Abstract: In the process of pipeline operation, it will be invalidated by many factors, causing corrosion and leakage of pipe body.This paper proposes a transient electromagnetic method to detect urban thermal pipes. It mainly introduces the principle of transient electromagnetic method for detecting thermal pipelines and the failure analysis of thermal pipelines, and analyzes the application of corrosion detection test for urban thermal pipelines.The results show that the transient electromagnetic method has practicality in the detection of urban thermal pipelines, and can obtain more accurate wall thickness of thermal pipelines, which provides a reliable theoretical data basis for the determination of defects in urban thermal pipelines and the operation and maintenance of pipelines.