Case Studies

This article presents two case studies that show how having a holistic approach, along with the right technology and experience, is essential to identifying smaller damage mechanisms like fretting in fired heater coils.

This article summarizes the fundamentals of wet H2S-related damage mechanisms, offers some practical inspection guidance, and reviews a notable industry failure caused by different forms of wet H2S damage.

This article discusses how composite materials can be used to mitigate light CUI damage and/or repair and restore structural strength to the affected piping system.

A risk management approach for relief valves should be able to determine the proper interval of maintenance events and the necessity of installing isolation valves, rupture discs, or 100% spare capacity.

The scope of the subject case study reviews an inspection and corrosion control assessment conducted on subsea flowlines and includes evaluating the flowlines’ associated inspection programs and identifying all available NDT technology solutions.

This case study of a CO2 absorber tower in a remote location investigates the use of a new type of wireless ultrasonic sensor for monitoring the thickness of equipment while on or offline.

It can be challenging for failure analysts to present complex information to audiences that don't the same knowledge on specialized subjects. Sometimes, failure mechanisms can be summarized with images that can tell the whole story...

This article will discuss a statistical analysis method that was developed to evaluate the integrity of pipelines that can identify, in a first phase inspection, whether the nature of the active damage mechanism(s) are uniform (general) or localized.

As more are educated on the benefits of utilizing ropes and drones, skepticism has become far less common, and we’re sure to see adoption grow in the coming years of both of these methods—and, perhaps, of this new hybrid approach to work as well.

This article discusses the header specification, design, fabrication, and inspection processes to identify where opportunities were available to proactively address the vulnerabilities that resulted in the header rupture.

Restoring process piping within a short time frame requires an innovative approach. This article discusses how a repair using composite materials proved to be successful and enabled a quick return to operations.

Implementing RBI as part of a Mechanical Integrity system at different sites is not a simple copy and paste project. Each case has its own characteristics and challenges. This article describes implementation in two vastly different facilities.

This article provides an overview of brittle fracture, details on several industry failures, and a summary of deficiencies and concerns with current published methods for screening susceptibility of equipment to potential brittle fracture failures.

Field hardness tests can provide valuable information when evaluating piping and pressure vessel anomalies. This article summarizes laboratory examinations designed to gain a better understanding of UCI hardness test results taken in the field.

FFS assessment techniques are applicable to a wide range of damage types: LTA's, cracks, creep damage, dents, and more. These are very powerful analytical tools that often allow operators to not only keep the plant running, but to keep it running...

This article presents a comprehensive integrity management program for catalyst tubes, including elements on monitoring, inspection, data analysis, remaining life assessment, and control of human factors.