Innovative Techniques in Non-Destructive Testing and Industrial Applications on Pressure Equipment

The average age of pressure vessels in service worldwide is increasing from year to year. A major concern of industrial operators is to ensure the security of their facilities and people, while extending the life of their fleet of pressure vessels. In this context, it is necessary to control the health of this type of structure, and also be able to assess the residual life of a device. Through a real case, the study presented in this article shows all the stages of implementation of a process that allowed initially to make an accurate diagnosis of the condition of a sphere of storage and to evaluate its lifetime, then in a second time, to ensure the operations back into compliance to ensure a reactivation of this structure. This process is fully insured by the CETIM, involved the following:
• A hydraulic test with acoustic emission monitoring,
• Testing additional relevant Non Destructive testing (NDT) (TOFD, Ultrasonic, Magnetic ...)
• Checks by the method of metallographic replicas and/or levies,
• A study of life, estimated by calculations based on NDT and metallurgical studies,
• Writing a procedure recommendations repair by welding of critical defects,
• The supervision during repairs and the testing after repairs.This approach is developed by Cetim based on Innovative Non destructive testing.