Influence of water flow on pipe inspection

From various studies by different investigators it has been now well established that a number of cylindrical guided wave modes are sensitive to the pipe wall defects. Several investigations by these authors and other researchers showed that the strengths of the guided waves propagating through a pipe that is placed in air are reduced when the pipe wall defects are encountered. This reduction is expected because the pipe wall defects (gouge, dent, removed metal due to corrosion etc.) alter the pipe geometry, hampering the free propagation of guided wave modes. When water flows through the pipes, the guided wave technique becomes more challenging because the flowing water absorbs part of the propagating acoustic energy. Flowing water may also induce some standing modes. The propagating cylindrical guided wave modes become leaky modes in presence of the flowing water, in other words energy leaks into water. Therefore, the energy detected by a receiver, placed at a large distance from the transmitter, is reduced even for a defect free pipe. Further reduction in the signal strength occurs in presence of defects.