Nondestructive inspection of the condition of oil pipeline cleaning units

One of the reasons for shutdowns of main oil pipelines is stoppage of the cleaning unit in cleaning of the inner surface of paraffin deposits caused by damage to the cleaning unit. The authors propose a method of searching for and determining the condition of the cleaning unit not requiring dismantling of the pipeline according to which the initial search for the cleaning unit is done with acoustic instruments (the increased acoustic noise at the point of stoppage of its is recorded) and subsequent inspection by a radiographic method. An experimental model of an instrument was developed making it possible to determine the location of a cleaning unit in an oil pipeline in stoppage of it from the acoustic noise. The instrument consists of two blocks, the remote sensor and the indicator block, which are connected to each other with a cable up to 10 m long. The design makes it possible to place the sensor at any accessible point of a linear part of the pipeline (in a pit, on a valve, etc.) while the indicator block may remain on the surface of the ground. The results obtained make it possible to adopt the optimum solutions on elimination of their malfunctioning and to prevent emergency situations without dismantling of the pipeline. With the equipment developed it is possible to inspect oil and gas pipelines with different reasons for a reduction in their throughput