A Historical Integrity Assessment of a Refinery Fired Heater - A Case Study
Condition Monitoring Optimization Part 2: Making Inference with Uncertain Data
Damage Control: Wet H2S Damage Assessment
Effective Management of In-Service Line Lifting for Touch Point Corrosion Remediation
FFS Forum: Updates to the New & Improved API 579 Standard
How to Assess Hydrogen Pipeline Integrity by Applying Fracture Mechanics
Management and Identification of Dead Legs
Utilizing Risk Assessment to Determine the Scope of FEMI QA/QC
A New Era: Digitalized Field Reporting Rules the Day
Applying the PERI Model to Fixed Equipment Mechanical Integrity
Condition Monitoring Optimization: Going Beyond Traditional CML Optimization
Damage Control: Wet H2S Damage Detection
Detecting and Quantifying External Fretting-Wear Damage
Overcoming Pitfalls When Establishing an Effective RBI Program
Composite Repair Targeting Corrosion Under Insulation
Corrosion Surveys of NPS 6 and Smaller Lines with High Production Digital Radiography
Damage Control: CUI Mitigation
FFS Forum: Tips and Guidance on FFS in the Aftermath of a Process Plant Fire (Part 1 of 2)
Integrity Management of Wet Sour Gas Clad Subsea Pipelines
Reliability and Risk Management of Pressure Relief Valves in Oil Refineries
Tank RBI: Not Just an Inspection Deferral Tool
Ultrasonic In-Service Detection and Monitoring of Sulfidation Corrosion
Damage Control: CUI Assessment
Evergreening an RBI-Based Inspection Program
FFS Forum: Acoustic Emission Testing - The Least Understood Inspection Technique (Part 2 of 2)
How to Reduce Your Exposure to High Consequence FEMI Events
Inspection and Best Practice in Single Stud Replacement
Into the Grain - Advancements in HTHA Detection Methods - Part 1
Robotics for Internal In-Service Inspection of Aboveground Storage Tanks
Simplifying Complex Failures with EDX Images
Wireless Battery-Free Ultrasonic Thickness Measurement Patches for CO2 Absorber
Combining Drones and Rope Access to Increase Coverage and Data
Data-Driven Reliability – Reliability Done Right
Feasibility Study for Fitness-for-Service Assessment of Reinforced Thermoplastic Pipes
FFS Forum: Acoustic Emission Testing – The Least Understood Inspection Technique (Part 1 of 2)
Identifying and Understanding the Risk of Acoustic-Induced Vibration Failures
Pipeline Ultrasonic Thickness Data Analysis Using Gaussian Distribution
Baseline Inspection of Heat Exchanger Tubing
Composite Repair to Restore In-Plant Piping - A Case Study
Damage Control: Thermal Fatigue Mitigation
How Effective Are Your BIG FIVE FEMI Risk Management Programs?
Lessons Learned from the Rupture of a Steam Superheater Header
Piping CML Optimization: Optimizing the Definition
2021 Inspectioneering Journal Article Index
A historical review into the integrity of reformer furnaces since commissioning is discussed in this case study, along with other technical and engineering challenges, and the efforts to overcome them.
Utilizing a digital field service management platform for inspection and related trade support is the answer to many of the difficulties experienced in mechanical integrity programs today.
This article discusses the benefits of an established heat treating process with regards to mechanical integrity, as well as certain quality control measures and the importance of a heat treatment plan.
This article discusses making continuous improvements in your fixed equipment mechanical integrity work process using the Plan-Execute-Review-Improve (PERI) model.
The purpose of baseline inspections is to provide cost savings upfront versus the cost incurred during operations. So, what are the possible heat exchange tubing defects or anomalies and how are they validated?
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 how composite materials can be used to mitigate light CUI damage and/or repair and restore structural strength to the affected piping system.
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.
This article is Part 2 in a series discussing condition monitoring optimization where statistical inference techniques on the measured data can be utilized to provide reasonable expectations regarding the true extent of damage on the asset.
Condition monitoring optimization goes beyond traditional CML optimization, which is often limited in the breadth of analysis, or can overemphasize a subset of the overall objective.
This article discusses an approach to implementing a corrosion management system using commonly developed documents in most facilities as part of their corrosion control practice.
This article illustrates the value of digital radiography as an efficient tool to visualize corrosion and other small bore piping anomalies without disturbing insulation, as well as using PRT in conjunction with UTT to survey small diameter lines.
In this article, FFS assessment methods are summarized and practical guidance is offered for qualifying CUI damage on carbon and low-alloy steels.
The bp refinery in Rotterdam was able to establish a continuous digital inspection process for the first time by using the DIMATE PACS – including the digital evaluation and transmission of quality-assured inspection data to the RBI.
Corrosion under insulation is a form of external corrosion that is caused by trapped water on insulated surfaces. It is an industry problem affecting equipment in the oil and gas, petrochemical, specialty chemical, fertilizer, and related industries.
Practical steps to mitigate corrosion under insulation (CUI) damage on fixed pressure equipment and commentary on common mitigation techniques and good engineering practices for external insulation or fireproofing system design and application.
Thermal fatigue, a specific form of fatigue driven by varying metal temperature gradients and ensuing differential thermal expansion, is generally most effectively mitigated by reducing the severity of metal temperature gradients.
This issue of Damage Control offers a perspective on how to assess the different forms of wet H2S damage using modern FFS and computational analysis techniques with the safe operation of damaged pressure vessels, piping, and associated components.
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.
The manner by which reliability is achieved is experiencing a much-needed paradigm shift in the way it uses data. In this article, we’ll explain how you can leverage this industry shift to implement data-driven reliability at your facility.
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.
Establishing a proactive touch point corrosion integrity management program using engineered on-stream line lifting is a safe and effective means of mitigating unplanned downtime and related safety and potential environmental hazards.
Equity Engineering Practices® (EEPs) are a collection of design and maintenance focused corporate standards that include >850 engineering standards, and >300 piping classes. Enhance your mechanical integrity programs, improve equipment...
AET is a powerful, non-intrusive inspection technique to verify the structural integrity of pressure vessels, spheres, high-temperature reactors and piping, coke drums, above-ground storage tanks, cryogenic storage tanks, and more.
This article describes an owner-user’s evergreening process to maintain accurate data to support the mechanical integrity program and assist in planning inspections, turnarounds, repairs, replacements, and upgrades.
Globally accepted FFS procedures for non-metallic components, such as reinforced thermoplastic pipes, do not exist. There may be opportunity in adapting existing procedures for metallic components and their damage mechanisms to composite components.
This article addresses some of the advantages and disadvantages of acoustic emission testing and discusses a few examples of its typical applications.
FFS assessments usually originate from inspection results and often end with a recommended inspection plan. This FFS Forum tries to provide a little better understanding of one particular inspection method: Acoustic Emission Testing.
This follow-up article discusses the important topic of establishing Heat Exposure Zones and Level 1, 2, and 3 fitness-for-service assessments following a plant fire.
Traditional inspection methods used to detect internal corrosion and corrosion under insulation (CUI) in piping and pipeline assets can be time-consuming and costly. With ART, you’ll discover CUI detection best practices that can help save you up...
Part 1 presents a brief overview of the process of assessing equipment in a post-fire "return-to-service" effort and discusses some common issues that may arise during that process.
There are many excellent changes and updates in the new edition of API 579, including significant technical changes and improvements. In this FFS Forum article, I’ll go through many of what I believe to be the most important changes.
The first two parts of this series covered the basics of fracture mechanics and how the FAD is interpreted. This article touches on a few practical points regarding the application of fracture mechanics in a plant environment.
The positive impact of digital twins on planning, costs, turnaround, revenue generation, and safety are substantial and rapid in their return. This article will examine why to leverage this technology and how to do so in a fiscally viable manner.
If I suddenly accepted the position of site manager at your operating site, one of the first things I would do is trot on down to the FEMI group and ask questions to assess what we need to be doing to avoid the potential for big FEMI events.
In cases where material embrittlement caused by hydrogen is a concern, evaluations using fracture mechanics to assess the reliability and integrity of steel pipes exposed to cyclic loads are necessary.
This article is oriented toward identifying and assessing the risk of potentially high consequence, but usually lower likelihood, FEMI issues that could cause a big event at operating sites if sufficient safeguards or barriers are not in place.
This article provides insights into the AIV damage mechanism, reviews approaches to calculate the probability of AIV failure in piping, provides design practices to prevent AIV failure, and introduces a RBI approach to evaluate risk of AIV failures.
A safety-focused mindset and awareness of the dangers associated with the process, environment, and associated tasks through planning and execution is essential for the safe completion of a single stud replacement campaign.
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.
Hydrogen-induced damage mechanisms have been studied endlessly, leading to changes in equipment design and development of new inspection practices. However, the highly localized nature and difficulty of detection of HTHA add additional complexities.
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.
Dead legs pose a substantial threat to piping integrity as they are especially prone to contamination and corrosion. Tracking dead legs separately from the mainline piping should be done through controlled procedures at operating facilities.
In this article, the author shares a couple of examples for RBI practitioners that will hopefully spur you on toward excellence in RBI modeling.
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.
“Condition monitoring location (CML) optimization” is a frequently used term, particularly for piping circuits. Everyone wants their circuits to be “CML optimized,” but what does this truly mean?
Even with significant work to establish standards and codes for FRP vessel design, failures still occur, some of which could have been prevented or mitigated by following a systematic external inspection program.
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.
Asset owners can realize economic and HSE benefits from utilizing internal in-service robots for hazardous fluid tank inspection. Achieving high levels of coverage and collecting enormous amounts of quantitative data are possible for clean tanks.
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 examines the quantitative tank RBI method found in API 581 and discusses uses for tank RBI other than deferral of scheduled internal inspections.
With all the variables in play during a turnaround event, it is rare for all expectations to succeed together, during the same event. It is important to have a process in place, plan each step, and utilize certified inspection personnel.
Recent advances in UT technology now allow for inspection and continuous monitoring of sulfidic corrosion to be undertaken while the components are on-stream, at temperature, with high-resolution thickness data.
Inspectioneering and Pinnacle co-hosted the 7th bi-annual Meeting of the Minds with a select group of mechanical integrity experts from across the industry. The meeting focused on piping RBI and the challenges operators are facing implementing it.
This article discusses how Quantitative Reliability Optimization (QRO) can help empower reliability and operations leaders with better data to make smarter and more confident reliability decisions for their facilities.
Utilizing a risk assessment methodology to determine the amount of detail in our QA/QC plans, as well as who needs to be involved, may help us improve both the effectiveness and the efficiency of our QA/QC work process.
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.
