Many times a year natural gas transmission and distribution companies need to make new connections to pipelines to expand or modify their existing system through hot tapping procedure. This procedure involves the installation of a new pipeline connection while the pipeline remains in service, flowing natural gas under pressure. The hot tap procedure includes attaching a branch connection and valve on the outside of an operating pipeline, and then cutting out the pipe-line wall within the branch and removing the wall section, which is called object of coupon through the valve. During the hot tapping process a critical problems occurred when a coupon fell into the mother pipeline. To overcome this problem, a gamma-ray absorption technique was chosen whereby a mapping technique will be done to detect the coupon position. The technique is non-destructive as it applies Co-60 (5mCi) as a radioisotope sealed source to emit gamma radiation and a NaI(Tl) scintillation as detector. The result provided a visible representation of density profile inside pipeline where the coupon location can be located. This paper provides the detail of the technique used and presents the result obtained.
Detection and analysis of resin is particularly significant since the commercial value of agarwood is related to the quantity of resins that are present. This article explores the potential of a scanning electron microscope in combination with new non-destructive 3D visualization technique, X-ray micro-computed tomography, as imaging tools to visualize micro-structure resin in agarwood. These techniques were used to compare two samples of agarwood chips: high grade and low grade. From the results, it can be concluded that a wood cell filled with resin deposit have a higher attenuation. It can be shown that the combination of scanning electron microscopy and micro-CT can offer high resolution images concerning the localization and structure of resin inside Agarwood. While the second allows the 3D investigation of internal structure of agarwood, the first technique can provide details 2D morphological information. These imaging techniques, although sophisticated can be used for standard development especially in grading of agarwoodlbr commercial activities.
Flow measurement is a critical element for liquid resources monitoring for various applications in many industrial systems. The purposes of the study are to determine the flow rate of liquid system in flow rig using radiotracer techniques and to compare the result with that obtained by the conventional flow meters. The flow rig consists of 58.7m long and 20cm diameter pipeline that can accommodate about 0.296m3 of liquid. Tap water was used as liquid flow in pipeline and conventional flow meters were also installed at the flow rig. Radiotracer was injected as a sharp pulse into the inlet p.peline. The pulse was monitored at the inlet and various points along the outlet pipeline using collimated scintillation detector. The peak to peak and total count methods were applied for radiotracer techniques and showed the comparable results with conventional flow meter.
Non-destructive and real time method becomes a well-liked method to researchers in the oil palm
industry since 2000. This method has the ability to detect oil content in order to increase the
production of oil palm for better profit. Hence, this research investigates the potential of neutron
source to estimate oil content in palm oil fruit since oil palm contains hydrogen with chemical
formula C55H96O6. For this paper, oil palm loose fruit was being used and divided into three
groups. These three groups are ripe, under-ripe and bruised fruit. A total of 21 loose fruit for each
group were collected from a private plantation in Malaysia. Each sample was scanned using
neutron backscattered technique. The higher neutron count, the more hydrogen content, and the
more oil content in palm oil fruit. The best correlation result came from the ripe fruits with r2=0.98.
This research proves that neutron backscattered technique can be used as a non-destructive and
real time grading system for palm oil.
“Batu Bersurat Terengganu (inscribed stone)” is the oldest artifact with Jawi writing on it. The
artifact proves that the Kingdom of Terengganu exist earlier than 1326 or 1386. To date, a lot of
studies on the content of the inscription have been carried out by historians and archaeologists, but
no scientific investigation about the material composition and its provenance has been performed.
This paper focuses on the study of the origin of the Batu Bersurat Terengganu using NeutronInduced
Prompt Gamma-Ray Techniques (NIPGAT). Portable NIPGAT system has been designed
and developed based on volumetric measurement methods and it will be considered as a nondestructive
testing. The system uses low activity of californium-252 (Cf-252) neutron radioactive
sources, gamma ray spectroscopy and special computer software to carry out the investigation. The
study found that the Batu Bersurat Terengganu is made of dolerite based on the elemental
composition of the stone. Although most of the scientific data for the study of the origin are already
obtained, but further research is still ongoing to complete the scope of this study.