Inspection of Non-Metallic Pipes Using Microwave Non-Destructive Testing (NDT)

Non-metallic components are increasingly finding application in numerous industries including oil and gas, energy, transportation, and construction. The inherent advantages of these components, which include corrosion resistance, light weight and high strength-to-weight ratio have attracted several industries to employ non-metallic components. However, the vulnerability of these components to various defects and failures, calls for periodic inspection or non-destructive evaluation during manufacture and in service. Although these non-metallic components do not respond well to most non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques, microwave NDT has been applied successfully to inspect non-metallic materials. In this paper, microwave NDT of non-metallic pipes is presented. The effectiveness of microwave NDT is illustrated through imaging results produced by scanning two pipe samples. The imaging results produced by the microwave system for one of the samples is benchmarked with Phased Array Ultrasonic testing (PAUT).