Incoherent scattering of gamma photons for non-destructive tomographic inspection of pipeline

A scanner system, operating in a non-destructive and non-invasive way, is presented for pipeline to determine its location in land soil, wall thickness, type of liquid flowing and crack/blockage position. The present experiment simulates a real case where pipe corrosion (wall thinning) under insulation can be known from the study of incoherent scattering of 662 keV gamma photons. The incoherent scattered intensity, obtained by unfolding (deconvolution) the experimental pulse-height distribution of NaI(Tl) scintillation detector with the help of inverse response matrix, provides the desired information. The method is quite sensitive for small change (∼1 mm) in the thickness of pipe wall, locating a defect of 1 mm width under insulation and a small change (∼0.1 gm cm−3) in the density of liquid flowing through pipe.