Fast online inspection in steel pipe production is a big challenge. Radiographic CT imaging technology

a high performance non-destructive testing method

is quite appropriate for inspection and quality control of steel pipes. The method of rotating polar-coordinate is used to reconstruct the steel pipe section from few projections with the purpose of inspecting it online. It reduces the projection number needed and the data collection time

and accelerates the reconstruction algorithm and saves the inspection time evidently. The results of simulation experiment and actual experiment indicate that the image quality and reconstruction time of rotating polar-coordinate method meet the requirements of inspecting the steel tube section online basically. The study is of some theoretical significance and the method is expected to be widely used in practice.