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Title:
TECHNOSPHERE OBJECT PHONON DIAGNOSTIC METHOD
Document Type and Number:
WIPO Patent Application WO/2006/022574
Kind Code:
A1
Abstract:
This invention relates to the field of applied physics methods and tools, more specifically, to the methods of determining the condition of technosphere objects using electric, magnetic, electromagnetic, mechanical, acoustic, thermal or gravity field, and can be used for the determination of the actual technical condition of thecnosphere objects, i.e. the presence of evident or potential defects and stresses and prognosis of the service life of technosphere objects, possibility and conditions of their further operation and the necessary scope and terms of technosphere structures and facilities.

Inventors:
SHUKHOSTANOV VLADIMIR K (RU)
Application Number:
PCT/RU2004/000512
Publication Date:
March 02, 2006
Filing Date:
December 20, 2004
Export Citation:
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Assignee:
SHUKHOSTANOV VLADIMIR K (RU)
International Classes:
G01N21/88; G01N23/18; G01N25/72; G01N27/20; G01N29/04; (IPC1-7): G01N29/04; G01N21/88; G01N23/18; G01N25/72; G01N27/20
Foreign References:
SU1126870A11984-11-30
SU643796A11979-01-25
SU648904A11979-02-25
JPH11248690A1999-09-17
JPH08189918A1996-07-23
Attorney, Agent or Firm:
Dulneva, Elena (Moscow, 8, RU)
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Description:
Technosphere Object Phonon Diagnostic Method

This invention relates to the field of applied physics methods and tools, more specifically, to the methods of determining the condition of technosphere objects using electric, magnetic, electromagnetic, mechanical, acoustic, thermal or gravity fields, and can be used for the determination of the actual technical condition of technosphere objects, i.e. the presence of evident or potential defects and stresses and prognosis of the service life of technosphere objects, possibility and conditions of their further operation and the necessary scope and terms of technosphere structures and facilities. For the purpose of this disclosure, the term 'technosphere object' shall mean a technical item produced by humans from metals and/or alloys, ceramic or silicate materials, wood, plastics or pulp and paper materials. Phonon energy is the energy of interatomic bonds in solids. When materials that compose technosphere objects are exposed to external energy impacts, the phonon energy inherent to the material is redistributed, concentrated and partially released. There is experimental evidence (V.K. Shukhostanov, Technical Diagnostics and Nondestructive Control, 1992, No. 1, p. 60-64) that the magnitude of phonon energy inherent to a solid depends on its state, including evident and/or potential defects and the locus of changes in the state of the material, i.e. corrosion, deformation, stress, defect formation, thinnipg and damage. Known is phonon diagnostics method (RU, Patent 2230368, 2004). According to said known method, the object to be diagnosed is fitted with at least two low frequency phonon emission converters each of which is connected to an industrial computer to record the data supplied from said converters. Each of said industrial computers is equipped with a pulse receiver/generator board. Initially, the synchronizing signal for said low frequency converters is generated by a pulse emitter/generator. Said pulse emitter/generator comprises a generator that is capable of forming duration undistorted output synchronizing pulses regardless of the control signal edge position. In the method embodiment a synchronizing signal is generated that is supplied via a radio frequency channel to the receiving radio stations of the synchronizing pulse receiver/generators that are comprised in the industrial computer boards and contain sequentially installed limiting amplifier and single pulse multivibrator, wherein the limiting amplifier outputs are connected to the output of the receiving radio station and the display circuit, and the multivibrator output is connected to the phonon diagnostics circuit. Each of said industrial computers records the time of synchronizing signal input accurate to 0.05 ms, and said synchronizing signal is further added to the diagnosed object status data recorded by said industrial computers. Although containing indisputable advantages, for example, the possibility of obtaining authentic data on the state of an object due to the synchronization of the data recorded by the industrial computers, said method is not free from material disadvantages. Among these, one should note the uncertainty Oj[^e of the phonon emission signals recorded by the industrial computers due to the converters error and the impossibility of locating defect areas on complex shaped technosphere objects. The object of the method disclosed herein is to increase the accuracy of determining the state of technosphere objects by providing for the determination of the actual state of technosphere objects, more specifically, the presence of evident and potential defects in the structure and revealing the nature of said defects and the possibility of further operation of such technosphere objects. Said objective can be achieved by using the technosphere object phonon diagnostic method wherein the characteristic parameter that corresponds to the background phonon emission magnitude is measured in multiple points of the technosphere object, the magnitude phonon emission magnitude in said points of the technosphere object is measured by determining the phonon deconvolution of the technosphere object, the magnitude phonon emission magnitude is measured using the sensors installed on the technosphere object, the phonon activity areas of the technosphere object being tested are selected, the state of said phonon activity areas is determined using the above disclosed calibration function and the processes occurring in said phonon activity areas are analyzed with further judgment on the condition and possibility of further operation of the technosphere object being tested. The characteristic parameter can be the magnitude of electric, magnetic, electromagnetic, mechanical, acoustic, thermal or gravity fields. The phonon emission of the material that constitutes the technosphere object changes the parameters of said fields in the vicinity of the technosphere object and, according to the experimental evidence, the degree of said change depends on material perfection. Preferably, the phonon contours of a technosphere object are traced by measuring phonon emission in multiple points of the object. In the course of the methods application experiments it was found that exact measurement of phonon energy emitted by the test object (i.e. the material the object is made from) is preferred by measuring the characteristic parameter in the area beyond the presumed technosphere object phonon emission exposure area and directly at the object. The area in which the technosphere object phonon emission does not affect the characteristic parameter can be determined experimentally by measuring said parameter in multiple points at different distances from the object. Depending on object size the characteristic parameter can be measured at distances of up to 100 m from the boundary of said object. However, the background characteristic parameter magnitude can also be determined from the phonon emission measured directly at the object. Usually, background phonon emission is the same as the phonon emission of the defect free object area. The number of characteristic parameter measurement points required for a technosphere object depends on multiple factors, such as object dimensions and shape, task to be solved, object wear etc.. Practical experience usually suggests the areas of most probable defect formation where the characteristic parameter sensors should be installed. If the perfection of a welding seam is studied, the characteristic parameter sensors are installed, mainly, along the welding seam with a step depending on the importance of the weld junction. For the analysis of a pipeline, the characteristic parameter sensor step is changed depending on the time of pipeline operation elapsed. Comparison of the characteristic parameter measured beyond the technosphere object phonon emission exposure area and the characteristic parameter measured in multiple points on the test object allows determining phonon emission in the test object measurement points. These results are used for the phonon deconvolution of the test object. This procedure can be implemented using at least two methods. First, which is especially suitable for small and simple shaped objects, phonon emission can be measured in the maximum possible number of points and the phonon emission magnitudes in these points can be superimposed onto the orthogonal projections of the test object. Secondly, for complex shaped and large objects, the calculation method is preferable. In the preferred embodiment, the calculation method can be implemented as follows. The first step is to construct using a known method (see, for example, A. Afifi and S. Eisen, Statistical Analysis) the dispersion ellipse of the measured phonon emission magnitude for each measurement point. If one dimension of the test object is substantially (by one order of magnitude or more) greater than the other dimension, the confidence interval is constructed instead of the ellipse (see ibid). The phonon area contours are generated by plotting. a curve that connects the centers of the dispersion ellipses or the centers of the confidence intervals. Following this, the coordinates of the phonon emission measurement points in the phonon area are determined using the local systems of coordinates within each of the sectors defined by (at least three) phonon emission measurement points, wherein the X and Y axes scale coefficients are accepted equal and determined as the ratio between the actual distance between the measurement points and the calculated length of the portion between the corresponding points in the phonon deconvolution curve. Having defined the phonon area contours and tied them to the phonon emission measurement points, one should then select the phonon activity areas. Various methods of phonon emission magnitude source data filtration can be used, such as linear filtration methods, the global mean method, the local mean method, i.e. the median filtration methods etc., (see, for example, V.V. Yanshin and G.A. Kalinin, C Languare Image Processing on IBM PC) with the aim of increasing the accuracy of the experiments. One can also use the following sequence of steps: determination of the minimum phonon emission density, augmentation of this magnitude by unity and acceptance of the resultant magnitude as the threshold one, acceptance of phonon emission density below the threshold one as the background one, selection of tied areas in the remaining phonon area and then accepting the remaining phonon area as the phonon activity one. After the phonon activity areas have been determined, the characteristic parameter sensors formerly installed in defect free areas of the test object can be transferred to the, phonon activity areas. The location of the phonon activity areas in the phonon deconvolution curve allows determination (spatial location and tying) of different processes that affect the state of the test technosphere object. Analysis of the quantitative parameters, concentration and distribution regularities of the phonon emission energy in the phonon activity areas can be used for the identification of the processes occurring in the object, assessment of the dimensions and location of the existing and potential defects in the phonon activity areas and ranking of the above processes in order of their intensity and hazard, both current and on the long run. The origin of elevated phonon activity in the selected areas is determined on the basis of the preliminary calibration, and then judgment is made as to the possibility of further operation of the technosphere object. The nature of the method will be exemplified further herein with its embodiments in relation to different types of technosphere objects. The model sample for the testing of the phonon diagnostics method was an underground pipeline for the supply of oil products from a main pipeline to an oilfield. The underground pipeline is 1104 m in length and made from 377 mm diameter Steel Grade 20 pipes with a 9 mm standard pipe wall thickness. The pipeline is covered with a manually filled bitumen insulation layer and topped with a glass fiber sheet. The pipeline was commissioned in 1975 and hydraulically tested before the commissioning at 7.2 MPa, whereas the maximum pipeline operation pressure is 0.7 MPa and the standard pipeline operation pressure is in the 0.4 - 0.7 MPa range. The characteristic parameter of phonon emission was electromagnetic field. The background phonon emission magnitude was accepted as the minimum characteristic parameter magnitude measured during the phonon diagnostics of the pipeline condition. Five characteristic parameter measurement points were distributed along the pipeline, two of which at the pipeline ends. Phonon diagnostics of the entire pipeline length was performed using two end sensors and one intermediate sensor operating simultaneously, and the other measurement points were used for the phonon diagnostics of other pipeline portions where the lengthwise pipeline phonon diagnostics revealed defects. The background phonon emission magnitude was accepted as the minimum characteristic parameter magnitude. Other phonon emission magnitudes above the background signal level were normalized relative to the background magnitude. Thus, ten phonon activity areas were revealed in the phonon deconvolution, and their coordinates in the pipeline were determined. Taking into account the earlier studies (calibration) it was found that one of the defects is exfoliation (pipe fabrication defect), another is a welding defect and the other defects are due to pipe metal corrosion, and defect size assessment was made. Table 1 shows pipeline phonon diagnostics data. Table 1

Based on the measurement results and taking into account the pipeline parameters and its operation conditions it was concluded that at a 0.7 MPa operating pressure the remaining pipeline lifetime will be 12.3 years, and at a 2.5 MPa operating pressure the remaining pipeline lifetime will be 7.1 years. Pipeline uncovering in the revealed defect areas resulted in the following observations (Table 2):

Table 2

9 Outer corrosion depth 1.0, 632.2 diameter 7 10 Outer pitting corrosion depth 2.0 959.3 diameter 10

Thus, the visual pipeline inspection data presented in Table 2 confirm the phonon diagnostics data. Phonon diagnostics of spherical tank walls located in a closed room with permanent temperature was performed using the thermal field as the characteristic parameter. The thermal field was measured using thermal gages installed on the tank body. Phonon deconvolution was performed using dispersion ellipses, the phonon activity areas were selected using median filtration, and the background magnitude was the minimum temperature measured. Sixteen phonon activity areas were revealed on the spherical tank surface due to metal stressing during tank body fabrication and seven phonon activity areas due to welding technology deviations during tank body fabrication. These defects did not affect the operation safety of the spherical tank. For the testing of a 6 km long main pipeline, the characteristic parameter was the Earth magnetic field. Phonon diagnostics of the pipeline was performed with 10 sensors installed above the pipeline. The results were processed as described above, but the background signal was the Earth magnetic field magnitude measured 80 m away from the pipeline (the signal magnitude did not change beyond 36 m away from the pipeline). Phonon diagnostics showed the presence of potentially hazardous areas in the landscape related pipeline stress section. Calculations showed that pipeline breakage in the stress section may occur in 11.7 years. The use of phonon diagnostics allows determining the actual state of a technosphere object and give predictions concerning its further operation.