Acoustic Emission Testing of Pressure Vessels for Petroleum Refineries and Chemical Plants
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Published:1972
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Acoustic emission testing (AET) is being used by fracture mechanics and nondestructive test engineers to establish the design adequacy, structural integrity, and operating safety of petroleum and petrochemical equipment. Used as a tool in the application of fracture mechanics concepts, AET of heavy wall pressure vessels during hydrostatic testing also provides the means of assuring against catastrophic brittle fracture by locating growing defects. The state-of-the-art in developing effective electronic instrumentation and flaw site triangulation methods has reached the point where AET should be considered competitive with other, more commonly specified test methods.
For onstream surveillance, AET has the potential for the detection of service induced flaws and for detecting potentially detrimental changes in material properties. The amplitude and frequency content of environmental noise can however, limit applications of this type. Although techniques are available for minimizing the reception of unwanted electrical and mechanical sources of noise, additional effort is needed in this area to facilitate widespread inservice use.
Other areas requiring further research and development effort and the development of standards, include flaw signature analysis, signature analysis characteristics for various materials, simplified instrumentation, acoustic parameter selection, the effect on signals of environmentally induced materials property changes, and data display.