Verification of Structural Integrity of Pressure Vessels by Acoustic Emission and Periodic Proof Testing

Author(s):  
DO Harris ◽  
HL Dunegan
2016 ◽  
Vol 70 (6) ◽  
pp. 685-694 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Sedmak ◽  
Mahdi Algool ◽  
Snezana Kirin ◽  
Branislav Rakicevic ◽  
Ramo Bakic

This paper presents different aspects of pressure vessel safety in the scope of industrial safety, focused to the chemical industry. Quality assurance, including application of PED97/23 has been analysed first, followed shortly by the risk assessment and in details by the structural integrity approach, which has been illustrated with three case studies. One important conclusion, following such an approach, is that so-called water proof testing can actually jeopardize integrity of a pressure vessel instead of proving it.


2006 ◽  
Vol 13-14 ◽  
pp. 351-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas J. Brunner ◽  
Michel Barbezat

In order to explore potential applications for Active Fiber Composite (AFC) elements made from piezoelectric fibers for structural integrity monitoring, a model experiment for leak testing on pipe segments has been designed. A pipe segment made of aluminum with a diameter of 60 mm has been operated with gaseous (compressed air) and liquid media (water) for a range of operating pressures (between about 5 and 8 bar). Artificial leaks of various sizes (diameter) have been introduced. In the preliminary experiments presented here, commercial Acoustic Emission (AE) sensors have been used instead of the AFC elements. AE sensors mounted on waveguides in three different locations have monitored the flow of the media with and without leaks. AE signals and AE waveforms have been recorded and analysed for media flow with pressures ranging from about 5 to about 8 bar. The experiments to date show distinct differences in the FFT spectra depending on whether a leak is present or not.


Author(s):  
Dominique Moinereau ◽  
Jean-Michel Frund ◽  
Henriette Churier-Bossennec ◽  
Georges Bezdikian ◽  
Alain Martin

A significant extensive Research & Development work is conducted by Electricite´ de France (EDF) related to the structural integrity re-assessment of the French 900 and 1300 MWe reactor pressure vessels in order to increase their lifetime. Within the framework of this programme, numerous developments have been implemented or are in progress related to the methodology to assess flaws during a pressurized thermal shock (PTS) event. The paper contains three aspects: a short description of the specific French approach for RPV PTS assessment, a presentation of recent improvements on thermalhydraulic, materials and mechanical aspects, and finally an overview of the present R&D programme on thermalhydraulic, materials and mechanical aspects. Regarding the last aspect on present R&D programme, several projects in progress will be shortly described. This overview includes the redefinition of some significant thermalhydraulic transients based on some new three-dimensional CFD computations (focused at the present time on small break LOCA transient), the assessment of vessel materials properties, and the improvement of the RPV PTS structural integrity assessment including several themes such as warm pre-stress (WPS), crack arrest, constraint effect ....


2006 ◽  
Vol 13-14 ◽  
pp. 127-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerold Lackner ◽  
Peter Tscheliesnig

Acoustic emission testing (AT) is in Europe an already well established non-destructive testing (NDT) method. Qualification requirements as well as certification of testing personnel are laid down in European standard EN 473. A widespread application of AT deals with testing of unfired pressure vessels for re-qualification after a certain period of service (repetition test). The advantages of applying AT compared to the traditional procedure of hydrostatic test plus visual inside inspection are numerous. Just to name the most important: reduction of downtime, omitting of residual humidity and no risk of product contamination with water. It is a fact that AT provides much more useful information concerning the condition of the pressure vessel under test than a simple ‘passed’ or ‘not passed’ obtained usually by a hydrostatic test. This contribution gives two examples of practical experience, where severe corrosion defects have been detected by AT. The defects have been found in both cases on the vessel’s shell under the thermal insulation, where they have been hidden undetected for years. It can be assumed that even the vessel with the most severe damage (loss of more than 50% of the nominal wall thickness) would have passed the traditional repetition test procedure and that failure within the following service period would have occurred. In contrary to this scenario, AT enabled the vessel operator to perform appropriate repair in time.


2010 ◽  
Vol 26 (02) ◽  
pp. 106-110
Author(s):  
Ge Wang ◽  
Michael Lee ◽  
Chris Serratella ◽  
Stanley Botten ◽  
Sam Ternowchek ◽  
...  

Real-time monitoring and detection of structural degradation helps in capturing the structural conditions of ships. The latest nondestructive testing (NDT) and sensor technologies will potentially be integrated into future generations of the structural integrity management program. This paper reports on a joint development project between Alaska Tanker Company, American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), and MISTRAS. The pilot project examined the viability of acoustic emission technology as a screening tool for surveys and inspection planning. Specifically, testing took place on a 32-year-old double-hull Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) trade tanker. The test demonstrated the possibility of adapting this technology in the identification of critical spots on a tanker in order to target inspections. This targeting will focus surveys and inspections on suspected areas, thus increasing efficiency of detecting structural degradation. The test has the potential to introduce new inspection procedures as the project undertakes the first commercial testing of the latest acoustic emission technology during a tanker's voyage.


2021 ◽  
pp. 30-45
Author(s):  
V. V. Nosov ◽  
A. R. Yamilova

Separation of the influence of various factors on the strength of the material and control parameters is the basis for increasing the diagnostic efficiency. The article describes methods for assessing the state of pressure vessels, features of their damage under conditions of hydrogen absorption, presents data from acoustic emission and ultrasonic testing, compares them, sets out an approach to non-destructive assessment of the strength state of technical objects, based on a multilevel model of time dependences of acoustic emission parameters (AE), the kinetic concept of strength, micromechanics of fracture of discrete media, their relationship with the resource, parameters of fatigue curves and characteristics of the material structure, the problems of the influence of strength and metrological heterogeneity on the information content of control, the sequence of assessing the indicators of the strength state and resource of vessels, the model of strength and metrological heterogeneity of the AE are presented control, explaining the maximum activity of AE during tests in the first periods of operation, a methodology for assessing the strength state of pressure vessels is presented. Demonstration of the effectiveness of the technique is shown as an example of AE testing of an absorber for purifying hydrogen sulfide with a monoethanolamine solution by predicting the resource of its components and comparing the prediction results with the coordinate-altitude level of the adsorber belt, which correlates with the average internal hydrostatic stresses. Approbation of the approach has shown its versatility on the example of effective application for objects with defects of both fatigue and chemical origin under conditions of hydrogenation. Using the example of assessing the state of the most damaged lower belt, it is shown that an increase in the AE activity during hydrogenation of the material occurs mainly due to the growth of the acoustically active volume of the controlled zone, which is not unambiguously associated with the resource, and therefore the activity and energy intensity of the AE should not be considered sufficient a sign of the danger of a defect formed under the influence of hydrogen-containing media.


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