Fouling build up is a well-known problem in the offshore industry. Accumulation of fouling occurs in different structures, e.g. offshore pipes, ship hulls, floating production platforms. The type of fouling that accumulates is dependent on environmental conditions surrounding the structure itself. Current methods deployed for fouling removal span across hydraulic, chemical and manual, all sharing the common disadvantage of necessitating halting production for the cleaning process to commence. Conventionally, ultrasound is used in ultrasonic baths to clean a submerged component by the generation and implosion of cavitation bubbles on the fouled surface; this method is particularly used in Reverse Osmosis applications. However, this requires the submersion of the fouled structure and thus may require a halt to production. Large fouled structures such as pipelines may not be accommodated. The application of high power ultrasonics is proposed in this work as a means to remove fouling on a structure whilst in operation. The work presented in this paper consists of the development of a finite element analysis model based on successful cleaning results from a pipe fouled with calcite on the inner pipe wall. A Polytec 3D Laser Doppler Vibrometer was used in this investigation to study the fouling removal process. Results show the potential of high power ultrasonics for fouling removal in pipe structures from the wave propagation across the structure under excitation, and are used to validate a COMSOL model to determine cleaning patterns based on pressure and displacement distributions for future transducer array design and optimization.

结垢是海上工业中众所周知的问题。结垢的积累发生在不同的结构中，例如海上管道，船体，浮动生产平台。积垢的类型取决于结构本身周围的环境条件。当前用于清除污垢的方法涵盖了液压，化学和手动方法，所有这些方法都具有共同的缺点，即必须停止生产才能开始清洁过程。常规上，在超声波浴中使用超声波，通过在结垢表面上生成和爆裂空化气泡来清洁浸没的部件。此方法特别用于反渗透应用中。但是，这需要将结垢的结构浸入水中，因此可能需要停止生产。可能无法容纳大型污损结构，例如管道。在这项工作中建议使用大功率超声波，以消除运行中结构上的污垢。本文介绍的工作包括基于在管道内壁上有方解石结垢的管道的成功清洁结果，开发有限元分析模型。在这项研究中，使用了Polytec 3D激光多普勒振动计来研究污垢清除过程。结果显示了大功率超声波在管道结构中从激励作用下穿过结构的波传播中清除污垢的潜力，并用于验证COMSOL模型，以基于压力和位移分布确定清洁模式，以用于将来的换能器阵列设计和优化。