PSI - Issue 81

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Procedia Structural Integrity 81 (2026) 98–101

VIII International Conference “In - service Damage of Materials: Diagnostics and Prediction“ (DMDP 2025) Non-destructive testing of underground pipelines corrosion protection

Roman Dzhala a , *, Bohdan Verbenets a , Vasyl Dzhala a , Maryan Melnyk a , Oleh Senyuk a a Karpenko Physico-Mechanical Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 5, Naukova St., Lviv 79060, Ukraine

© 2026 The Authors. Copy from the contract: Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of DMDP 2025 organizers Keywords: Underground pipelines; insulation; electrochemical protection; current; potential; measurements; corrosion. 1. Introduction Underground steel pipelines (UP) protect against soil corrosion by insulating coatings and cathodic polarization (Ostapenko et al. (1988), Uhlig et al. (1985), DSTU (2003)). The parameters of such comprehensive (passive and active) protection have been selected and adopted based on numerous studies and many years of practical experience across various pipeline operating conditions (Uhlig et al. (1985), Slobodyan et al. (2002) , Kryzhanivs’kyi et al. (2011)). Over time, environmental factors lead to the deterioration of protective coatings, and the electromagnetic environment changes. To increase reliability, prevent corrosion damage, and extend the life of the UP, it is necessary to maintain appropriate values of the anti-corrosion protection (ACP) parameters, which requires periodic diagnostic examinations and monitoring of the ACP condition (DSTU (2003)). The large length of pipelines requires operational control methods, and the variety of conditions requires multi-parameter information selection. Traditionally, for diagnostic examinations of UP, contact electrometric methods of measuring electrical voltages (potentials) are used, the main disadvantages of which are the complexity of ensuring a sufficient number of contacts with the pipe metal and soil, low productivity, and insufficient informativeness. Internal pipe flaw detection only detects existing damage to the pipe metal, but does not provide the necessary information about the state of protection to prevent corrosion. The efficiency and informativeness of UP inspections is significantly increased by using new non-contact current measurement (NCM) methods (Dzhala et al. ( 2024)). A new method of controlling corrosion protection of UP by NCM makes it possible to determine: current distribution of cathodic protection installations, differential quantitative estimates of the “pipe -to- ground” Abstract A technology for determining the distribution of cathodic electrochemical protection current and the pipe-to-ground transition resistance for quantitative assessments of the insulating coating condition on various sections of underground pipelines (UP) is presented. The possibility of prompt detection of areas with unsatisfactory UP insulation based on the electromagnetic method of non-contact current and contact measurements of potential for diagnostic examinations, condition monitoring and damage detection of anti-corrosion protection of underground steel pipelines is shown.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +38 067 371 3485; fax: +38 032 263 3533. E-mail address: dzhala.rm@gmail.com

2452-3216 © 2026 The Authors. Copy from the contract: Published by ELSEVIER B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of DMDP 2025 organizers 10.1016/j.prostr.2026.03.018