A Low Cost Pipeline Inspection Gauge for Pipe Thickness Using Eddy Current Instrumentation System

The availability of natural oil and gas resources in Indonesia has produced the establishment of oil and gas industry. Consequently, pipeline becomes one of the key components in distribution. To prevent pipe defects and leaks, pipeline inspection need to be carried out regularly. In this work we propose SIECu-Pi, a low cost eddy current instrumentation system to measure wall thickness of pipe. SIECu-Pi is an alternative to the main component of pipeline inspection gauge (PIG). SIECu-Pi uses the Giant Magnetoresistance (GMR) AAL002-02E sensor as a tool to read changes in eddy current within the pipe when the PIG detects defects or holes inside the wall's pipe. SIECu-Pi uses 4 GMR sensor and a custom electronic system to perform a high accurate defect detection. Experimental results show that SIECu-Pi obtained error reading below 5%.