FOULING DETECTION USING ULTRASONIC GUIDED WAVES AND PARAMETER ESTIMATION

Fouling detection is a relevant problem for chemical, oil, food and pharmaceutical industries. Fouling consists of the deposition of heavy organic materials and other dissolved solids or in suspension in fluid transport system. The ultrasonic guided waves present specific characteristics and have demonstrated good results in detection of flaws in pipelines. This work presents the results of the parameters estimation, based on the Gaussian pulses model, of a system that uses guided waves for fouling detection in pipelines. Initially are made simulations and the use of FFT (Fast Fourier Transformer) of the ultrasound signal is proposed to determine the present frequencies and to reduce the number of parameters estimated. With the obtained estimation model, it intends to observe the modifications of the parameters when the fouling occurs in the monitored pipeline.