Keywords: pipeline pig monitoring aerodynamic roughness measurement recording internal
Cleaning and smart pigs
Generally, the decision to intervene on the maintenance of a pipeline in order, for instance, to carry out internal cleaning or measurements (for example, the thickness of the pipeline wall) is determined by the operating conditions. It may be according to the evolution of the transmission coefficient (aerodynamic performance) or to the accumulation of liquid plugs in the pipeline. The decision may be carried out according to the production requirement or more simply the maintenance program. These operations are carried out with specialized devices called cleaning pig or monitoring pig.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigging
Smart pig for inside friction factor measurement
It would be possible to add to these tools a monitoring pig providing additional information such as the internal roughness of a pipeline and its evolution versus the time and along the pipeline. This measurement would be performed at short intervals during its displacement from the inlet to the outlet of the pipeline. It could be performed also in several angular sectors according to the number and the position of the sensors installed. This function could be supplemented by pressure and temperature measurements to facilitate the interpretation of the measurements (for instance, dew point conditions). The device could, among other things, identify areas with a high degree of internal corrosion.
https://petrowiki.org/Pipeline_pigging
From a technical point of view, the device operates on the principle described in chapter 1 concerning the apparatus used for the measurement of the equivalent roughness (aerodynamics) of an internal wall or coating
This section will be completed later