(167a) Assessing Potential Damage Mechanisms and Selecting Effective Inspection & Testing Methodology for Fixed Equipment

Ensuring that process fixed equipment is safe to operate is essential in today’s Chemical, Refining, and all other Oil & Gas operations.  Process equipment must be effectively inspected and testing methodology must be performed in order to lower the risk of operations  to an acceptable level.  The current regulatory environment and public opinion will no longer tolerate accidents that were preventable had effective inspections and testing been performed in a proactive instead of a reactive mode. 

This paper will discuss potential damage mechanisms that degrade process equipment and evaluate the effectiveness of the various non-destructive examinations (NDE) and alternative inspection methods necessary for proactive condition based monitoring.  Internal and external corrosion mechanisms will be discussed.  Damage mechanisms such as stress corrosion cracking (SSC), thermal fatigue, caustic embrittlement and hydrogen induced stress corrosion cracking (HIC), along with several others, will be discussed.  Various NDE methods will be evaluated for effectiveness at detecting the different potential damage mechanisms. 

A safe reliable plant is the end result of a proactive inspection and testing program.  Reduced risk of operations will be the result of detecting damage to fixed equipment and mitigating the damage before an incident