Abstract
Deterioration of water-tightness in service pipeline system has resulted from water-leak accidents due to damage accumulation in pipe materials. The repaired pipeline system could not be evaluated to water-leak phenomena under refilling process. Non-destructive evaluation of water-tightness in pipeline system is currently in urgent demand. In this study, acoustic emission (AE) method is applied to the evaluation of water-tightness in service and model pipeline systems. In service pipeline was inspected and then repaired after water-leak accidents. The results show that water-tightness in the pipeline system could be quantitatively evaluated by using AE parameters, such as AE generation behavior and AE energy. Thus, it becomes clear that when a pipeline is being filled with water after the repair work, the situation of water-tightness in the pipeline can be clearly identified through AE monitoring.
