CUI - Corrosion under insulation

FDTA carried out a groundbreaking research project (2010–2012) in collaboration with Equinor and Gassco where they succeed in using dogs to detect hidden corrosion (Corrosion Under Insulation - KUI). Method and development of practical solutions were implemented (2015–2017) as an industrial collaboration between FDTA, Beerenberg and Ocaeanering as suppliers, and the oil companies Equinor, ConocoPhillips and Gassco as customers. The service is now commercialized and can be performed as assignments at onshore facilities and out on platforms in the North Sea. FDTA has developed a very special technology with patented filter solutions and new methods for training dogs in a system called Remote Scent Tracing system (RST).

Short video showing the process from "field sample collection" to analysis in the lab with dog.

More about the process here:

FDTA has made use of RST technology by taking samples outside facilities and carried out analysis of these using specially trained dogs. The technology consists of 2 main parts:

  1. A system for obtaining air samples from pipes and tanks performed by the companies themselves or the FDTA.

  2. An analysis part where dogs that are specially trained are used to find corrosion.
    Carried out at FDTA.

The dogs are presented with air samples taken from pipes and tanks outside the facility, which are collected with specially designed equipment and filters. Blind tests show a high degree of precision (sensitivity 92%) for dogs to detect areas with corrosion and without reporting corrosion (specificity 93%) in areas without corrosion.

Analyzes of the overall results from the dogs have shown that the condition of corrosion can also be differentiated on the basis of the probability of much, some and no corrosion.