Detection of scales and its thickness determination in industrial pipes using Compton backscattering system

The ability to detect and quantify scales in pipes has been an important yardstick for efficient transfer of fluids in domestic as well as in application related industries. Knowledge of different kinds of scales formed has become a precondition for trouble-shooting in operational lines. In this paper, collimated Compton backscattered gamma rays from a radioactive source have been used to inspect the scales by automatic scanning in steps along the axial direction of different pipes. The methodology has been extended for the quantification of scales that prevails in the real functionality of extensive usage of fluids. To aid for descaling processes, the desideratum is the density determination of scales and this parameter is quantified non-destructively and is also validated with the standard density. The described non-intrusive gamma ray densitometry is quite promising, efficient and has highly reliable results for scale detection with the squared correlation coefficient of 0.98. The proposed technique shows a better linearity than the gammatography technique.