A systematic tomography framework for thickness mapping of pipes using helical guided waves

Pipe wall loss caused by corrosion is of growing interest in the petrochemical industry. A systematic tomography framework using helical guided waves is developed in this paper to conduct a thickness mapping. In this work, the thickness under investigation is reconstructed using an objective function derived from the acoustic Helmholtz equation. The main approach consists of two parts. Firstly, the parametric dictionary is designed to separate the overlapped guided waves travelling in helical paths. After that, the scattering field can be extracted as the input of the distorted born iteration method. The imaging result is exemplified numerically and experimentally, with the strengths and drawbacks explained thoroughly. Remarkably, the thickness error of the simple defect is still within 0.5 mm when the input data is poor. A clear qualitative description of complex defects can be achieved through iterations even in the absence of an initial objective function. The framework established in this paper contributes a comprehensive imaging algorithm and the corresponding signal processing approach, all of which are conducive to providing some reference for engineering applications in nondestructive testing and structural health monitoring.