Structural Integrity Monitoring of Composite Pipes

Composite pipes enjoy increasing interest in the sector of petroleum and gas transportation, due to a number of qualities, concerning especially the corrosion resistance and light weight, face to the traditional steel pipes. As composite materials are prone to a various range of defects and damages which can seriously affect their service ability, reliable inspection methods have to be tested in order to assure the required in service reliability. The paper presents progress made in applying complementary global/local non-destructive inspection (NDI) methods, such as Lamb wave method and infrared thermography (IRT) method, to effective structural health (SHM) monitoring of composite pipes.