简介：BJ油服公司研发出一种综合性管线监测工具，即其新型Gemini 组合工具，该款工具能够提供管线测径器信息、金属腐蚀以及单程制图等。
BJ Services has answered the call for a more flexible and comprehensive pipeline inspection service with its new Gemini combination tool. The tool integrates existing technologies from other BJ Services offerings to provide information on pipeline caliper, metal loss, and mapping in a single trip.

The company's pipeline-inspection services group developed the Gemini tool using technology from its current fleet of Geopig and Vectra tools.

Accurate corrosion detection afforded
The tool incorporates a triaxial sensor technology that BJ Services first developed for the Vectra magnetic-flux leakage tools in the late 1990s. This technology allows Gemini to accurately size and detect corrosion features. Also like the Vectra, the new tool uses an active speed control with a gas bypass capability to run in high-speed gas pipelines to obtain both corrosion and deformation information without restricting gas flow or line speed.

The Gemini's sensors are designed to detect cracks in dents and other mechanical damage, including wrinkles, gouging, and metal loss within dents. The tool also sizes and detects dents in the pipeline. The tool's high-density caliper sensor spacing and high axial sample rate allow for accurate, effective strain in dent calculations to be performed for dent repair prioritization.

Bending strain and pipeline location information

The Gemini tool being deployed in the field.
Gemini incorporates the standard inertial mapping unit from BJ's Geopig caliper tool to calculate bending strain information and provide accurate pipeline location information. This capability was used for a client in California, who operated a pipeline prone to increased bending because of its location in a geologically unstable area. The mapping unit was used to accurately determine the pipeline's center line and identify location anomalies, thus providing the operator with a high degree of confidence.

BJ Services utilized personnel from its bases in Calgary; Houston; and Pescara, Italy to develop the Gemini tool in a tight 4-month deadline. Specialists from various disciplines, including electronics, mechanical, and software development, contributed to the initiative.

The tool's development campaign called for a new range of data storage and collection electronics. The new systems can collect more than two terabytes of information regarding the condition of a pipeline, enabling a much higher sensor density than that of previous technologies and increased detection and sizing accuracy.

The tool also integrates the data analysis with the existing BJ Services GeminiView viewing and analysis software, which has been used for many years on BJ’s Profile and Geopig calipers and Vectra metal-loss tools. The data integration has allowed for seamless correlation of existing Geopig and Vectra system data sets with new Gemini-tool data for corrosion growth or other comparative analysis.

To date, BJ has successfully completed multiple inspections in high-speed gas pipelines with 30- and 36-in. Gemini tools for TransCanada Pipeline, ANR, and Alliance Pipeline in the US and Canada. The 24- and 42-in. Gemini tools will be available in the coming months, and plans are in the works to develop additional sizes to complement the existing tools in the near future. BJ Services will continue to operate its Geopig and Vectra tools for those customers who do not require combination technology.