MFL Tank Inspection

Preparation
Q. What preparation is required before a magnetic
flux leakage (MFL) tank inspection takes place?
A. Cleaning requirements for Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) Inspection
Some preparation is required in order for a MFL inspection to take
place. Any product should be drained from the tank and the tank
should be cleaned.
Cleaning techniques will vary depending on the type of product stored
in the tank, the time since the tank was last cleaned and opinions
held by the engineer in charge of the cleaning operation. Acceptable
cleaning methods include shot blasting, grit blasting / sand blasting,
high pressure water jetting, ultra high pressure water jetting etc.
The media used in the blast cleaning process should be removed from
the floor before the inspection takes place. It is very difficult to
completely remove all of the shot from the surface of the floor. Two
problems can occur if the MFL scanner passes over any loose shot (or
any other loose ferrous material).
The shot will become embedded in the scanner rollers and cause
excessive vibration.
Spurious defect indications will be detected / recorded if any shot
passes underneath the sensor head. The aim of the cleaning process
is to remove any contaminants such as product residue, corrosion
build, scale and loose ferrous material from the surface of the tank
floor which can affect the quality of a MFL inspection.
Product residues can also give off toxic or flammable gasses. The floor
should be clean enough for a good visual inspection (you should be
looking at the surface of the steel, not a layer of product residue/scale
etc - see examples below).
Surface oxidisation / rust will not present a problem for MFL
inspections.
Tank floor conditions for MFL inspection - click on thumbnail for a
larger image
Acceptable conditions

Unacceptable conditions

Q Can I use Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) to inspect

the lap welds as well as the floor plates ?
No, Magnetic Flux Leakage is used to inspect the parent plate
material for corrosion defects and cannot be used for the lap welds.
The most common method of inspecting storage tank floor plate lap
welds is by use of a Vacuum Box.

Q Is MFL capable of detecting bottom side

corrosion as well as top side corrosion ?
Yes, the MFL flux leakage signal is a bi-polar signal which can be
detected at the top (near surface) of the tank floor even when the
corrosion originates on the bottom (far surface) of the tank floor.

Q Can MFL be used to size corrosion ?

Most MFL systems (like the MFL 2000) are simple detection devices
and require another inspection method , commonly ultrasonics, to
quantify the material loss. The FloormapVS2i system uses a
combination of MFL signal amplitude and defect width to quantify the
corrosion level and is currently achieving the same sizing accuracy as
manual UT.
Visit our MFL Equipment Page
Find more questions and answers for all other aspects of storage
tankage please click on the link below:
http://www.silverwingndt.com/ndt-knowledge/mfl-storage-tank-inspectionpreparation