Conventional NDT including basic techniques like ultrasonic testing, dye penetrant testing, magnetic particle testing & radiography are in practice since decades in petrochemical, refining and oil & gas industries. And all these basic techniques have served well in identifying almost all the common damage mechanisms in these sectors. Talking about the most basic damages to some highly advanced ones, basic NDT techniques cover them all and provide with necessary data to support inspection engineer with the right decision on how to arrest the damages being noticed. However, with all the support offered by these conventional methods, there still stands some sort of a need to perform advanced non-destructive testing which could predict a damage which would then eventually be picked up by a conventional technique at a stage much later. or cover even larger areas when compared to a conventional technique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It has been seen at several sites that after considering some advanced NDT beneficial in obtaining useful inspection data to mitigate capital expenditure risk combined with commercial benefits, site personnel were trained and in-house capabilities were established to gain long term advantages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Advanced NDT challenges conventional techniques in many ways. Coverage of a component is one area where an advanced NDT would be providing much more than a conventional technique. Take the case of a conventional ultrasonic thickness monitoring required to be done on kilometers of piping run. It would require some heavy cost to be incurred in having the access at many different locations to cover all the thickness monitoring locations required to be inspected. In addition to this access issue, huge data collection has to be done by the technician and eventually would result in much more manpower requirements. Time is another factor which could almost change the whole feasibility when this conventional point thickness monitoring would be compared to a technique such as Long Range Ultrasonic Testing (LRUT). It would be able to cover much of the piping length in far lesser time with much lesser effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Detection of a damage at an early stage is another benefit which can be easily drawn if inspection is supported with some advanced NDT. Long Range Ultrasonic Testing when replacing point UT readings would be reflecting a bigger spectrum of piping wall health rather than just getting the minimum recorded thickness. Any other defect in the piping wall other than the thinning would also be picked up. And at the same time, both external and internal wall surface defects would be coming in to better study and analyze. This how an early detection of a damage which would happen in coming future can be picked up and some measures can then be taken to avoid any loss of process containment. Using microstructure analysis techniques in order to detect creep damages at an earlier stage support operators in planning for major tube replacement activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Data collection which could help in performing advanced fitness for service calculations using software modelling can also be assisted by advanced NDTs. In some cases, when performing specialized finite element analysis, there comes up the requirement of obtaining thickness readings of a component in a grid formation. Though conventional UT techniques can take point readings however advanced NDT techniques like phased array would be even more beneficial to obtain such data which would be more accurate, meaningful and easy to feed the software.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are other instances as well where advanced NDT can support in a big way. Take the case of using Time of Flight Diffraction (TOFD) or other scanning techniques to inspect the welds instead of conventional radiography as the later would require many safety precautions including safe distance where the technique is being utilized. During construction of major projects, this became very challenging to accommodate timing for conventional radiography as the area has to be free of any human. No other activity can then be continued along with on-going radiography especially when thicker welds are being radiographed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Advanced NDTs can sometimes help in saving cost of all the support services which are required to perform conventional NDTs and other basic inspections. Corrosion under insulation (CUI) poses a larger threat to plant assets when operating within the susceptible operating parameters. The basic inspection to detect occurrence of CUI is to remove the insulation at susceptible locations however now there a number of techniques available which can help detect presence of moisture under the insulation and corrosion, if any. All what has to be done is to mount such moisture & corrosion sensors at different locations where CUI could occur and then start monitoring. There are other techniques also available which could actually obtain thickness data based upon external surface condition and detect occurrence of CUI. Pulse Eddy Current (PEC) testing is the one of them which helps in detection of CUI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All the advanced NDTs have some kind of benefits however all of them are associated with heavy cost. Supporting companies which come in to perform these NDTs charge heavily in mobilizing their equipment and then provide reports however not in all situations utilizing of an advanced NDT is recommended. No advanced NDT would be beneficial until or unless its utilization & commercial benefits are not totally understood. And another major concern is the interpretation of results obtained by a specific advanced NDT. All the personnel who have been responsible in performing the inspection, obtaining the inspection results and taking the correct technical decisions are trained 100% on all the conventional NDTs however many a times, they are unaware of an advanced NDT especially when it comes to data interpretation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following are the some of the key areas which should be considered before application of an advanced NDT:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If points (a), (b) & (c) are all satisfied to an extent that an advanced NDT seems suitable to be applied then it is beneficiary to first have site personnel trained on basic application of technique along with interpretation of results obtained as without doing that, technique deployment at site would not engage the technical personnel responsible for asset integrity and an unusual dependence on Contractor would occur. Thereafter, if some advanced NDT is supporting on frequent basis in obtaining useful data and playing a key role in mitigation of any certain site risk with commercial benefits then it is recommended to establish in-house capabilities of such technique for long term outcomes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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