Case Studies
Inspectioneering contributors and authors have published numerous mechanical integrity case studies in Inspectioneering Journal and throughout our online resources. This page brings all of these case studies into one location to better help you learn from the experience of others.
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Inspectioneering JournalBy Hossam Aboegla at Lloyd's Register Energy
Asset integrity and life cycle management are unique but intertwined concepts. The dynamic process between these principles has a significant impact on the lifecycle of individual assets and, therefore, the integrity of an entire plant.
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Inspectioneering JournalBy Mark Geisenhoff at Flint Hills Resources, Jonathan D. Dobis at The Equity Engineering Group, Inc., Phillip E. Prueter at The Equity Engineering Group, Inc., and Dr. Michael S. Cayard at Flint Hills ResourcesThis article summarizes a recent finite element analysis (FEA)-based study that employs creep simulation techniques to investigate the elevated temperature response of piping with peaked longitudinal weld seams.
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Inspectioneering JournalBy Melissa Ramkissoon at PetrotrinAboveground Storage Tanks (AST) are essential to any successful oil and gas operation and must be properly managed to ensure operations function in a safe and reliable manner. In this 2-part series, I will identify some common failures related to ASTs in crude oil service and recommend strategies to prevent and/or mitigate such failures.
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BlogMarch 16, 2015
For many years, it has been common practice in the petrochemical industry to use fitness-for-service (FFS) evaluations to determine whether or not a finding during an inspection would prevent a part from being able to be returned to service.
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Inspectioneering JournalBy Gerrit M. Buchheim, P.E. at Becht Engineering Co., Inc.High Temperature Hydrogen Attack (HTHA) is a complex damage mechanism that continues to defy investigators trying to make predictions on the anticipated degree of damage or service life. This article provides some background on HTHA, discusses some current developments in HTHA inspection and mitigation, and describes how one Refiner is instituting an HTHA risk management plan for its refineries and the challenges and pitfalls they have encountered.
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Inspectioneering JournalBy Tim Hill at Quest Integrity GroupFor the past 30 years, infrared (IR) thermometry has been used to monitor tube metal temperatures in refining and chemical furnaces. Tracking temperature levels and variations determine performance capability limits and reliable tube life. However, the application of IR thermometry has often been characterized as highly operator dependent, which can result in less-than-optimal data accuracy as a consequence of poorly applied and interpreted results.
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Inspectioneering JournalBy Luciano Narcisi at GIEAs an RBI consultant, I frequently get involved in discussions spawned from a misunderstanding of the relation between Risk Based Inspection (RBI) approaches and Fitness for Service (FFS) assessments. Questions like: If thickness is below the minimum required by design, why does the risk stay so low?
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Inspectioneering JournalBy Ron Maurier at Quest Integrity Group, LLC, and Dan Revelle, Sr. at Quest Integrity Group, LLCNew inline inspections and integrity management systems allow operators to understand the complexities and economics of terminals’ and station’s complex aging pipeline infrastructure.
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Inspectioneering JournalBy Jason C. Shankle at United Dynamics CorporationUAS (Unmanned Arial System) drone technology has numerous applications, including anything at elevated heights or where human access and/or occupancy are prohibited, or in the case of confined spaces, limited.
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Inspectioneering JournalBy Anthony J. Rutkowski at A.J. Rutkowski, LLC, and Anthony M. Damron at The Equity Engineering Group, Inc.Small bore piping is present in many variations throughout numerous industries. This article will address an incident involving a small bore piping failure that occurred on a 140,000 BPD crude distillation unit in the refining industry.
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BlogSeptember 3, 2013 By Greg Alvarado at Inspectioneering Journal
We’ve been discussing Scalable Accuracy and its use related to Lifecycle Management technologies available to owner/operators. The last few topics have included Fitness for Service using Scalable Accuracy, the approach for Equipment Lifecycle Management and, to lay the foundation for proper thinking, making the case for Scalable Accuracy. In a continuation on the topic, this week’s blog will cover Risk-Based Inspection (RBI).
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Online ArticleThis case study provides a chronological review of several thermal anomalies discovered within a customer's storage tank that was being used to house soy beans. The first signs of a problem within the storage tank were found when thermal imaging of the north side of the tank revealed an uncharacteristic hot spot.
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Inspectioneering JournalBy Greg Garic at Stress Engineering Services, Inc.Predicting the remaining life of components operating in the creep regime is one of the trickiest problems encountered in the fitness-for-service (FFS) world.
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Inspectioneering JournalBy Fernando Vicente at ABBIndustrial furnaces are used extensively throughout the entire oil and gas industry, as well as other process industries such as pulp and paper, metals and mining, chemical, and petrochemical. An industrial furnace, or direct fired heater, is a piece of equipment used to provide heat for processing or can serve as a reactor which provides heat for the reaction.
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Partner ContentAuto-refrigeration can impose low temperatures onto process vessels and piping causing them to be at risk of brittle fracture, the sudden break-before leak phenomena that can result in catastrophic rupture of the equipment.
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Inspectioneering JournalBy Greg Garic at Stress Engineering Services, Inc.If an operator finds cracking in a furnace waste heat boiler, excessive thinning in an absorption tower, or severe bulging in a converter, FFS assessments—not standard code analyses—are needed to evaluate the unit’s mechanical integrity. FFS assessments, according to the American Petroleum Institute (API), are “quantitative engineering evaluations that are performed to demonstrate the structural integrity of an in-service component containing a flaw or damage.”
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