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This study evaluated the effect of bends on the long-range nondestructive testing inspection of pipe surfaces based on microwaves propagating inside the pipe. Three-dimensional finite element simulations were conducted to reveal electromagnetic fields at bends with a diameter of 23 mm and various radii of curvature when microwaves were emitted into a pipe in the TM01 mode that had been mainly used in earlier studies. The simulations revealed that the effect of the bend on the microwaves is not significant when the ratio of curvature is larger than approximately 2, whereas in general a bend reflects a part of microwaves and causes non-TM01 modes. Subsequent experimental verifications, which used a pipe with a total length of approximately 4 m and a 90-degree or 180-degree bend, confirmed clear reflections due to artificial wall thinning in spite of the presence of the bend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a multivariate probability of detection (POD) analysis method for long-range pipe inspection using microwave non-destructive testing (NDT). The proposed two-dimensional (2D) POD model considers both the size and location of pipe wall thinning (PWT) and is thus able to simultaneously characterize the detectability and detection range. First, the propagation of microwaves in a pipe with PWT was modeled through numerical simulation. The simulated S-parameters (S11) were converted into the time domain and were further processed to correlate the amplitude of the reflection signal with the corresponding PWT depth and location. The simulation results indicate that the logarithmic amplitude of the reflection signal is proportional to the PWT location and logarithmic PWT depth. Therefore, a prior multivariate regression model was established for the above three parameters. Second, an experiment was performed using a 14.5-m-long brass pipe. Twelve short pipes with six different inner diameters were used to emulate PWT and were deployed at eight different locations in the pipe. The experimental results suggest that each PWT can be detected with excellent repeatability, and show consistency with the simulation results. The processed experimental signals were subsequently employed for the regression model of the amplitude of the reflection signal, PWT depth, and location. Finally, a 2D POD model was constructed on the basis of the regression model and a dynamic-static threshold, combining in-pipe microwave signal attenuation with instrumental noises. The POD plot and contour give reasonable interpretations of the detection capability of this testing method against PWTs with different depths, considering the PWT locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]