Pipeline Corrosion Assessment Using Embedded Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors

Corrosion is a leading cause of failure in metallic transmission pipelines. It significantly impacts the reliability and safety of metallic pipelines. An accurate assessment of corrosion status of the pipelines would contribute to timely pipeline maintenance and repair and extend the service life of the associated pipelines. To assess pipeline corrosion, various technologies have been investigated and the pipe-to-soil voltage potential measurement was commonly applied. However, remote and real-time corrosion assessment approaches are in urgent needs but yet achieved. Fiber optic sensors, especially, fiber Bragg gating (FBG) sensors, with unique advantages of real-time sensing, compactness, immune to EMI and moisture, capability of quasi-distributed sensing, and long life cycle, will be a perfect candidate for long-term pipeline corrosion assessment. In this study, FBG sensors are embedded inside pipeline external coating for corrosion monitoring of on-shore buried metallic transmission pipelines. Detail sensing principle, sensor calibration and embedment are introduced in this paper together with experimental corrosion evaluation testing ongoing. Upon validation, the developed sensing system could serve the purpose of corrosion monitoring to the numerous metallic pipelines across nation and would possibly reduce the pipeline corrosion induced tragedies.