Ultrasonic Sensor for Pipe Joint Make-up Assessment

Reliable leakage-free facilities, cost-reasonable handling and ease of deployment are extremely important factors for hydrocarbons casing and tubing make-up. In this paper, we propose a novel technique to assess the tightness of pipe joints make-up assessment from ultrasonic sensors. A system based on piezoelectric transducers and a performant electronic device is used to detect the metal-to-metal sealing. The proposed method, performing wideband impedance analysis of an accessible piezoelectric transducer, allows the measurement, across a thick metal barrier, of the state of an inaccessible on/off sensor. The extreme simplicity of the proposed technology opens new opportunities in the field of acoustic communication through metal wall