Sonar Pipe Inspection

R&R Visual utilizes this unique inspection instrument to fill a void left by conventional video inspection. In the past, pipelines and ducts filled with murky water have been left un-inspected due to the high cost and potential down time involved with the process.

As pipelines around the world are deteriorating, it has become a necessity to inspect these subsurface time bombs. With sonar pipeline profiling, this task has become amazingly fast and affordable, while achieving outstanding results. We have integrated this instrument with R&R Visual’s proprietary software, allowing three-dimensional modeling of subsurface pipelines, shafts, and ducts, as well as real time measurement or defects, pipe size, and debris.

The equipment comprises an underwater scanning transducer (which may be skid, raft, or robotic tractor mounted), an sonar processor unit and a high-resolution color monitor. The sonar processor unit and monitor are small and rugged for the most demanding project sites The underwater scanning unit is housed in a stainless steel pressure vessel which is rated at 1000m working depth.

As the scanner is moved through the pipe an indication of the distance traveled is shown on the screen allowing for accurate determination of the location of defects in the pipe. Internal sensors monitor and display Pitch and Roll indicators in analogue and digital form on the screen to show the orientation of the transducer unit.

The resolution and update speed of the Pipe Profiling Sonar is second to none in the field of mechanically scanned sonars. The 2MHz acoustic signal is amplified and logarithmically compressed prior to being digitized by a Flash A/D converter. The angular resolution of the system is 0.9°, which gives 400 sectors per revolution. For each sector the data is oversampled and peak detected to arrive at 250 range cells. The digitally generated graphics display uses 256 colors to represent the signal amplitude. At the minimum full-scale range of 125mm this gives a range resolution of 0.5mm and at 3m range the resolution is 12mm.

The acoustic beam width of 1.1° ensures that the finest detail from the internal surface of the pipe is recorded. Pitch and Roll sensors inside the scanner record the attitude of the sonar to a resolution of 0.1°. The sonar has been engineered for extended operations in hostile environments. The system has many applications other than inside pipes where short-range high precision measurements are required with a rapid screen update rate.