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            NDE Methods for Corrosion Monitoring in Railroad Tank Cars
      

      
  Document Series
              Technical Reports


      
  Author
          Federal Railroad Administration


      
Report Number
              DOT/FRA/ORD-23/03

  Office
              RDI-22


      Subject
                    Hazardous Materials


      
  Keywords
              Tank cars, corrosion, pitting, fatigue, master gauge, MG, nondestructive evaluation, NDE, ultrasonic testing, UT, Phased Array Ultrasonic Testing, PAUT, Electromagnetic Acoustic Transducers, EMAT, Backscatter X-ray imaging, 3D laser scanning metrology


      

      
      
              
                  
      
              
  Document
              NDE Methods_0.pdf (5.63 MB)

      
              This report discusses the use of various nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods for detecting and characterizing corrosion defects in tank cars. Several tank car panels with a real corrosion defect as well as simulated corrosion defects were fabricated from the actual tank car. Advanced NDE methods such as Phased Array Ultrasonic Testing, Electromagnetic Acoustic Transducers, backscatter X-ray imaging, and three-dimensional laser scanning metrology were explored on the test panels. While these NDE methods demonstrated good feasibility, further efforts should be considered and explored in a more systematic way that will allow for a better understanding of the capabilities and limitations of these NDE methods. Also, future efforts should consider building more test panels for the corrosion NDE demonstration.
      
            
      
      
              Last updated: Monday, January 9, 2023 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

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