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Overview of Corrosion and Materials
Corrosion and Materials is a field of study that focuses on understanding the causes and mechanisms of corrosion. According to API 510 and API 570, corrosion and materials specialists are professionals who are “knowledgeable and experienced in the specific process chemistries, degradations mechanisms, materials selection, corrosion mitigation methods, corrosion monitoring techniques, and their impact on equipment and piping systems.”
In reality, the roles and responsibilities of corrosion and materials engineers are extensive. Not only are they relied upon for corrosion and material expertise, they also have to be knowledgeable about nondestructive examination methods, inspection planning, risk-based inspection, process safety management, and much more. A list of 50 important roles and responsibilities of a corrosion and materials specialist can be found here.
Corrosion
Corrosion is one of the most problematic issues in the oil and gas and process industries and often leads to significant operation and maintenance costs. Corrosion takes place in a variety of environments from atmospheric conditions to aqueous solutions. The primary corrosive agent is dissolved oxygen, followed by sulfur compounds and salts, such as sodium chloride (which is inevitably found in marine environments).
Corrosion can develop in a number of different forms. The specific form is dependent on the environment in which a piece of metallic equipment is operating. The most common types of corrosion include:
- Uniform corrosion
- Galvanic corrosion
- Crevice corrosion
- Pitting
- Intergranular corrosion
- Stress corrosion
- Hydrogen embrittlement
- Microbial corrosion
- Selective leaching
- Erosion corrosion
Each of these processes occur by a specific mechanism and are dependent on the type of material, design of the component, and environmental conditions.
Corrosion also occurs at various rates and is determined by evaluating the amount of material loss over time. The rate of corrosion is also associated with the chemical reaction between the metal component and the surrounding environment. The basis of this chemical reaction is the transfer of electrons. Unfortunately, this reaction occurs spontaneously and is also electrochemically favourable, making corrosion issues difficult to manage.
Materials
Corrosion can have negative effects on ceramics at high temperatures, however, the most severe effects occur with ferrous metals. Metals should be carefully selected in order to optimize facility production and eliminate premature failure. Furthermore, metal materials should inherently possess corrosion and high-temperature resistance properties as well as desirable mechanical properties. The material selection process should also take into account material availability, costs, and safety. Once a material is selected, the design and fabrication of an asset should meet specifications and align with the facility’s goals to perform a specific function.
For example, stainless steel, galvanized steel, plain carbon steel, and aluminum and copper alloys are metals used in atmospheric environments. In marine environments, titanium, brass, and copper-nickel alloys are some of the materials of choice used in offshore oil facilities.1 If small amounts of corrosion are identified, the component may be repairable. However, significant corrosion damage can alter the ductility or strength of a component which can lead to adverse consequences.
Corrosion Control
Each type of corrosion can be treated individually using a number of methods. However, there are several general corrosion prevention techniques that can help control corrosion. These techniques include proper material selection and equipment design, protective coatings and films, the addition of corrosion inhibitors, and cathodic protection. Nondestructive testing techniques are also effective methods for monitoring corrosion and providing information of the condition of a component.
References
- Callister Jr., W.D., Rethwisch, D.G., Materials Science and Engineering, 9th ed., John Wiley & Sons, 2014.
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Articles about Corrosion and Materials
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September/October 2018 Inspectioneering JournalBy Rick Eckert at DNV GL - North America Oil & Gas, and Gerry Koch at DNV GL
Corrosion control knowledge and resources can be applied more effectively through the development and implementation of a corrosion management system (CMS). A CMS better-connects management system elements to the process of managing corrosion threats, thereby increasing ROI.
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September/October 2018 Inspectioneering JournalBy Greg Garic at Stress Engineering Services, Inc.
In this column, I touch on what I see as an underused FFS technique for corrosion assessment: point assessment of corrosion – a technique that does NOT require a thickness grid. The reason I find this technique useful is largely because it’s so easy and cheap to implement.
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July/August 2018 Inspectioneering JournalBy Greg Garic at Stress Engineering Services, Inc.
API 579-1 is a complex document covering several different types of equipment that may contain flaws or damage. Due to its complexity, this article condenses it into six things you need to know.
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May/June 2018 Inspectioneering JournalBy Nayef Alanazi at Saudi Aramco R&D Center, and Muthukumar Nagu at Saudi Aramco R&D Center
This article presents a case study from a Middle Eastern refinery that explores a heat exchanger that failed unexpectedly after five years in service. There are multiple initiators that can cause under deposit corrosion (UDC) in heat exchangers in addition to sulfur, which is the focus of this article.
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January/February 2018 Inspectioneering JournalBy Ashfaq Anwer
Sea water corrosion and erosion issues can affect almost all commonly used metallurgy in a refinery or petrochemical plant. This brief article explains the dangers behind sea water used in plant cooling systems and discusses several metallurgical and material solutions to resist sea cooling water corrosion.
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January/February 2018 Inspectioneering JournalBy Phillip E. Prueter at The Equity Engineering Group, Inc.
Given the concern throughout industry regarding the potential for brittle fracture failures, PWHT guidance to address potential issues arising from the recent changes in PWHT code requirements for carbon steel is examined in this article, and commentary on the potential reduction in fracture toughness due to PWHT is provided based on a review of published literature.
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November/December 2017 Inspectioneering JournalBy Marc McConnell, P.E. at Pro-Surve Technical Services, and David A. Hansen, PhD, PE at Metallurgical Consulting, Inc.
Hydrogen is a common culprit of equipment damage in the process industries. As hydrogen-induced damage can occur in multiple forms, it’s critical to identify the specific damage mechanism you’re dealing with before undertaking measures to prevent, mitigate, or repair.
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November/December 2017 Inspectioneering JournalBy Greg Alvarado at Inspectioneering Journal, and John Nyholt at John Nyholt Consulting, LLC
Thanks to the development of documents such as API RP 571 and API RP 586, as well as the emergence of qualification demonstration testing, we can align NDT techniques and inspection strategies better than ever. This article examines this progression and applies it to some sample NDT methods.
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High Resolution Inspection Data and Advancements in Finite Element Analysis Make Level 3 FFS More AffordableSeptember/October 2017 Inspectioneering JournalBy Tyron Kimble at Sonomatic
Due to its high-cost, Level 3 FFS is typically carried out after Levels 1 or 2 and only in extreme cases. However, advancements in inspection technology and improved use of inspection data have made Level 3 analysis more practical and affordable, even in less critical cases.
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Importance of Amine System H2S and CO2 Recovery Efficiency to Avoid Fouling and Elevated Corrosion RatesSeptember/October 2017 Inspectioneering JournalBy Massimo Capra at Aggreko
Amine systems that scrub H2S from hydrogen-rich gas experience rapid fouling of the heat transfer equipment, especially in a hot summer. Learn how temporary cooling solutions can improve process conditions during critical periods of the year with no production interruption.
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Partner Content
Industrial Rope Access is a proven method of achieving a safe work position at elevated heights or areas that are difficult to access. When combined with advanced NDE technologies, rope access technicians can substantially reduce the cost of inspections and maintenance activities by virtually eliminating the need for fixed scaffolding.
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September/October 2017 Inspectioneering JournalBy Tata L.N. Murthy at Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Ltd
Ensuring the integrity of oil and gas assets is a challenge for oil and gas operators. This article discusses several “pillars” of asset integrity management on which successful O&G operations rely, including Material Selection, Process Safety, Inspection, and more.
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July/August 2017 Inspectioneering JournalBy Rick Eckert at DNV GL - North America Oil & Gas, and Dr. Kathy Buckingham at DNV GL
Failure analysis of piping that has experienced corrosion damage provides operators with valuable information needed to prevent future failures. Effective processes and procedures are essential when investigating the cause of corrosion on pipelines and piping systems.
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May/June 2017 Inspectioneering JournalBy Ryan Myers at PinnacleART, and Brian Marino at PinnacleART
Effective condition monitoring location selection is a key component of a best-in-class mechanical integrity program. Learn how moving beyond traditional qualitative approaches to optimized CML selection can reduce risk and maximize the value of each inspection.
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May/June 2017 Inspectioneering JournalBy David E. Moore at Becht Engineering, PONO Division
Read a firsthand account of how organizing Process, People, Plant, and Performance can reveal breakdowns in your corrosion management practices and drive down corrosion related leaks.
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January/February 2017 Inspectioneering JournalBy Abdelmounam Sherik at Saudi Aramco Research and Development Center, Mark Rosa, PE at Harvard Business School, and Abderrazak Traidia at Saudi Aramco Research and Development Center
This article summarizes a comprehensive survey conducted by the Research & Development Center (R&DC) of Saudi Aramco to understand top corrosion damage mechanisms experienced by its operating onshore surface facilities.
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January/February 2017 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
In this article, the roles and responsibilities of the corrosion and materials SME will be outlined as I see them, fully recognizing that there is probably no one person out there with all the knowledge and skills suggested herein.
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A New Risk Assessment Tool for Determining the Likelihood of Chloride Promoted Stress Corrosion Cracking in Austenitic Stainless SteelsJanuary/February 2017 Inspectioneering Journal
Historically, if asked when or how likely an austenitic series stainless steel component is to crack, corrosion engineers usually answered “very” or “maybe” or, later, “I didn’t see that coming.” With the introduction of API’s formal risk assessment methodology, that situation has changed over the past 20 years.
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November/December 2016 Inspectioneering JournalBy Adam Gardner at PinnacleART
Beyond the financial hits, undetected degradation from corrosion can also lead to critical safety risks. To effectively manage mechanical integrity, organizations need reliable methods of identifying the current states of corrosion occurring within their assets.
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November/December 2016 Inspectioneering JournalBy Loganatha Pandian at Meridium, Inc.
This article summarizes seven key questions that an organization needs to answer to create a robust mechanical integrity program that is properly designed to monitor corrosion and indicate when issues increase to a level requiring review or maintenance.
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November/December 2016 Inspectioneering JournalBy Marc McConnell, P.E. at Pro-Surve Technical Services, and Grady Hatton at Versa Integrity Group
The concept of reducing Condition Monitoring Locations (CMLs) is misguided, and the number and location of CMLs should be OPTIMIZED, not systematically reduced. CML allocation in piping requires a good process, otherwise, you can run into a lot of dead ends before arriving at your intended destination.
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BlogOctober 18, 2016 By Lynne Kaley at Trinity Bridge LLC / Trinity Bridge Digital
Seasoned and knowledgeable inspectors are becoming harder and harder to keep. But using some of the industry documents in a smart way, inspectors with less experience can perform like an inspector with many more years of experience and even develop a great materials specialty with practice.
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Online Article
It is a commonly held belief with oil & gas (O&G), oil sands, and pipeline projects that material test reports (MTRs) are always required for turnover to the owner-user, but that is untrue. In this article I will describe what MTRs are, how these are used during manufacturing, and when these are mandatory for turnover in the manufacturing record book (MRB) or vendor data book (VDB) to the owner-user for retention as a permanent record. I will give specific examples from relevant Acts, Codes, Regulations, and Standards to prove that MTR turnover to the owner-user is usually not required and provide examples to clearly demonstrate how this increases costs but does not add value. I will also describe why this is a much bigger problem than wasted paper and recommend best practices that are easily implemented. With this information, projects and owner-users can reduce costs and eliminate headaches, while still maintaining all of their quality and technical requirements.
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BlogSeptember 12, 2016 By Lynne Kaley at Trinity Bridge LLC / Trinity Bridge Digital
Experienced material specialists are in short supply and high demand these days. So if you are lucky enough to have one at your disposal, how can you squeeze the most out of that opportunity?
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May/June 2016 Inspectioneering JournalBy Douglas Marriott at Stress Engineering Services Inc., Shannon Read at Stress Engineering Services Inc., and Arun Sreeranganathan at Stress Engineering Services Inc.
Aging equipment, along with more aggressive service, makes it more important than ever to carry out fitness-for-service (FFS) assessments in support of run/repair/replace decisions. Testing material in the service-degraded condition enables quantification of the material condition and provides increased accuracy in FFS evaluations of these components.
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May/June 2016 Inspectioneering JournalBy Mohammed Siddiqui at Air Liquide
The main intention of this article is to introduce the Response Surface Methodology (RSM) using some of the elements of critical thinking as a guide. This methodology is not often used in the industry, but can be widely used by corrosion/process engineers to identify hot spots where local maximums of corrosion rates exist.
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Partner Content
InVista is a lightweight, hand-held ultrasonic in-line inspection tool (intelligent pig) capable of detecting pipeline wall loss and corrosion in unpiggable or difficult-to-inspect pipelines. The pipeline geometry inspection data captured by the InVista tool is exceptionally powerful when combined with the LifeQuest™ Pipeline fitness-for-service capabilities, providing an integrated solution set for the pipeline industry.
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May/June 2016 Inspectioneering JournalBy Gary Mulcahy at Astrodyne TDI
This is the second article of a two-part series published in Inspectioneering Journal, which is intended to provide a basis for understanding the differences between traditional tapped-transformer, fixed voltage type rectifiers, and High Frequency Switched Mode (HFSM) units, as well as highlight some opportunities for optimization provided by HFSM.
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March/April 2016 Inspectioneering JournalBy André Lamarre at Olympus Scientific Solutions Americas
This article highlights the evolution of corrosion monitoring from conventional ultrasonic to ultrasonic phased array manual and automated solutions and their use for both general purposes and complex applications.
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High Temperature Hydrogen Attack (HTHA): Life Assessment Methods for Carbon Steel and Carbon 0.50% Mo MaterialsNovember/December 2015 Inspectioneering JournalBy Ralph E. King P.E. at Stress Engineering Services Inc., and Brian Olson at Stress Engineering Services Inc.
To ensure the mechanical integrity and fitness-for-service (FFS) of equipment, facility managers, reliability engineers, and inspection technicians must understand the HTHA damage mechanism.
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November/December 2015 Inspectioneering JournalBy Rick Eckert at DNV GL - North America Oil & Gas
Understanding the common factors that promote corrosion threats in the oil and gas value chain helps operators create effective inspection strategies.
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November/December 2015 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Once upon a time in the land of Ooze, there were two processing plants that boiled oil to make fuels and various other valuable petrochemical products. On one side of the river, rests a site called Perfecto Process Plant, while just across the river lies another plant called InZayna Zylum.
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July/August 2015 Inspectioneering JournalBy Melissa Ramkissoon at Petrotrin
Aboveground 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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July/August 2015 Inspectioneering JournalBy Gary Mulcahy at Astrodyne TDI
This is the first article of a two-part series to be published in Inspectioneering Journal and will provide a basis for understanding the differences between traditional tapped-transformer, fixed voltage type rectifiers, and High Frequency Switched Mode (HFSM) units.
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BlogMay 26, 2015 By Nick Schmoyer at Inspectioneering
These are interesting times when it comes to inspection technology in the process industries. With the advent of big data, mobile and wireless technology, and various other technological advances, we thought it would be a good idea to provide a recap on some of the new technologies that have been covered in Inspectioneering Journal.
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BlogMarch 30, 2015 By John Reynolds at Intertek
The 2015 API Spring Refining and Equipment Standards Meeting will be held at the Seattle Sheraton during the week of April 13-16, with plenty of interesting meetings for Inspectioneers. You do not need...
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November/December 2014 Inspectioneering JournalBy Alphonse W. Hegger Jr., P.E. at Stress Engineering Services
Today, more than ever, refinery operators are focused on maintaining safe operations for their employees and extending the life cycle of valuable operating equipment to optimize efficiencies and avoid expensive unforeseen shutdowns. When process unit corrosion assessments, RBI methodologies, and IOWs are properly integrated into refining operations, the result is improved safety and longer run times.
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A New Method for Prioritizing Equipment in HTHA Service for Inspection & Replacement and the Challenges in Obtaining Process Conditions to be Used in the HTHA AssessmentNovember/December 2014 Inspectioneering JournalBy Gerrit M. Buchheim, P.E. at Becht Engineering Co., Inc.
This article provides 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 along with challenges they have encountered.
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November/December 2014 Inspectioneering JournalBy Kelsey Hevner at Quest Integrity Group
Steam reformers are critical assets for the successful operation of hydrogen, ammonia, and methanol plants. The steam reformer is also one of the most expensive assets in these facilities. Catalyst tubes inside the reformer are one of the most important and costly components.
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BlogDecember 8, 2014 By Nick Schmoyer at Inspectioneering
Corrosion Under Insulation (CUI) is an insidious damage mechanism that, despite being incredibly well-known and understood, still makes up an inordinately large percentage of global maintenance expenditures. CUI has been extensively researched and studied and because of that, there exist several good resources on it, and we at Inspectioneering are dedicated to bringing those resources to you.
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BlogNovember 10, 2014 By Nick Schmoyer at Inspectioneering
One of the more insidious problems within the industry is the issue of atomic hydrogen dissolving into steel equipment. This can happen to some steel components under certain circumstances and can cause weld failure, or what is known as “hydrogen cracking.” These cracks can occur during the welding process itself, but sometimes they can occur up to 48 hours later.
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Online Article
Jim Svetgoff, Corrosion Advisor at Devon Energy recently interviewed with American Business Conferences for the Crude Pipeline Asset Integrity Congress 2014.
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Abnormal Cracks Led to Premature Decommissioning of Boiler Feed Water Exchanger – What Happened and Why?
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BlogSeptember 15, 2014 By Nick Schmoyer at Inspectioneering
I've crunched some numbers and have come up with the three most popular damage mechanisms, based on the activity of our readers, that Inspectioneering publishes information on.
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July/August 2014 Inspectioneering JournalBy A.C. Gysbers at The Equity Engineering Group, Inc.
One of the more common inspection monitoring programs for pressure vessels is to perform thickness measurement at Corrosion Monitoring Locations (CMLs) to allow monitoring of minimum thicknesses and provide estimates for corrosion rates. These minimum thicknesses and corrosion rates are critical in supporting risk based inspection techniques or in setting half-life prescriptive re-inspection intervals.
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July/August 2014 Inspectioneering JournalBy Brian J. Fitzgerald at Stress Engineering Services
As any refining or petrochemical plant manager knows, corrosion can occur on insulated piping at any facility, and is particularly difficult to prevent, track, and mitigate. Corrosion under insulation (CUI) has been a major challenge for the petrochemical and refining industries since the first pipelines were insulated with wrappings.
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March/April 2014 Inspectioneering JournalBy Gerrit M. Buchheim, P.E. at Becht Engineering Co., Inc., Marc McConnell, P.E. at Pro-Surve Technical Services, and Josh Yoakam at Holly Refining and Marketing - Tulsa, LLC
High temperature sulfidation is probably the most well- known corrosion mechanism in the oil refining industry because it occurs in large sections of the refinery.
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January/February 2014 Inspectioneering JournalBy Mike Urzendowski at Valero Energy
The intent of these two articles is to share lessons learned from recent experiences setting up a comprehensive HTHA review process across multiple refineries, and to help other operators define and mitigate the HTHA risk to an acceptable level.
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January/February 2014 Inspectioneering JournalBy Marc McConnell, P.E. at Pro-Surve Technical Services, Josh Yoakam at Holly Refining and Marketing - Tulsa, LLC, and Frank Dean at Ion Science, Ltd.
This is the second of two articles published in Inspectioneering Journal discussing the value of hydrogen bake-outs. Our first article was published in the May/June 2013 issue and received a great response from the Inspectioneering community. In this piece, we will continue the discussion and touch on some new technologies used to enhance the bake-out process.
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January/February 2014 Inspectioneering JournalBy Antonio Seijas at Phillips 66 Company
Fired furnaces in the petrochemical and refining industry are critical pieces of equipment that can have a major impact on process unit safety, reliability, and economics. They are complex pieces of equipment, where tubes and other pressure boundary components might fail due to relatively short periods of upset conditions.
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January/February 2014 Inspectioneering JournalBy Bob Lasser at Imperium, Inc., and Daniel Oehl at Imperium, Inc.
Technicians inspecting oil & gas installations and petrochemical plants employ a wide variety of nondestructive testing (NDT) techniques. A new technology has recently been developed that utilizes a real-time portable imaging device which has distinct advantages in finding internal corrosion.
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BlogJanuary 20, 2014 By Jeremiah Wooten at Inspectioneering, LLC.
Last week we mentioned three important tips to consider when addressing high temperature hydrogen attack (HTHA). This week, we'd like to provide the reader with a few helpful resources that deal with the topic of HTHA.
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November/December 2013 Inspectioneering JournalBy Richard Mills at GE, John T. Iman at GE Oil and Gas Measurement & Controls-Inspection Technology, and Martin Sauerschnig at GE Oil and Gas Measurement and Control
Over recent years large strides have been made in application, development, and utilization of Digital Detector Arrays (DDAs) in field radiography environments (an application previously limited to film and computed radiography [CR] techniques).
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November/December 2013 Inspectioneering JournalBy Michael Turnquist at Quest Integrity Group
While there are many types of damage mechanisms that can occur in a piece of equipment, localized metal loss is one of the most common. If an inspection reveals that metal loss has occurred, many questions are raised...
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November/December 2013 Inspectioneering JournalBy Mike Urzendowski at Valero Energy
A recent High Temperature Hydrogen Attack (HTHA) failure atarefineryinthestateofWashingtonwasa“wakeupcall” to our industry. On April 2, 2010, the shell of a feed-effluent heat exchanger in the Naphtha Hydrotreating (NHT) unit at the Tesoro Anacortes WA refinery ruptured, ultimately resulting in seven fatalities.
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Small Bore Piping Inspection Programs: How a serious incident and investigation led to a best practiceNovember/December 2013 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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September/October 2013 Inspectioneering JournalBy Matthew Green at Neptune Research, Inc.
Composite repair systems can be a great option for owner/ operators to extend the life of their assets without disrupting operations.
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September/October 2013 Inspectioneering JournalBy A.C. Gysbers at The Equity Engineering Group, Inc.
This article is the fifth of a series of articles that will focus on one critical sub process within a PEIP that is key in managing the integrity of process piping; Thickness Monitoring Programs for Internal Corrosion.
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BlogJuly 29, 2013 By Greg Alvarado at Inspectioneering Journal
In the last issue of Inspectioneering Journal, Marc McConnell at PinnacleAIS submitted an article discussing hydrogen bake-outs. This article was extremely popular among our readers, both of the printed copy of the Journal and our online users.
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BlogJuly 22, 2013 By John Reynolds at Intertek
Without doubt management needs to ensure that the appropriate resources (human and budgetary) need to be provided for corrosion control and prevention. The C/M engineer/specialist or other responsible party needs to assure that management is advised annually at the appropriate time what resources will be needed for the next budget cycle.
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BlogJuly 15, 2013 By John Reynolds at Intertek
This week’s post takes up right where last week’s post left off in our discussion on Corrosion Management and Control (CM&C) Management Systems. Here are the last two Corrosion Management and Control Management Systems.
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BlogJuly 8, 2013 By John Reynolds at Intertek
This week’s post takes up right where last week’s post left off in our discussion on Corrosion Management and Control (CM&C) Management Systems. As I have said previously, this information is based off a series of articles I did on PEI&R MS, which you can reference here. Here are the next four...
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BlogJuly 1, 2013 By John Reynolds at Intertek
I will emphasize the systems, work processes and procedures for identifying and controlling the rate and types of deterioration in pressure equipment. These are not in any particular order, as they are meant to operate interdependently.
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July/August 2013 Inspectioneering JournalBy Oscar Quintero at M&M Engineering Associates
Remote metallography, in-place metallography, in-situ metallography, and field replication are all examples of typical trade names of this great tool used for assessing the condition of a metal component.
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BlogJune 24, 2013 By John Reynolds at Intertek
I have written several articles for Inspectioneering Journal to help create successful programs to achieve excellence in pressure equipment integrity and reliability (PEI&R). To reference my series of articles on PEI&R for background reference, click here. This information may be useful as I will refer to aspects of PEI&R throughout my posts.
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Partner Content
LOTIS utilizes laser profilometry to conduct internal steam reformer tube inspections. The data captured by LOTIS is exceptionally powerful when combined with our LifeQuest™ remaining life assessment capabilities, providing an integrated solution set for the process and syngas industries.
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May/June 2013 Inspectioneering JournalBy Marc McConnell, P.E. at Pro-Surve Technical Services
With 30 years of refinery experience, I have been through many turnarounds and been involved with a lot of repairs. When I started in the business, we would have inspectors that “owned” their specific pieces of equipment.
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March/April 2013 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Morgan at Thermo Fisher Scientific, and William Fotoples at Thermo Fisher Scientific
Sulfidic corrosion of piping and equipment within the refining industry continues to be a significant cause of leaks and issues that can lead to early replacements, unplanned outages, and incidents potentially resulting in loss of property and injury to workers.
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March/April 2013 Inspectioneering JournalBy Hearl E. Mead Jr. at Shell Oil Company
Over the past few years increased feedstock flexibility has become a growing reality for sustainability of the refining business, requiring processing of more difficult crudes, increased volumes of spot cargoes, and rapid response to crude acceptance requests. Equipment reliability and process safety threats have occurred in the industry from changes in crude supplies or varying crude blends and quality.
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March/April 2013 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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September/October 2012 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Perhaps the most important work process to achieve success in fixed equipment PEI&R is to create Corrosion Control Documents (CCD’s) for each process unit. In this article, I expand upon that work process in order to guide the interested owner-user in creating CCD’s for their process units.
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May/June 2012 Inspectioneering JournalBy Allan McIntyre at Cenovus Energy, Elias Soto at Cenovus Energy, Len Adler at Cenovus Energy, and Bruce Levan at Levan Engineering Ltd.
Electroless nickel (ENC) is a family of coatings based on nickel-phosphorous metallic compounds. ENC was developed in 1943 by Abner Brenner, an electrochemist at the U.S. Bureau of Standards. While working on the electroplating of nickel onto nickel-tungsten surfaces, Brenner added hypophosphite chemical to the plating solution as a way to control surface oxidation.
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March/April 2012 Inspectioneering JournalBy Cliff Knight, P.E. at KnightHawk Engineering, Inc.
What I am primarily concerned with, in this article, is erosion corrosion control. Now, what is erosion corrosion? Well, no matter how you might look at it, erosion corrosion involves the degradation of the material by some mechanical action, in conjunction with a chemical interaction between the material and the media it is in contact with.
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September/October 2011 Inspectioneering JournalBy Cliff Knight, P.E. at KnightHawk Engineering, Inc.
The morning meeting at the plant was a tough one for you. As an area engineer you are not satisfied with the information you are receiving from your team's investigation into a major compressor wreck that has happened once again. The conclusion from the team has always been corrosion fatigue, and suggestions have been made to change the material to a more exotic type...
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Partner Content
Offshore platforms are exposed to some of the roughest conditions on earth and require regular attention to ensure they are structurally sound and safe for continued operation. With so many components and major joints at elevated locations, it is clear why a well-trained rope access technician can be an invaluable resource for offshore operators.
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September/October 2011 Inspectioneering JournalBy Pieter VanderWerf at Building Works
Deterioration of concrete structures has plagued petrochemical production facilities. As a result of sulfur compound exposure, concrete corrodes and weakens continuously over time. The proper operation of the structure deteriorates with it until management undertakes repair or replacement of the affected sections. While the concrete degrades, productivity can be lost and product quality can suffer. The repairs undertaken can be costly. The production downtime during repairs can cost even more.
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MI Inspection During Capital Projects Promotes PSM Compliance, Corrosion Rate Accuracy and Improved BudgetingMay/June 2011 Inspectioneering JournalBy Paul F. Schubert, Ph.D. at SGS North America Industrial Services, and Travis Keener, P.E. at SGS North America Industrial Services
Putting off the initial inspection (i.e. baseline) of piping and vessels in a new process unit is both common and problematic. The tendency of owners is to rely on the nominal thickness because the actual original thickness was either not measured or not recorded for calculating corrosion rates after the first wave of thickness readings are taken with the equipment having been in service for some period of time.
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January/February 2011 Inspectioneering JournalBy Leo Vega at Stress Engineering Services, Inc.
Describes a non-destructive sampling procedure which records and preserves the topography of a metallographic specimen as a negative relief on a plastic film (replica).
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November/December 2010 Inspectioneering Journal
On April 6, 2010, a tragic accident occurred at the Tesoro Refinery in Anacortes, WA, in the Naphtha Hydrotreater process unit (NHT). During routine operations involving an on-line switching of unit heat exchanger feed trains, seven employees were killed immediately, or died later of thermal burn injuries sustained when a feed-effluent heat exchanger catastrophically failed due to high temperature hydrogen attack (HTHA), releasing a hot, pressurized flammable hydrocarbon/hydrogen mixture which ignited. Tesoro released its investigative results to the media on September 01, 2010.
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November/December 2010 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
High Temperature Hydrogen Attack (HTHA) is a long known and still occurring degradation issue for fixed equipment construction materials in the hydrocarbon process industry where hydroprocess plants (hydrogen plus hydrocarbons) are in service. Though HTHA failures in these units are the focus of this article, it is important to recognize that HTHA damage can also occur in high pressure boiler tubes, hydrogen producing units, synthetic gas units, ammonia plants and other equipment where hydrocarbons may not be involved but high temperatures are involved.
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Partner Content
It is difficult to cover all inspection applications with basic inspection procedures like radiography, ultrasonics, magnetic particle testing, and dye penetrant inspection. Owner-operators are finding that advanced NDE services such as guided-wave ultrasonics, AUT corrosion mapping, and eddy current testing are essential tools to keep their facilities operating safely and efficiently.
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July/August 2010 Inspectioneering JournalBy Santhosh Lukose at Metalcare Inspection Services Inc.
CUI (Corrosion Under Insulation) has always been a challenge for plant operators, quality assurance/reliability engineers and equipment owners. It is hard to identify the problem until it has become an emergency situation, often leading to unit shut downs or even the whole facility shut down for emergency repairs.
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The Role of Corrosion Control in Achieving Excellence in Pressure Equipment Integrity and ReliabilityMay/June 2010 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Clearly, corrosion prevention and control has a major role in achieving excellence in Pressure Equipment Integrity and Reliability (PEI&R). But there is a lot more to PEI&R than just corrosion control. This article will show how corrosion control has a central role in PEI&R, but will also show how the management system (MS) for corrosion control must be integrated with 9 other important management systems shown in figure 1 in order to achieve excellence in PEI&R.
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September/October 2009 Inspectioneering Journal
A U.S. refiner said it is examining pipes and systems at its U.S. facilities in the wake of a May 2009 fire at a 178,000-barrel-per-day refinery.
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July/August 2009 Inspectioneering JournalBy Willis Perry
In the current economic environment, there is increasing pressure on petrochemical refineries and delivery systems to be more productive and to minimize unscheduled shutdowns due to leakage. Leakage can occur from either the piping itself or the joints of the pipes. In a refinery there are several thousands of feet of piping and associated joints, as shown in the photograph presented in Figure 1. Petrochemical leaks don't only cost the companies money for the time and material to repair a leak, but also to remediate the areas affected and the institution of stricter controls. Because of this pressure, the involved companies are looking to replace the current monitoring scheme with a more effective and cost efficient risk based inspection (RBI) program.
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Partner Content
Our proprietary furnace tube inspection system, FTIS™, is an ultrasonic inspection technology capable of rapid, automated fired heater coil inspection in refinery fired heaters. The data captured by our furnace tube inspection system is exceptionally powerful when combined with our LifeQuest™ remaining life assessment capabilities, providing an integrated solution set for refinery fired heaters in the refining and chemical industries.
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July/August 2008 Inspectioneering JournalBy Greg Alvarado at Inspectioneering Journal
The following is an interview with Scot Haines, (Corrosion Engineering Advisor). The IJ wishes to thank Scot and the Hess Corporation for taking the time to share with the "IJ" community.
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November/December 2007 Inspectioneering Journal
Because of widespread interest in the proposed revision in progress to NACE International standard SP0169 (formerly RP0169), "Control of External Corrosion on Underground or Submerged Metallic Piping Systems," NACE is sponsoring an information-gathering session to explore opinions and technical data.
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May/June 2007 Inspectioneering Journal
The American Petroleum Institute (API) is issuing this publication's announcement to inform companies involved in the distribution, transportation, storage, and blending of denatured fuel ethanol of a potential for metal cracking and product leakage from carbon steel equipment in certain portions of the fuel ethanol distribution system. API, with assistance from the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), has published Technical Report 939-D, Second Edition, that describes cracking events and associated ethanol leaks, the results of related research and field studies, and preliminary guidelines for mitigation and prevention.
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January/February 2007 Inspectioneering Journal
NACE International has approved two highly anticipated standards dedicated to the control of internal pipeline corrosion.
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September/October 2006 Inspectioneering JournalBy F Egan at Zadco, D G Jones at PII Pipeline Solutions business of GE Oil & Gas, and J Healy at Macaw Engineering Ltd
Active corrosion in onshore and offshore pipelines is an increasing problem. Consequently, pipeline operators regularly use intelligent inspection pigs to detect and size corrosion. Inspection data can be combined with probability based “Fitness-For-Purpose” assessment methods, to determine the effect of corrosion on the immediate and future integrity of the pipeline.
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May/June 2006 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
As noted in the discussion on delayed cracking, when the steel contains hydrogen as a result of service exposure (or corrosion, or high temperature - high pressure hydrogen processing) then a hydrogen bake out may be needed to avoid cracking problems during or after welding.
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November/December 2005 Inspectioneering Journal
A few years ago, TWI investigated a corrosion failure in a 30 inch crude oil pipeline that regrettably led to an explosion and fire, and the death of several operating personnel. The pipeline was designed to ASME B31.4 and the investigation found that corrosion resulted from the break-down of the external coating. The exposed area of pipe was too large for the cathodic protection system. Pitting corrosion initiated at several locations that coalesced over a large area to cause failure by rupture. The lost production from this failure was 300,000 bbl/d. The corrosion in this pipeline was not detected before failure. However, if corrosion is found in service pressure equipment, there are safe guidelines available for inspection engineers to assess the fitness-for-service (FFS) of corrosion damage.
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September/October 2005 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Temper embrittlement is another form of metallurgical degradation resulting from exposure of susceptible low alloy steels to higher temperature ranges, usually in service, but can occur to some extent even during heat treatment. And, once again, if significant temper embrittlement has occurred, the equipment may be susceptible to catastrophic brittle fracture.
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September/October 2005 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Strain-aging problems are another form of metallurgical degradation and thankfully are not very common and becoming less so; but since strain-aging does still occasionally occur, it still makes the list of one of the “99 diseases of pressure equipment”.
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September/October 2005 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Another form of metallurgical degradation at higher temperatures is called sigma phase embrittlement. As the name implies, a metallurgical phase change occurs in some stainless steels when they are heated above about 1000F (540C).
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September/October 2005 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Metals will slowly deform under stress and higher temperatures by the mechanism known as creep. The amount of creep deformation that will be experienced is highly dependent upon the level of stress, level of temperature and material properties. It is vital that any component operating in the creep range have Integrity Operating Windows (IOW’s) established where upon operators are required to make adjustments if certain temperatures are reached.
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September/October 2005 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Spheroidization is a rather technical term that describes a metallurgical aging phenomena that results in loss of mechanical and creep strength. It occurs when carbon and low alloy steels are exposed to temperatures in the range of 850F - 1400F (440C - 760C) where carbide phases (the strengthening element of steels) become unstable and begin to agglomerate, which then results in the loss of strength.
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July/August 2005 Inspectioneering JournalBy Mark Bagnell at Equipment Management & Inspection
Aging phenolic resin reactors built in the 1960's were constructed of SA304 stainless steel, many of which were originally fabricated to ASME Section VIII standards were never registered as such nor with the National Board. Some of these reactors have been exhibiting stress corrosion cracking, (SCC) in the shell plate where external carbon steel structural components such as support legs and vacuum rings are attached. The problem is observed primarily at the interface of support legs where reinforcing pads or "poison" pads have not been installed. Of the vessels inspected to date approximately 50% have been identified as having SCC.
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May/June 2005 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Carbon dioxide (CO2) corrosion is most typically found in boiler condensate return systems that are not adequately treated with corrosion inhibitors (typically amines). Dissolved CO2 in condensate forms carbonic acid (H2CO3) which corrodes steels and low alloys to form a iron carbonate scale.
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May/June 2005 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Boiler feed water (BFW) corrosion is mostly the result of dissolved oxygen in the feedwater, but is also related to the quality of the BFW and the quality of the treatment system. If the treatment system is effective, then a layer of iron oxide (magnetite) will provide the protection needed to minimize boiler corrosion.
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May/June 2005 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Cooling water (CW) corrosion may be the oldest form of corrosion in the petrochemical industry, yet the industry still struggles with it for two primary reasons.
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May/June 2005 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
MIC is caused by biological growth, i.e. organic slime (typically bacteria, algae, and fungi) in water under low flow or stagnant conditions. The industry experiences it in cooling water systems, piping, vessels and storage tank bottoms where the conditions are ripe for it.
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May/June 2005 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Most all flue gases produced by the combustion of fuels contain contaminants that can condense into acid droplets. The amount of contaminants will determine the concentration of the acid droplets.
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January/February 2005 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
HTHA falls into multiple categories of corrosion mechanisms, including environmentally assisted cracking, hydrogen assisted cracking, and high temperature degradation. Sometimes HTHA is confused with low temperature hydrogen cracking mechanisms that result from hydrogen being driven into steels by aqueous corrosion reactions.
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January/February 2005 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Corrosion fatigue is closely related to mechanical and vibration fatigue cracking, except that it is initiated and accelerated by a corrosion mechanism, especially one that gives rise to pitting, from which cracks often initiate. But that corrosion mechanism need not be very severe in order to give rise to corrosion fatigue. Probably the best known case of corrosion fatigue, in a lightly corrosive environment, stems from deaerators in boiler systems.
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September/October 2004 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Corrosion from HCl is a significant problem in many refining and chemical process units, and often the materials solution to HCl corrosion is rather expensive, since the lower cost, more available alloys are usually not resistant to most concentrations of HCl.
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September/October 2004 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Corrosion in the refining industry from HFA is not as widespread a problem as it is with HCl because it is only associated with HF Alkylation Units, which are usually fairly carefully controlled in order to avoid potential for a toxic HFA cloud after a leak.
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September/October 2004 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Problems with naphthenic acid corrosion (NAC) are nearly as old as the refining industry. The first paper on the topic that I knew about was written by one of my early industry supervisors over 40 years ago.
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September/October 2004 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Unlike NAC where we’re still on a learning curve, the knowledge of corrosion by sulfuric acid has not changed much in the last quarter century, and there are many good references for it included in API RP 571.
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September/October 2004 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Corrosion from phosphoric acid is another “old knowledge” corrosion issue that effects only a few processes in the chemical and hydrocarbon process industry.
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July/August 2004 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
High temperature oxidation is not a real common type of failure in our industry, but it can and does happen when temperatures exceed design maximums. All metals oxidize, even at room temperature, and in many cases that slow oxidation process actually protects the metal from rapid oxidation.
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July/August 2004 Inspectioneering JournalBy Jonathan D. Dobis at The Equity Engineering Group, Inc., Dana G. Williams at Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC, and David L. Bryan, Jr. at Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC
The following is the final part of a 2 part series. Part 1 covered the following considerations that are critical in establishing effective reliability and inspection programs for these complex units: - HF Alkylation Process Description - An extensive explanation of how HF alky unit process conditions affect corrosion for the various sections of these types of units. The abstract, introduction, explanation of terms, references, figures and a typical unit PFD are reiterated in part 2 as reference materials.
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July/August 2004 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
High temperature sulfidation is probably the most common high temperature corrosion nemesis in the refining industry, since there are very few “sweet” refineries still in operation. Sulfidation corrosion typically is of concern in sour oil services starting at temperatures in the 500F (260C) range.
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July/August 2004 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Though oxidation and sulfidation are quite prevalent high temperature corrosion mechanisms in many of our process units, we now come to a few that are not very common, but still deserve some attention to make sure they don’t lead to unexpected failures.
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July/August 2004 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Decarburization is the antithesis of carburization and rarely results in equipment failure. However, surface decarburization is often a sign that something more serious is going on, ie high temperature hydrogen attack (HTHA), which is well covered in API RP 941, Steels for Hydrogen Service at Elevated Temperatures and Pressures in Petroleum Refineries and Petrochemical Plants.
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July/August 2004 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Metal dusting is simply a severe form or extension of carburization in which the extensive carbides that form as a result of carburization lead to grains of metal falling out of the tube or piping and being swept away by the process stream.
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May/June 2004 Inspectioneering JournalBy Jonathan D. Dobis at The Equity Engineering Group, Inc., Dana G. Williams at Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC, and David L. Bryan, Jr. at Marathon Ashland Petroleum LLC
Corrosion and fouling in HF Alkylation Units are closely linked to feed quality and operating conditions. This paper outlines the relationship between key operating parameters and corrosion that has been used to develop a set of guidelines to define an operating envelope. These guidelines have been used to benchmark operating units and to help maintenance and inspection groups understand how corrosion is directly affected by operating parameters. An example where this methodology has been used to troubleshoot operating problems is included. A web-based data collection system has been used as a tool to build a database of actual operating conditions found in the unit, and the corresponding problems or damage observed.
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May/June 2004 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Chloride cracking of austenitic stainless steels (300 series SS) is an off-shoot of CUI, and there’s nothing really magical about it. If you have insulated solid stainless steel equipment operating in the CUI temperature range you are likely to eventually experience External Chloride Stress Corrosion Cracking (ECSCC).
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May/June 2004 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
For purposes of this article, external (atmospheric) corrosion is what afflicts process equipment and structural members that are not insulated and exposed to moisture associated with atmospheric conditions, ie rain, condensation from humidity, marine spray, cooling tower mists, industrial pollutants, etc.
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May/June 2004 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Soil corrosion (underground corrosion) is another one of those extensively researched and documented types of corrosion, since so many pipes and pipelines are buried and nearly all storage tanks rest on the soil. An entire industry/ technology is associated with preventing soil corrosion (cathodic protection).
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May/June 2004 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
CUI may be the most well known and widespread corrosion phenomena in our industry. It’s also one of the most difficult to prevent because by and large no matter what precautions we take, water eventually gets into the insulation and begins to do it’s dirty work, sometimes sight unseen until process leakage occurs. And it’s not isolated to just insulation. Corrosion under fire-proofing (CUF) is also prevalent in our industry and requires the same type of inspection planning, design prevention, and mitigation that is required for CUI.
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January/February 2004 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Repair welds can be another undetected and insidious "fabrication defect" that eventually results in equipment failure. Any experienced metallurgist that has completed numerous failure analyses over the years will tell you that periodically they see failures that initiated at the site of a repair weld. Sometimes those repair welds are field repairs, but not infrequently they occurred during original fabrication and were unknown to the purchaser. Typically our standards and specifications do not cover repairs completed by the fabricator, so they believe they are free to do whatever they want to repair a manufacturing or fabrication defect, then grind it flush, finish the fabrication and ship the product.
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January/February 2004 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Speaking of stress raisers, they are another insidious type of flaw that can and do lead to equipment failures. Stress raisers (aka stress intensification sites) can be mechanical or metallurgical notches. Undercutting, physical weld flaws, mismatched thicknesses, and sharp geometric intersections can all become stress raisers. But so too can so-called "metallurgical notches" like one finds at the edge of a weld where the cast structure of the weld pool meets the wrought structure of the heat-affected zone. Equipment in many static services without significant cyclic stresses can tolerate the presence of some stress raisers because of hefty code design margins. But equipment in services with significant fatigue stresses (thermal and mechanical) are especially vulnerable to such notches and deserve special QA/QC attention during design, specification, fabrication, and repairs.
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January/February 2004 Inspectioneering Journal
When we specify that some equipment (vessels, flanges, fittings, etc.) be overlaid with a corrosion resistant alloy, we need to pay attention to making sure that the chemistry of the top layer of alloy welding, that will be exposed directly to the process fluid, is sufficient to resist degradation from the process environment. This may sound logical, but I’m aware of several cases where weld overlaid surfaces are ground or machined to meet specification tolerances, and in so doing the most resistant part of the alloy overlay is removed.
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January/February 2004 Inspectioneering Journal
When we specify that some equipment (vessels, flanges, fittings, etc.) be overlaid with a corrosion resistant alloy, we need to pay attention to making sure that the chemistry of the top layer of alloy welding, that will be exposed directly to the process fluid, is sufficient to resist degradation from the process environment. This may sound logical, but I’m aware of several cases where weld overlaid surfaces are ground or machined to meet specification tolerances, and in so doing the most resistant part of the alloy overlay is removed.
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January/February 2004 Inspectioneering Journal
DMW cracking is another fabrication issue that can and does result in equipment failure. It usually occurs at the weld juncture where carbon steel or low alloy steels are welded to austenitic (300 series) stainless steels in high temperature applications. The large difference in coefficient of expansion of the two steels, sometimes exacerbated by thermal cycling, results in cracking at the toe (HAZ) of the weld joining the two materials. Using an austenitic stainless filler material for the DMW junction also increases the stress intensification on the toe of the weld on the ferritic side of the weldment. This type of cracking is most common when temperatures above 800F (425C) are involved, such as in FCCU reactor/regenerations systems, superheaters, reheaters, fired heaters, and hydroprocess equipment. Use of bolted joints, if possible, or nickel base filler materials helps to avoid the DMW cracking problem.
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November/December 2003 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Liquid Metal Cracking (LMC) (aka "liquid metal embrittlement") is another insidious form of cracking that strikes when you least expect it. It most commonly afflicts austenitic stainless steels, but can afflict other copper, nickel and aluminum alloys. LMC occurs when molten metals come in contact with susceptible materials. One of the more common such occurrences is during a fire when molten zinc from galvanized steel parts or inorganic zinc coatings drips down on SS equipment.
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November/December 2003 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Carbonate cracking (CC) of carbon steel has seen an increase recently in frequency and severity in some refinery cat crackers, especially in fractionator and gas processing overheads. Some gas scrubbing units are also susceptible. CC is a form of alkaline stress corrosion cracking that often occurs more aggressively at higher pH and higher concentrations of carbonate solutions.
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November/December 2003 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Chloride stress corrosion cracking (SCC) is about as well known as any SCC mechanism can be, so I won't dwell much on it here, but want to mention it for the sake of completeness and hopefully mention something that is not as commonly known about it. Chloride SCC is clearly the bane of austenitic stainless steels and one of the main reasons they are not the "miraclecure" for many corrosion problems.
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July/August 2003 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Cavitation is the sudden formation and immediate collapse of vapor or air bubbles in a liquid stream when system pressure falls below the vapor pressure of the liquid. The sudden collapse of these tiny bubbles generates enormous, though tiny forces that mechanically damage (erode) metal (often on pump impellers or just downstream of let down valves).
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July/August 2003 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Few of us have not experienced or heard about vibration fatigue (cracking) failures, especially around pumps and compressors. Typically small branch connections, equalizer lines, vents and drains are susceptible, especially if they are screwed connections. Such failures have often led to safety and reliability events because of the sudden release of flammable hydrocarbons.
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July/August 2003 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Graphitization is not something that operators can do much about, and thankfully it is not very common. We as engineers and inspectors have to know about this one and prevent it or detect it. It occurs when the microstructure of some carbon and low alloy steels breaks down after long exposure to elevated temperatures, like in FCCU's.
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July/August 2003 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
This is the name given to a form of embrittlement that occurs in 400 series of stainless steels, duplex SS's and less commonly in some 300 series stainless steels containing a metallurgical phase called ferrite. The embrittlement occurs from 600 F to 1000 F, but most readily at a temperature of 885 F, hence the name.
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March/April 2003 Inspectioneering JournalBy Dr. Nand K. Gupta at Omega International Technology, Inc.
During the past two years, a new High Resolution Gamma Ray Detector Array System to detect and measure small corrosion pits in real-time in the inservice piping in process industries, has been in development. This High Resolution Gamma Ray Detector Array can be substituted in place of the standard detector array in our ThruVU (TVU) system. The first High Resolution detector array has a total width of 1.00" and consists of 76 channels with 0.013" detector pitch. On the other hand, the detector pitch is 0.130" in the standard TVU detector array. So, the new High Resolution detector array can potentially provide a 10x better spatial resolution compared to the TVU standard detector array.
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July/August 2003 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
This failure mechanism is unfortunately all too common in our industry. It's also known as stress rupture, and it is usually entirely preventable by proper maintenance and operating procedures. It occurs when equipment, piping or furnace tubes that are designed to operate safely and reliably in one temperature range are suddenly (and sometimes not so suddenly) exposed to higher temperatures.
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January/February 2003 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
Now you say, he's got to be putting me on. What is green rot? I didn't invent it. I first read about it in one of the early texts on corrosion engineering by Ughlig or Fontana, the venerable corrosion professors at MIT & Ohio State. But when I experienced it, it became very real, even though I've only seen it once in my 35-year career.
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January/February 2003 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
I already mentioned this common affliction in the introduction. Caustic cracking was long called caustic embrittlement, but since no embrittlement actually occurs that name is fading away.
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September/October 2002 Inspectioneering JournalBy Greg Alvarado at Inspectioneering Journal
John has primary responsibility for NDE consulting and troubleshooting for BP around the world in the refining, chemical and gas processing industries. We at the IJ thought it might be valuable to spend some time chatting about his background, challenges he has faced recently and what he feels are some of the biggest challenges ahead for the Inspectioneering community.
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July/August 2002 Inspectioneering JournalBy Philip Myers at Chevron Texaco
One of the most important steps involved with regard to tank inspection, using API Standard 653, is establishing the internal inspection interval. API 653 says, "Section 6.4.1.1 Internal inspection is primarily required to: a. Ensure that the bottom is not severely corroded and leaking. b. Gather the data necessary for the minimum bottom and shell thickness 1 assessments detailed in Section 6. As applicable, these data shall also take into account external ultrasonic measurements made during in-service inspections (see 6.3.3).........."
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101 Essential Elements in a Pressure Equipment Integrity Management Program for the Hydrocarbon Process IndustryMay/June 2000 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
This is the first of a series of articles that outlines the 101 essential elements that need to be in place, and functioning well, to preserve and protect the reliability and integrity of pressure equipment (vessels, exchangers, furnaces, boilers, piping, tanks, relief systems) in the refining and petrochemical industry.
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September/October 1999 Inspectioneering JournalBy Reggie Cross at ND Tech
This paper describes use of a UT fixture for detection of stress corrosion cracking in ferrous heat exchanger tube-to-tubesheet welds and external tube corrosion or pitting near the tubesheets including crevice OD corrosion of the tube in the tubesheets.
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January/February 1999 Inspectioneering JournalBy Joseph E. Pascente at Lixi, Inc.
One of the greatest challenges facing many of refining, fossil power, and pulp and paper industries is: How to effectively examine their insulated piping?
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May/June 1998 Inspectioneering JournalBy Mike Badeen at Phillips 66 Co.
New inspection technology, when added to the proven practice of using tell tale holes (TTHs), proves effective in reducing significant releases and or catastrophic events that are related to internal corrosion / erosion of process piping. In fact, one facility's experience indicates that this practice, when used in conjunction with current and newly advanced technology such as automated ultrasonic (AUT) and profile radiograph (PRT), is more effective than using only new technology.
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September/October 1997 Inspectioneering JournalBy John Reynolds at Intertek
This is the fourth in a series of articles on piping inspection that I'm writing for the Journal. One of the previous ones dealt with improving thickness data taking accuracy with digital ultrasonic methods. This article is a "sister article" that deals with improving the accuracy of profile radiographic inspection techniques, also called isotope radiography, wall shots, or tangential radiographic inspection.
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January/February 1997 Inspectioneering Journal
If you perform any type of inspection, plan or prioritize inspection, replacement or design of equipment in HF service you may be interested in the following NACE international resource, NACE Technical Committee report 5A171, "Materials for Receiving, Handling, and Storing Hydrofluoric Acid."
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November/December 1996 Inspectioneering JournalBy Michael Twomey at CONAM Inspection Inc.
Corrosion under insulation (CUI) is a real threat to the onstream reliability of many of today's plants. This type of corrosion can cause failures in areas that are not normally of a primary concern to an inspection program. The failures are often the result of localized corrosion and not general wasting over a large area. These failures can be catastrophic in nature, or at least, have an adverse economic effect in terms of downtime and repairs.
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September/October 1996 Inspectioneering Journal
This article is a practical review of Nondestructive Examination (NDE) methods that can be used to find Erosion/Corrosion (E/C) and/or Corrosion wear in fossil fuel power piping systems. The article is based on experience with PG&E's E/C detection program for fossil fuel power plants.
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July/August 1996 Inspectioneering JournalBy Hegeon Kwun at Southwest Research Institute, and Richard L. Lopushanksy at Southwest Research Institute
Engineers and scientists at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio, Texas, may have found a cost-effective and practical method of detecting ID and OD corrosion of insulated piping systems.
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November/December 1995 Inspectioneering JournalBy Greg Alvarado at Inspectioneering Journal, and Dr. W. David Wang at Shell Oil Products Company
Nelson Curve changes in the late 1980's provided cause for Shell Oil Company to look at more reliable NDE non-destructive evaluation methods for assessment of materials/equipment in high temperature hydrogen service. The primary change motivating Shell was the lowering of the C-0.5 Mo steel Nelson Curve to the carbon steel level.
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September/October 1995 Inspectioneering JournalBy Dr. Nand K. Gupta at Omega International Technology, Inc.
In May 1995, Omega International Technology, Inc., began testing a new system to measure pipe wall thicknesses using digital radiography (RT) scanning. This new system has the potential for being faster, less labor intensive, and shown improved accuracy over traditional ultrasound testing, and at a lower cost. Perhaps best of all, scanning can be performed while the pipe is in service, insulation in place.
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September/October 1995 Inspectioneering JournalBy Greg Alvarado at Inspectioneering Journal
If it's glass-lined, chances are the environment is very corrosive to most metallics. In general, once the glass lining is breached, through-wall corrosion doesn't take very long. An effective maintenance, operation and inspection program will go a long way in minimizing this possibility.
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September/October 1995 Inspectioneering JournalBy Susan W. Borenstein at Structural Integrity Associates, Inc., and George J. Licina at Structural Integrity Associates, Inc.
Low-energy piping system failures in power-generating facilities are often the result of fouling and corrosion. These degradation mechanisms can affect the capacity of piping for fluid-carrying, the heat transfer rates of heat exchangers, and the structural integrity of piping systems. Steels are not immune to pitting, underdeposit corrosion, and microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC). Once advanced inspection technique, using an enhanced ultrasonic inspection system coupled with special imaging software, has demonstrated the capability to accurately image and size closed tunneling pits that often form in austenitic stainless steel weldments due to MIC.
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July/August 1995 Inspectioneering Journal
Eight years ago PG&E began a program for its fossil plants for early detection, repair and prevention of Erosion/Corrosion (E/C) failure mechanisms. Since its inception, hundreds of worn piping components have been detected and repaired before failure. E/C failures have become very rare. A number of recurring patterns have become evident allowing a certain degree of location predictability using practical methods.
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May/June 1995 Inspectioneering JournalBy Greg Kobrin
Corrosion is one of those "equal opportunity" hazards that affects all industries indiscriminately, to the tune of billions of dollars annually in repair and replacement costs. Some types of corrosion are readily apparent, such as rusting of unprotected plain carbon steel tanks and piping.
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NewsUS Chemical Safety Board, November 11, 2014
In its final Regulatory Report entitled "Regulatory Report: Chevron Richmond Refinery Pipe Rupture and Fire,” the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) proposes recommendations for substantial changes to the way refineries are regulated in California. The CSB calls on California to enhance its process safety management (PSM) regulations for petroleum refineries to ensure a more robust and adaptive regulatory regime.
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NewsUS Chemical Safety Board, April 10, 2014
A massive explosion and fire at the Silver Eagle Refinery on November 4, 2009, in Woods Cross, Utah, which damaged homes in a nearby neighborhood, was caused by a rupture in a pipe that had become dangerously thin from corrosion, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) reported today.
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NewsUS Chemical Safety Board, January 30, 2014
The April 2010 fatal explosion and fire at the Tesoro refinery in Anacortes, Washington was caused by damage to the heat exchanger, a mechanism known as “high temperature hydrogen attack” or HTHA.
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Press ReleaseAmerican Petroleum Institute, January 15, 2014
Pipelines are extremely safe and efficient for transporting energy across the United States, the industry’s continual efforts to improve the safety of the nation’s network of crude and petroleum product pipelines have reduced pipeline incidents by 62 percent from 2001-2012, according to a new report by API and the Association of Oil Pipe Lines.
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Press ReleaseNACE International, December 16, 2013
Bringing its courses to members and customers in the Middle East and surrounding regions, NACE International today announced it will open a new training facility in Dubai, UAE. The new training center will feature two classrooms offering NACE International’s most popular courses and the NACE Institute’s most in-demand certifications.
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Press ReleaseNACE International, December 9, 2013
NACE International announces the commencement of its new global study on costs related to corrosion, an initiative to determine the financial and societal impact of corrosion on industry sectors including infrastructure, manufacturing, utilities, transportation, and government.
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Partner Content
LOTIS utilizes laser profilometry to conduct internal steam reformer tube inspections. The data captured by LOTIS is exceptionally powerful when combined with our LifeQuest™ remaining life assessment capabilities, providing an integrated solution set for the process and syngas industries.
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NewsUnited States Chemical Safety Board, November 14, 2013
An explosion which occurred December 7, 2009, at the NDK Crystal manufacturing company in Belvidere, Illinois, fatally injuring a truck driver at a nearby gas station on the Illinois Tollway, resulted from corrosion in the walls of a pressure vessel, which went uninspected for years.
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NewsFebruary 22, 2013
Chevron U.S.A. Inc. has reviewed Anamet, Inc.’s technical evaluation of the piping samples taken from the Chevron U.S.A. Richmond Refinery following the August 6, 2012 incident.
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