J.H. Espina-Hernández

Barkhausen noise measurements give direct observation of magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy in ferromagnetic polycrystals

This paper presents experimental evidence of the capability of Barkhausen noise measurements to estimate the angular dependence of the average magnetocrystalline energy in soft magnetic polycrystalline materials. Three different API 5L steel samples, all obtained from out-of-service pipelines, were investigated using crystallographic texture and Barkhausen noise measurements. The angular dependence of the rms voltage of the Barkhausen signal was determined in each sample for the time band corresponding to the saturation-to-remanence part of the hysteresis loop where irreversible domain rotation occurs. For each angular position, the rms voltage of the Barkhausen noise signal in this time band was interpreted as a direct measure of the magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy of the polycrystal in the corresponding direction. A strong correlation between the angular dependence of both the rms voltage of the Barkhausen signal in the time band of interest and the average magnetocrystalline energy obtained from crystallographic texture measurements was found experimentally.

Identification of different processes in magnetization dynamics of API steels using magnetic Barkhausen noise

This work presents a method to identify processes in magnetization dynamics using the angular dependence of the magnetic Barkhausen noise. The analysis reveals that three different processes of the magnetization dynamics could be identified using the angular dependence of the magnetic Barkhausen noise energy. The first process is the reversed domain nucleation which is related to the magneto-crystalline energy of the material, and the second and third ones are associated with 180° and 90° domain walls motions, respectively. Additionally, two transition regions were identified and they are located between the regions associated with the aforementioned processes. The causes involving these processes are analyzed and a method for establishing their location in the Barkhausen noise signal with respect to the applied magnetic field intensity is proposed.

Application of Extreme Value Statistics to the Prediction of Maximum Pit Depth in Non-Piggable, Buried Pipelines

Currently, the reliability of non-piggable pipelines is mainly assessed either from historical failure data or from the results of direct assessment evaluations. When external, localized corrosion is the main threat to the pipeline integrity, the most important factor in assessing the reliability of a pipeline segment is the distribution of maximum pit depths. This distribution cannot be directly derived from historical failure data, nor from the information obtained from external corrosion direct assessment. In contrast, the statistical modeling of extreme values could be used to predict the distribution of pit depth maxima in a pipeline from a relatively small number of maximum pit depths measured at excavation sites along its length. Despite of the large number of works aimed at the application of the extreme value statistics, there is a lack of studies devoted to the applicability of the method for prediction of the maximum pit depth for the pit densities and pit spatial patterns typical of long buried pipelines. In this work, Monte Carlo simulations were conducted in order to assess the statistical errors associated with the prediction of the maximum pit depth for a wide range of the number and size of the inspection areas, pits per unit area and pit spatial patterns. As a result, the optimum area of inspection is proposed. The Monte Carlo numerical experiments were run by using synthetic and real corrosion data acquired by magnetic flux leakage and ultrasonic in-line inspection (ILI) tools, an approach that has not been reported in previous studies. The ILI data was sampled using standard methods of extreme value analysis, and the predicted maximum pit depth was compared with that reported by the in-line inspection. Monte Carlo simulations with synthetic and real corrosion data have allowed assessing the influence of the number and size of the inspected areas on the accuracy of predictions when pits distribute homogeneously and non-homogeneously in the pipeline. It is shown that, when the distribution of pits is homogeneous, the accuracy in the maximum pit depth prediction using the proposed method is similar to the measurement errors associated with magnetic flux leakage ILI tools.Copyright

Evolution of the microstructure and magnetic properties of Sm(Co0.6Cu0.4)5 alloys prepared with different Sm excess content

The structure of annealed Sm(Co0.6Cu0.4)5 compounds, prepared with different Sm excess content, has been investigated by means of high resolution x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The samples were also magnetically characterized by thermomagnetic analysis and M versus H curves at room temperature. Increasing Sm excess improves the compositional order of the 1?:?5 phase. The coercivity (HC) and the Curie temperature (TC) are both changed as a function of Sm excess content. The decrease in the structural defects density, resulting from the compositional order, is responsible for the observed magnetic behaviour.

Influence of Remanent Magnetization on Pitting Corrosion in Pipeline Steel

These days, in-line inspections based on the magnetic flux leakage (MFL) principle are routinely used to detect and size metal loss and mechanical anomalies in operating oil and gas pipelines. One of the characteristics of the MFL technology is that after the inspection, the pipeline wall shows a remanent magnetization. In this work, the influence of the magnetic field on pitting corrosion in pipeline steel is studied. Pitting corrosion experiments have been carried out on samples of an API 5L grade 52 steel under a magnetization level of the same order of magnitude of the remanent magnetization in the pipeline wall after the MFL inspection. The samples were magnetized using rings of the investigated steel. The closed magnetic circuit configuration used in this study survey guaranteed that the samples kept the same magnetization level during the complete duration of the conducted experiments. This experimental setup was used in order to reproduce the conditions observed in MFL-inspected pipelines in which the magnetic field was confined to the pipe wall thickness. Immediately after magnetization, the investigated samples were subjected to pitting by immersing them in a solution with dissolved Cl− and SO4 2− ions. The pitting experiments were conducted for exposure times of 7 days. Non-magnetized specimens were used as control samples. The depths of the pits induced in the investigated samples were measured using optical microscopy. The maximum pit depth of each sample was recorded and used to conduct extreme value analysis of the pitting process in the magnetized and non-magnetized specimens. The results of this investigation indicate that the magnetic field confined within the pipeline wall has a significant influence on the pitting corrosion process. The statistical assessment of the pitting corrosion data collected during this study shows that the magnetic field reduces the average depth of the pit population. It also reduces the extreme pit depth values that can be predicted from the maximum values observed in the magnetized samples, with respect to the non-magnetized control samples. Scanning electron microscopy observations show that the magnetic field alters the pit morphology by increasing the pit opening (mouth). It is shown that the observed reduction in the pit depth when a magnetic field is confined to the volume of the corroding material can be explained based on the behavior of the paramagnetic corrosion products under the influence of the local magnetic field gradients produced inside and within the immediate vicinity of stable pits.Copyright