) Corrosion. (c) Fouling.

Quantitative data regarding the thickness of the fouling layer were extracted from the shift of the resonance frequencies and the signal decay time as a function of the fouling layer thickness. From the sensor arrangements, detector sensitivities were estimated. The sound pressure magnitude of the impulse is estimated with a dynamometer to be 0.4 Pa. Furthermore, to reduce interference with background noise, the microphone has been localized close to the hammer impact, and a differential amplier was used to capture the microphone output. The vibrations primarily originate from the exural-wave mode, exhibiting considerable dispersion. Thus, at high frequencies, the acoustic wave spreads at a higher speed than at low frequencies. It is not fully clear to us why the higher resonances do not shift with increased fouling thickness.
Fig. 2. Fouling layer in a duct section of a crude oil plant.

variations in vibration frequency and decay/attenuation time using microphone output signals in the presence of inner tube fouling layers. The main contribution of this work is the use of an easy-to-implement method for fouling detection, which uses a non-invasive technique, with the hammer test. The asphaltic fouling layer that was originally deposited in crude oil ducts has been replaced and simulated by a parafn (resin) lm with a dened and varying thickness up to 15 mm that has been carefully deposited within the test tube. II. S YSTEM P ULSE E CHO (V IBRATION M ETHOD ) Here, a fouling detector has been exploited, using the hammer test to provoke mechanical vibrations in the pipe section under investigation. The sharp mechanical hammer excitation pulse in the time domain corresponds to a broadband frequency spectrum, which excites the specic duct acoustic resonance. The acoustic detection system is comprised of a high-quality microphone to capture the acoustic vibration signatures of the tube. Fig. 3 represents a sketch of the experimental setup. An electromagnetic displacement system has been installed to establish controlled and reproducible hammer movements and force/momentum transfer for localized vibration excitation in the pipe section under test. A commercial high-quality microphone from Sennheiser type Cardioid GM 580 (bandwidth: 50 Hz to 13 kHz) has been employed for the investigations. The microphone has been mounted at a distance of 2 cm (l1 ) from the hammer impact point, without mechanical contact to the test tube. A detailed description of the setup is provided in [21].

III. M ETHODOLOGY U SED IN THE T ESTS The methodology relies on observing the following parameters: 1) frequency; 2) frequency shift; and 3) associated decay/ attenuation time in the monitored signals. A. Microphone Tests in the Time Domain A sketch of the attenuated microphone output signals in the time domain is presented in Fig. 4. In this way, the following expression can be dened: P (t) = P0 (1 e
t d i

(1)

where ei is the fouling thickness (e2> e1 ), Vmt (t) is the output signal of the detection system using the microphone in the time domain, P (t) is the envelope signal, and di = t is the decay time of the signal Vmt (t), i.e., the necessary time to reduce the maximum amplitude (P0 ) of the signal Vmt (t) to 37% of its value ((1 e1 )P0 ). The mean value (D) for the decay time of the signal Vmt (t) is expressed by 1 D= N
N

di (e)
i=1

(2)

where N is the number of tests used in each experiment. The increase in the fouling thickness (e) also provokes a reduction of the decay time (di ) of the signal Vmt (t) and a reduction in the maximum amplitude (P0 ).

110

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 58, NO. 1, JANUARY 2009

Fig. 3. Experimental setup.

Fig. 4. Representation of the signal in the microphone output in the time domain.

Fig. 5. Representation of the signal in the microphone output in the frequency domain.

B. Microphone Tests in the Frequency Domain The microphone output signal in the frequency domain can be modeled according to Fig. 5. This way, the following expression can be dened: fresi = arg max Vmf (f ), for f [f0 , f1 ] (3)

frequency domain, and fresi is the resonance frequency of the signal Vmf (f ), i.e., the frequency (f ), where the maximum value (V i) of the signal Vmf (f ) occurs. The mean value (F ) for the resonance frequency of the signal Vmf (f ) is expressed by F = 1 N
N

fresi (e)
i=1

(4)

where ei is the fouling thickness (e2> e1 ), Vmf (f ) is the output signal of the detection system using the microphone in the

where N is the number of tests used in each experiment.

DA SILVA et al.: NON-INVASIVE FAST DETECTION OF INTERNAL FOULING LAYERS IN TUBES AND DUCTS

111

Fig. 6.

Traverse view of the tubes. (a) Without fouling. (b) With 6.5 mm of fouling. (c) With 15 mm of fouling (resin).

Fig. 7. (a)(c) Acoustic response in time domain Vmt and (d)(f) frequency domain Vmf in the absence of fouling and for 6.5- and 12-mm-thick fouling layers. (a) Clean test tube. (b) Fouling layer thickness of 6.5 mm. (c) Fouling layer thickness of 12 mm. (d) FT data. (e) FT data. (f) FT data.

112

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 58, NO. 1, JANUARY 2009

Fig. 8. Acoustic response in the (a) and (b) time domain and (c) and (d) frequency domain in loading conditions (liquid in the tubes) in the absence of fouling and for 6.5-mm-thick fouling layers. (a) Clean test tube. (b) Fouling layer thickness of 6.5 mm. (c) FT data. (d) FT data.

The increase in the fouling thickness (e) provokes a reduction in the value of the resonance frequency (fresi ) of the signal Vmf (f ) and a reduction in the maximum amplitude (Vi ) of the signal in the frequency domain. A set of measurements (N = 4) have been used to establish the medium value to improve recording accuracy. The hammer impact points in each test have been maintained to assure the same test conditions. The main advantage of the method is the simplicity of the measurement and determination of the parameters; a more sophisticated parameter-estimation method was not required once the values were determined. IV. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS A calibration step to dene the original acoustic tube signature is initially accomplished in the absence of a fouling layer. The received signal is monitored, and the acoustic features (frequency and decay time) are stored as references. The test tube is comprised of a wall thickness of 2.5 mm (w), a diameter of 10 cm (R), and a length of 0.7 m (l2 ), made from galvanized iron, as illustrated in Fig. 6. A. Obtained With Microphone Recordings Microphone recordings of the acoustic signatures in the time domain (Vmt ) are shown in Fig. 7(a)(c). Fig. 7(a) reveals the signature of a clean test tube. Fig. 7(b) and (c) displays the waveforms exhibiting fouling layer thicknesses of 6.5 mm

Fig. 9. Sensor output signals as a function of fouling layer thickness (e) for the acoustic microphone signatures. (a) In the time domain. (b) In the frequency domain.

and 12 mm, respectively. Data were obtained without keeping liquid (water) in the tube. Fig. 7(d)(f) displays the corresponding Fourier transformed (FT) signal in the frequency domain (Vmf ). The acoustic sound/vibration signature for the foulingfree case in Fig. 7(a) decays approximately exponentially over a time period of around 25 ms. The (1/e) decay time period is approximately 8.3 ms. It decreases to 5.7 and 3.4 ms for fouling layer thicknesses of 6.5 mm and 12 mm, respectively.

DA SILVA et al.: NON-INVASIVE FAST DETECTION OF INTERNAL FOULING LAYERS IN TUBES AND DUCTS

113

Fig. 10. Acoustic response in the frequency domain in a real tube. (a) Without fouling. (b) With fouling.

The frequency spectrum of the clean tube [Fig. 7(d)] reveals three vibration modes at 1.1 kHz, 4.84 kHz/8.733 mV, and 7.15 kHz. The frequency of the second mode downshifts to 3.74 kHz/3.606 mV for the 6.5-mm-thick fouling layer [Fig. 7(e)], whereas the rst and third modes remain almost unchanged at 1.1 kHz and 7.15 kHz, respectively. For the 12-mm fouling layer [Fig. 7(f)], the frequency of the second mode downshifts to 1.99 kHz/0.514 mV, showing a somewhat reduced sensing range. The typical values for the number of tests used in each experiment (N ) are four measurements. Tests under loading conditions in the presence of water in the tube were also carried out and displayed in Fig. 8(a)(d). The (1/e) attenuation time period is approximately 6.5 ms for the clean tube [Fig. 8(a)] and 4.1 ms for a fouling layer thickness of 6.5 mm [Fig. 8(b)]. The slight reduction of the resonance frequencies still allows for fouling detection. The resonance frequency is shifted down by 0.87 kHz to 3.97 kHz for the water-lled clean tube [Fig. 8(c)] and, in Fig. 8(d), to 2.62 kHz in the presence of a 6.5-mm fouling layer.

From the experimental ndings for the different sensing approaches, the following linearized gures of merit for fouling detection can be extracted. 1) For microphone detection of the original acoustic signal decay in the time domain, the achievable sensitivity was estimated to be S (D) = 0.41 ms/mm. Taking into account the associated limited accuracy of approximately 0.1 ms, due to the high signal uctuation level, the signal-to-noise ratio is reduced to approximately 10. The available linear dynamic range extrapolates to about a lm thickness of 20 mm. 2) Employing the processed microphone signal in the frequency domain, upon performing a Fourier transformation, the achievable sensitivity is estimated to be S (F ) = 0.25 kHz/mm. Assuming a spectral resolution of 1 Hz, the signal-to-noise ratio is determined to be 350. The available linear dynamic range is also reduced to about a lm thickness of 20 mm. The observed dominating resonance, which is located, for the fouling-free test tube, at 4.84 kHz, sensitively depends on the tube geometry. For larger tube diameters with a larger wall thickness, the tube vibration shifts to a lower dominating resonance frequency, due to the increased vibrating mass. For smaller diameters and a thinner wall thickness, an increase would be observed, as experimentally veried. In addition, the position and magnitude of the sidebands will change. Supporting experiments have been carried out on a massive duct section that was originally mounted in an oil processing plant (Fig. 2). The tube was made of carbon steel, with a length of 2 m, a wall thickness of approximately 1 cm, and a diameter of 22 cm. As mentioned before, the resonance shifts to a lower frequency around 1.918 kHz, due to a higher tube mass. For the selected area covered with a fouling layer of approximately 15 mm, and in the absence of an internal liquid, a decrease of 0.71.218 kHz has been resolved in Fig. 10(a) and (b), which is covered by the microphone bandwidth. In the case of the presence of inhomogeneous fouling layers, the method provides an averaged value, taken over the localization accuracy. This quantity has been determined to be 69 cm for the model geometry. Nonaxisymmetric fouling distributions

B. Sensitivity Criterion The evaluation of the different sensing techniques for their achievable sensitivity criterion S (.), which is dened as the variation of the respective output signals () with the fouling layer thickness variation (e) and based on results presented in Fig. 7, is illustrated in Fig. 9(a) and (b). The sensitivity criterion for the respective output signals is dened by S (D) = D e (5)

where D is the variation of D, e is the fouling layer thickness variation, and S (F ) = F e (6)

where F is the variation of F , and e is the fouling layer thickness variation.

114

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT, VOL. 58, NO. 1, JANUARY 2009

have not been explored in this work but will be included as a part of an extended future analysis. V. C ONCLUSION Hammer impact tests have been performed in a cylindersymmetric model system to localize and estimate the thickness of a resin fouling layer. The mechanical impact excites local acoustic resonances, which are detected by a closely mounted microphone. Due to internal damping, the vibration decays exponentially in the millisecond range. All the 1/e attenuation time, dominating resonance frequency, and associated amplitude decrease linearly with the fouling layer thickness. The linear dynamic range and sensitivity in the time and frequency domains have been determined. Supporting experiments with a massive duct section of a crude oil plant conrm the practical application of the sensing method. R EFERENCES
[1] J. L. Rose, Recent advances in guided wave NDE, in Proc. IEEE Ultrasonic Symp., 1995, pp. 761770. [2] E. Cam, M. Lei, I. Kocaarslan, and C. Taplamacioglu, Defect Detection in a Cantilever Beam From Vibration Data. Kirikkale, Turkey: Kirikkale Univ., Faculty Eng., Dept. Electr. Electron., 2002. [3] J. J. Silva, M. G. Wanzeller, P. A. Farias, and J. S. Rocha Neto, Development of circuits for excitement and reception in ultrasonic transducers for generation of guided waves in hollow cylinders for fouling detection, in Proc. IEEE Instrum. Meas. Technol. Conf., Ottawa, ON, Canada, May 1719, 2005, pp. 467471. [4] K. R. Lohr and J. L. Rose, Ultrasonic guided wave and acoustic impact methods for pipe fouling detection, J. Food Eng., vol. 56, no. 4, pp. 315 324, Mar. 2003. [5] A. S. Krisher, Technical Information Regarding Coupon Testing. St. Louis, MO: ASK, Nov. 2003. [6] C. B. Panchal, Fouling Mitigation of Industrial Heat Exchange Equipment. New York: Bengell House, 1997. [7] P. Castelline, G. M. Revel, and L. Scalise, Measurement of vibrational modal parameters using laser pulse excitation techniques, Meas., vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 163175, Mar. 2004. [8] S. J. Ahn, W. B. Jeong, and W. S. Yoo, Improvement of impulse response spectrum and its application, J. Sound Vib., vol. 288, no. 4/5, pp. 1223 1239, Dec. 2005. [9] P. K. Roy and N. Ganesan, Transient response of a cantilever beam subjected to an impulse load, J. Sound Vib., vol. 183, no. 5, pp. 873880, Jun. 1995. [10] A. J. Stanley and N. Canesan, Impulse response of cylindrical shells with a discontinuity in the thickness subjected to an axisymmetric load, J. Sound Vib., vol. 184, no. 3, pp. 369387, Jul. 1995. [11] M. H. H. Shen and C. Pierre, Free vibrations of beams with a single-edge crack, J. Sound Vib., vol. 170, no. 2, pp. 237259, Feb. 1994. [12] Y. Champoux, V. Cotoni, B. Paillard, and O. Beslin, Moment excitation of structures using two synchronized impact hammers, J. Sound Vib., vol. 263, no. 3, pp. 515533, Jun. 2003. [13] Y. Narkis, Identication of crack location in vibrating simply supported beams, J. Sound Vib., vol. 172, no. 4, pp. 549558, May 1994. [14] S. S. Law and Z. R. Lu, Crack identication in beam from dynamic responses, J. Sound Vib., vol. 285, no. 4/5, pp. 967987, Aug. 2005. [15] H. Nahvi and M. Jabbari, Crack detection in beams using experimental modal data and nite element model, Int. J. Mech. Sci., vol. 47, no. 10, pp. 14771497, Oct. 2005. [16] J. F. Saz, L. Rubio, and C. Navarro, Approximate calculation of the fundamental frequency for bending vibrations of cracked beams, J. Sound Vib., vol. 225, no. 2, pp. 345352, Aug. 1999. [17] L. Majumder and C. S. Manohar, A time-domain approach for damage detection in beam structures using vibration data with a moving oscillator as an excitation source, J. Sound Vib., vol. 268, no. 4, pp. 699716, Dec. 2003. [18] J. K. Sinha, M. I. Friswell, and S. Edwards, Simplied models for the location of cracks in beam structures using measured vibration data, J. Sound Vib., vol. 251, no. 1, pp. 1338, Mar. 2002.

[19] P. Calicchia and G. B. Cannelli, Detecting and mapping detachments in mural paintings by non-invasive acoustic technique: Measurements in antique sites in Rome and Florence, J. Cult. Herit., vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 115 124, Apr.Jun. 2005. [20] D. Del Vescovo and A. Fregolent, Assessment of fresco detachments through a non-invasive acoustic method, J. Sound Vib., vol. 284, no. 35, pp. 10151031, Jun. 2005. [21] J. J. Silva, A. M. N. Lima, H. Neff, and J. S. Rocha Neto, Fouling detection based on vibration analysis with the hammer impact test, in Proc. IEEE Instrum. Meas. Technol. Conf., Warsaw, Poland, May 13, 2007, pp. 15.

Jaidilson J da Silva was born in Patos, Brazil, in 1978. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from the Federal University of Campina Grande, Campina Grande, Brazil, in 2003 and 2005, respectively. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Campina Grande. His research interests include electronic instrumentation, process control, analysis of fouling in pipelines, and nondestructive tests.

Antonio Marcus Nogueira Lima (SM94) was born in Recife, Brazil, in 1958. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from the Federal University of Paraba, Campina Grande, Brazil, in 1982 and 1985, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from the Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse, Toulouse, France, in 1989. From 1977 to 1982, he was with the Escola Tcnica Redentorista, Campina Grande. From 1982 to 1983, he was a Project Engineer with Sul-Amrica Philips, Recife. From 1983 to 2002, he was with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Paraba. Since April 2002, he has been with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Campina Grande, where he is currently a Professor of electrical engineering. His research interests are in the elds of electrical machines and drives, power electronics, electronic instrumentation, control systems, and system identication.

Franz Helmut Neff was born in Karlsruhe, Germany, in 1948. He received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physics from Technische Universitat Berlin, Berlin, Germany, in 1978 and 1981, respectively. He was a Senior Scientist with Vir Biosensor, Taastrup, Denmark, and a Guest Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Campina Grande, Campina Grande, Brazil. His research interests are in the elds of biosensors, surface chemistry, materials science, microelectronics, biophysics, and photovoltaics. He has previously worked on pipeline inspection systems, using ber optic leakage detection.

Jos Srgio da Rocha Neto (M94) was born in Sap, Brazil, in 1952. He received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the Federal University of Paraba, Campina Grande, Brazil, in 1978, 1982, and 1994, respectively. From 1980 to 1981, he was an Assistant Professor with the State University of Paraba, Campina Grande. From 1981 to 1994, he was a Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, State University of Santa Catarina, Joinville, Brazil. From 1994 to 2002, he was with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Paraba, Campina Grande. Since April 2002, he has been with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Campina Grande, where he is currently a Professor of electrical engineering. His research interests include electronic instrumentation, smart sensors, and microcomputer-based laboratory automation.