CIDETEC Surface Engineering successfully completes testing of the CUIDETEC project demonstrator

The system has been designed to detect corrosion-generated defects in oil and gas installations.

The assembly of a piping demonstrator designed by the members of the CUIDETEC (Corrosion Under Insulation DETECTION and prediction in steel pipes) project consortium is ready and has been operating for one year at the CIDETEC Surface Engineering facilities. This project aims to develop a procedure for the maintenance of oil and gas facilities based on an automated system with hardware and software tools for the management of the integrity of pipes and equipment affected by corrosion under insulation (CUI). The system is designed to detect, locate and quantify corrosion-generated defects.

The demonstrator is currently installed on the rooftop of the CIDETEC Surface Engineering building. Prior to the installation of the thermal insulation, artificial defects were generated in the pipelines to simulate CUI, while this demonstrator is subjected to thermal cycling that simulates the conditions of an operational pipeline in the oil and gas sector.

Corrosion flaw detection tests have been carried out using non-destructive techniques, including a pulsed current transducer and an electromagnetic acoustic transducer which, combined, allow measurement through the insulation, estimation of the dimensions of the defects caused by CUI and generation of a wall thickness mapping of the detected areas. The defects have been successfully identified by a sensor attached to a robot that allows it to move around the pipe and rotate 360 degrees.

CUIDETEC is an international project whose consortium consists of Innerspec Technologies UK, Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon GmbH, Nuromedia GmbH, Robolan robotic engineering, Design Business & Verification Services (DBV) and CIDETEC Surface Engineering.

This project is funded by the Eurostars-3 joint programme with co-funding from CDTI and the European Union’s Horizon Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. Its execution period began in January 2023 and will end in December 2024.

Last October, CIDETEC Surface Engineering hosted a follow-up meeting on the progress of the project in which the partners were able to see the results first-hand.