Non-Destructive Evaluation of Polyethylene Pipe Welds Using Infrared Imaging

Abstract
Polyethylene pipes are important means of transferring gas, oil, water and other chemicals and fluids, therefore welding quality of polyethylene pipes are of great importance. In this paper the applications of polyethylene pipes and welding methods are explained. Different methods of typical weld testing are also discussed. Then infrared imaging is discussed and finally, four new effective methods for non-destructive evaluation (NDE) of the welds are proposed. In the proposed methods which are the main topic of investigation, infrared imaging is used as the basis of the NDE. The first method is based on infrared imaging as gas leak detectors. The second is the UIR method which is a combination of ultrasonic and infrared imaging. The third is the laser-infrared method. And finally the fourth method is the hot air-infrared imaging method which is most suitable once combined with one of the second two methods.

Keywords: Polyethylene Pipe Welding, Non-Destructive Evaluation, Infrared.

Introduction
Pressure retaining components are fabricated to meet stringent design specifications with respect to fabrication quality and in-service performance. Important pressure retaining components are pressure vessels, pipelines, storage tanks, boiler drums, boiler tubing, headers, super heaters, re-heaters, economizers, etc. These components are subjected to complex service environment such as exposure to elevated temperature, hostile media and loading. The adverse synergy of manufacturing realities and service environment (normal and off-normal) leads to degradation in mechanical properties of materials like strength, fracture toughness, etc. due to microstructure changes, corrosion, creep and fatigue damage [1]. Polyethylene pipes are being used more and more everyday. For piping a long area, especially for the use of typical gas, shorter pipes must be welded together to form the necessary lines. Health of the welds are of very high importance, since if the pipes are not welded carefully and correctly, tragedy awaits. Over the years, IR-thermography is intensively being used by nondestructive evaluation engineers for damage detection in materials. Some investigations were directed towards the evaluation of subsurface flaws, such as delamination, by applying external heat thereby observing the resulting thermal images on the surface [2]. The technique has been used in detecting damage entities in various isotropic materials [3]. In recent years many companies and researchers have tried to propose a non-destructive method for evaluating polyethylene welds. High expenses of the traditional tests, as well as the time needed for the tests are some of the reasons for which the non-destructive evaluation is becoming important. A European Craft research project managed by TWI, WINDEPP, has recently been completed. The objective of the project was the production of a machine that welds pipes together and then scans the joint for defects as the pipe cools (Fig. 1). The Non-destructive evaluation is based on three different types of ultrasonic scanning to confirm if the weld procedure has been performed correctly. Welds that fail the scanning are automatically marked as unhealthy and are rejected. The project was supported by the leading European gas supply companies, including Advantica Technologies. The full report is not available for distribution due to the nature of Craft projects. Results have showed that a combination of the three different ultrasonic Non-destructive evaluation techniques is able to detect flaws which can not be detected by visual inspection or manual testing of the external weld bead. The aforementioned method is capable of detecting planar flaws down to at least 1mm and sand contamination at levels down to at least 3% by area. It is shown in previous works that ultrasonic NDE cannot detect particles or flaws due to cold welds which may be detectable by other techniques.

Some eddy current and ultrasonic based non-destructive evaluation methods for various pressure retaining components are proposed by Baldev Raj et al. [4] but in this paper, only IR based non-destructive evaluation methods are discussed. In this paper some new methods for non-destructive evaluation of polyethylene pipe welding are proposed. The main subject in common among the proposed methods is that they are all based on infrared imaging. First a general background on poly ethylene and polyethylene pipes is given. In this section the old style destructive testing of welds are also explained. Next Infrared and Infrared imaging are explained and finally the non-destructive evaluation methods are proposed.

Polyethylene Pipes: Applications and Welding

Polyethylene is produced more than any other polymers in the world. Some of the reasons for the increasing applications of polyethylene pipes are: resistance to trituration, low weight, long life, ability to bend, hardness, resistance to oxidation, and much more. These kinds of pipes have many applications in todays industrial and daily life. Oil and gas pipes, water pipes, handling poisonous materials, handling dyes and other chemical substances, ventilation systems, handling radioactive substances and many more industrial applications as well as dozens of practical daily life applications exist for this type of pipes. Three main types of polyethylene pipes exist. Low density polyethylene (LDPE), high density polyethylene (HDPE), and a combination of both (LLDPE). Each type of PE has its own specific properties and applications. Polyethylene pipes are basically constructed from HDPE. HDPE is the hardest and strongest type of PE. One of the main advantages of polyethylene pipes over other pipes is their piping methods. Polyethylene pipes can be attached together using joints or by welding, where either method has its advantages. In this inspection, evaluating the welded area is the subject at argument. The basic conception of welding polyethylene pipes is melting the ends of the pipes holding the ends together while exerting enough force, and the cooling of the welded area. Based on different types of melting the ends, different methods of welding are established. Welding polyethylene pipes is a very sensitive task, since many different environmental factors can cause defects and flaws. Dirt and grease on the welding section, providing inappropriate amount of force, air pressure, insufficient temperatures, and insufficient time of contact of the ends, as well as the quality of the pipes itself are different reasons for which an unhealthy weld may form. For a typical destructive test of the welds, many factors must be taken into account. The final stretch threshold must be no less than 90% of the pipe strength. Brittleness of the weld must not grow beyond 25% the level of the weld being tested. The two welded ends must be alike, visually and size wise. Finally the welds must not contain any cracks, what so ever. To test a large amount of welded pipes for the mentioned parameters a random portion of them must succeed all the tests. This method is very costly as well as time consuming.

Infrared Imaging
Infrared is a spectra, located between the visible light and microwave. It has a wavelength of 7.8 105 to 3.0 102 cm. Infrared is usually referred to heat radiation and is divided into three sections: near IR, medium range IR, and Far IR. Each section has its own applications and properties. Today various kinds of infrared thermometers are available. This kind of thermometer absorbs the infrared radiation from an object and estimates the object temperature. The absorbed radiation is amplified and converted into an electric signal which is processed in a CPU to estimate the temperature. The object must be located in the thermometers field of view (FOV). It is logical to say that the estimated temperature is the average temperature of all objects located in the FOV. Systems with smaller FOV perform more accurately and are able to specify more details of the object. The drawback for a system with very small FOV is that it may not cover the whole object and the lens must scan the desired area as many times needed to provide an image for the whole are. A system with a FOV of 10 to 20 degrees is suggested for this investigation. Basically there are three kinds of IR imaging: Far, medium and near IR imaging, where each have different applications. A far IR imaging system with a range of 3-5 m is suggested for the purpose at hand. The difference between the various working ranges is that smaller range IR imaging systems require the object to contain more heat for accurate imaging and it is capable of taking more precise images.

Proposed Non-Destructive Evaluation Methods

Four main methods for non-destructive evaluation methods of polyethylene pipes are proposed based on IR imaging. The first method which is the least accurate is based on IR gas leak detectors. Based on this proposition, after the two pipes are welded, the end of one of the pipes must be obstructed. Some CF6 must be blown in the pipes from the open end. As shown in Figure 2 the welded area must be carefully observed using typical IR gas detectors. Any leak will notify a crack in the weld. It is obvious that this method only detects severe flaws and is not suitable for most applications where a perfect weld is required. The second method is based on Ultrasonic radiation, and IR imaging. Ultrasonic infrared thermography (UIR) is a nondestructive testing technique that uses a low-frequency ultrasonic excitation and combines an infrared detection to image surface and subsurface cracks or defects [5, 6]. A sound wave passing through a material with a mechanical discontinuity, such as a crack or disbond with faying surfaces, will ordinarily cause heating of those surfaces [79]. The sound energy is converted into molecular kinetic energy and heat. This radiation will eventually raise the objects temperature. Works sited in Refs. [1014] used long ultrasonic pulse of tens of seconds and observed heating at the locations of material discontinuities. In this proposition, ultrasonic is radiated on the weld section. Following the ultrasonic gun, an IR camera scans the weld and picks up the images, the images will be sent to a central processor and they will be analyzed (Fig. 3). Either automatic image processing software or an operator can check the weld images. Any air packets stuck in the weld, meaning a flaw, will be monitored since air acts as a heat isolator. The areas with air stuck in the weld will absorb less heat and will have lower temperature as the outcome. Denser weld sections, meaning a non uniform weld, will absorb more heat and again will be clearly visible in the images. A different, yet very similar method is the laser, IR method. In this method the ultrasonic gun from the previous method will be substituted by a powerful laser gun. The difference between the ultrasonic-IR and the laser-IR method is basically the heating method. Power of the laser must be enough to raise the weld temperature but not enough to melt it. The weld section will be heated by the laser beam, as the IR camera will perform the imaging task. The inspection method is exactly like the previous method as shown in Figure 4. The advantage of laser compared to ultrasonic is that laser provides more uniform heat, which is more suitable for IR imaging. Finally the hot air-IR method is explained. In this method a flow of hot air will be passed through the welded pipes. This will raise the temperature of the pipes, as well as the welded sections. An IR camera will scan the welded section for the images (Fig. 5). The camera can scan the weld at any time after the air flow stops. The important point is that the scanning time must not be enough for the weld to start cooling. If so a non uniform image due to different temperatures of the weld will be resulted. The great difference between this method compared to the laser-IR and ultrasonic-IR method is that the air flow heats the inner, out of reach spots of the pipes and weld. Therefore the obtained images reflect the amount of heat absorbed by the inner sections of the weld which may not be detectable in the other methods. Finally, a single method for non-destructive evaluation of polyethylene welding is proposed. Since the laser-IR method is very accurate and suitable for detecting outer flaws, and the hot air-IR method, is suitable for detecting inner flaws, a combination of the two methods is suggested. In the combinational method, after one of the methods has been applied, the welded pipes must be laid to cool down. Once they have been cooled, the other method begins. The outcome is a test, applied for both inside and outside of the pipes welded sections.

Conclusion
In this paper, four new non-destructive methods of evaluating polyethylene pipe welds were proposed. For best results, the combinational method, which is the applying both the third and fourth method, is suggested. This way, a clear, IR image of the outer layers of the weld as well as the inner layers are produced. By constructing a computer software, capable of distinguishing a flawless weld from a corrupted one, or by applying an experienced operator, the confirmed welds may easily be notified.

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the Shahrekord Gas Company. A project by the same subject was performed under its supervision, by the authors.

References
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Figures:

Fig. 1- The ultrasonic probe assembly mounted in an automatic butt fusion welding machine

Fig. 2- Non-destructive evaluation based on IR gas leak detectors.

Fig. 3- UIR method

Fig. 4- Laser-IR method.

Fig. 5- Hot air-IR method.