A New View on Scale

Without methods for surface characterization of tubing and pipeline, corrosion and scaling cannot be mitigated. One standardized characterization method would enable comparison between various surfaces, which would give new insight into the mechanism behind both corrosion and scaling.We aim to showcase a novel surface characterization software and how it can be used for industry and research purposes.

We aim to highlight the capabilities of this tool through 2 analysis campaigns. Our tool is called XCHANTO (X-ray CHannel ANalysis TOol). XCHANTO is an in-house written Python code that can extract surface texture information from 3D point cloud data generated from a stack of images. XCHANTO is based on X-ray CT scanning and calculates standardized Metrologic parameters.

In the first campaign we show how XCHANTO can aid the industry in characterizing decommissioned tubing. We performed a single in-depth analysis of a channel. The investigation includes global averages of texture parameters, cylindrical averages in spherical coordinates, and visualization of the height reduction.

This investigation was concluded by benchmarking the obtained texture parameters to values obtained from international peer-reviewed journals. Secondly, we have shown how XCHANTO could be useful for researchers. This included using texture parameters to describe surface growth with a temporal resolution and compare in between larger datasets.The quality of XCHANTOs output is dependent on the input CT data.

Therefore, for optimal usage of XCHANTO, it will require an experienced operator to acquire and segment high-quality data. When data is acquired, XCHANTO offers a simple way of sophisticated analysis.