许多管道和管道系统从外部仅为部分可达甚至完全不可达, 如独立管道、水下管道或埋地管道。因此, 如果不解决独立问题或去除管道覆盖物, 就无法实现管道裂纹或腐蚀的检测, 然而解决可达问题或去除覆盖物时需要花费不菲的费用甚至根本不能实现。由此对长距离检测系统产生了需求。对于光杆和管的局部腐蚀检测, 业界已经研制成功了基于超声的检测系统[1-3]。然而, 目前由于外形尺寸以及费用等, 这些系统并不适用于以SHM为目的的检测。为了完成用大量探头单元涵盖一个完整的产业厂房的检测, 有必要研发新型的检测硬件、探头技术以及数据评估技术。

Many pipes and piping systems are partly or totally inaccessible from the outside, e.g. by being isolated, lying underwater, or being buried in soil. Therefore, it is not possible to detect defects like cracks or corrosion without removing the isolation or uncovering the pipe itself which is very costly and in many cases utterly impossible. For these kinds of problems long-range inspection systems are needed. For corrosion testing of areas of light poles and pipes ultrasonic based testing systems are already available[1-3]. However, the systems in their present form are not very well suited for SHM purposes due to size and costs. In order to cover a complete industrial plant with a large number of transducer units, new approaches for measurement hardware, sensor technology, and data evaluation are necessary.