THE USE OF ULTRASOUND TOMOGRAPHY TO IMPROVE ULTRASOUND CONTROL EFFICIENCY

To ensure safe and reliable operation of pipeline systems, it is necessary to regularly carry out work on technical diagnostics. Ultrasonic inspection is one of the most common methods for pipeline technical condition determining. It has many advantages over other control methods among which there can be distinguished accessibility, the absence of additional requirements for equipping the object under examination, the absence of an impact on the object of control itself, and safety. But ultrasonic inspection also has disadvantages some of which can be eliminated by using an individual piezo elements of multi-element transducer instead of simple single-element transducers. The method of pipeline wall thickness determining using  piezo elements of a multi-element transducer, as well as searching for and identifying the type and size of the defect, is known as ultrasonic tomography. This paper presents the main features of the transducers used in ultrasonic tomography, possibilities of ultrasonic tomography when it is used in field pipeline diagnostics. The advantages of using the method of ultrasonic tomography in comparison with conventional ultrasonic control are considered.