[1A2] On-stream ultrasonic detection and monitoring of sulphidation and other high-temperature corrosion damage mechanisms
T Stevenson
Ionix Advanced Technologies Ltd, UK
In the Oil & Gas, Refining and Power Generation industries globally, it is estimated that 25% of the costs involved in outages could be avoided by replacing conventional risk-based inspection strategies during planned shutdowns, with on-stream inspection and monitoring.
Online, non-intrusive, ultrasonic asset integrity and corrosion monitoring tools are becoming increasingly popular, to enable organisations to enhance process unit productivity, optimize shutdown and maintenance planning, whilst not compromising on safety.
With recent updates to recommended practices requiring 100% inspection of components at risk of high-temperature corrosion mechanisms such as sulfidation, and subsequent monitoring where accelerated corrosion is identified, presented here is a review of the current and emerging technologies for ultrasonic inspection and monitoring, used to assess corrosion in high-temperature assets (up to 550 °C).
It covers all aspects, from the development and challenges associated with the selection of transducers, coupling, and the availability and application of commercial systems in the field.
Initially a review of emerging high-temperature ultrasonic asset-integrity tools, evaluating the benefits, challenges and solutions for the on-stream inspection of damage mechanisms like sulfidic corrosion, without isolation or shutdown is shown, followed by a case study demonstrating how advances in UT technology has enabled on-stream, automated corrosion mapping and inspection, as well as weld root corrosion and crack detection with high-temperature Time-of-flight diffraction, to help improve safety and productivity with real-time asset intelligence.
Subsequently, as a growing range of automated ultrasonic monitoring solutions have come to the market enabling up-to-date, robust and reliable thickness and corrosion measurements to be autonomously collected and transmitted; an understanding of the strengths and also shortcomings of these systems is required to deploy them onto sites in such a way that they provide the required data, in the correct form, and at the required location(s).
Selecting what data to collect, who will benefit from it, how it will be stored, and the value of increased and improved data will be explained. The use of such technologies within the constraints of NDT regulations and standards, including calibration and temperature compensation will also be covered.
The location and environment of UT data collection is considered, including hazardous and potentially explosive environments, working at height /rope access and the integrity of insulation or cladding.
Finally, a case study, highlighting a field example is presented and explores the key factors which must be considered when selecting an ultrasonic corrosion monitoring system.
Online, non-intrusive, ultrasonic asset integrity and corrosion monitoring tools are becoming increasingly popular, to enable organisations to enhance process unit productivity, optimize shutdown and maintenance planning, whilst not compromising on safety.
With recent updates to recommended practices requiring 100% inspection of components at risk of high-temperature corrosion mechanisms such as sulfidation, and subsequent monitoring where accelerated corrosion is identified, presented here is a review of the current and emerging technologies for ultrasonic inspection and monitoring, used to assess corrosion in high-temperature assets (up to 550 °C).
It covers all aspects, from the development and challenges associated with the selection of transducers, coupling, and the availability and application of commercial systems in the field.
Initially a review of emerging high-temperature ultrasonic asset-integrity tools, evaluating the benefits, challenges and solutions for the on-stream inspection of damage mechanisms like sulfidic corrosion, without isolation or shutdown is shown, followed by a case study demonstrating how advances in UT technology has enabled on-stream, automated corrosion mapping and inspection, as well as weld root corrosion and crack detection with high-temperature Time-of-flight diffraction, to help improve safety and productivity with real-time asset intelligence.
Subsequently, as a growing range of automated ultrasonic monitoring solutions have come to the market enabling up-to-date, robust and reliable thickness and corrosion measurements to be autonomously collected and transmitted; an understanding of the strengths and also shortcomings of these systems is required to deploy them onto sites in such a way that they provide the required data, in the correct form, and at the required location(s).
Selecting what data to collect, who will benefit from it, how it will be stored, and the value of increased and improved data will be explained. The use of such technologies within the constraints of NDT regulations and standards, including calibration and temperature compensation will also be covered.
The location and environment of UT data collection is considered, including hazardous and potentially explosive environments, working at height /rope access and the integrity of insulation or cladding.
Finally, a case study, highlighting a field example is presented and explores the key factors which must be considered when selecting an ultrasonic corrosion monitoring system.
