Abstract
This paper presents a summary of work carried out and the results achieved in developing novel ultrasonic techniques for monitoring and enhancing dissolution of mineral scale deposits in petroleum pipelines. Problems of conventional ultrasonic techniques with respect to testing pipes are analysed. The development of mathematical and experimental models to extract the characteristic features from ultrasonic scans representing the acoustic properties of the mineral deposits beneath the pipe wall are described.
These properties are compared with stored data to identify the type of deposits and hence assess their growth which aids performance optimisation of remedial scale dissolver and preventative scale inhibitor treatments. The process of de-scaling is further enhanced by ultrasonic irradiation and methods for monitoring the dissolution process in real-time are proposed.
