Applications of Guided Wave Techniques in the Petrochemical Industry

Abstract

Guided wave techniques have gained growing attention in the petrochemical industry because of their two primary advantages: ability to examine areas that cannot be reached by other NDE techniques and ability to cover large surface areas cost-effectively. For the former, guided wave techniques are required to perform both defect detection and defect sizing. An example of such applications is use of a Lamb wave technique to detect and quantify piping wall loss due to localized corrosion at pipe supports in lieu of pipe lifting and conventional inspections [1,2]. For the latter, guided wave techniques are primarily needed for their detection capability to perform global and/or on-steam inspections. Examples include a Lamb wave technique for rapid inspections of pipes, heater tubes, and thin-walled vessels for localized corrosion, and cylindrically guided wave techniques for long range piping inspection [3,4]. In addition to these current techniques/applications, new guided wave techniques are being developed to inspect heat- exchanger tubing [5], buried piping at road crossings or underneath dikes [6,7], and offshore risers under coating/concrete protection [7]. These current applications are reviewed and potential applications are discussed in this paper. Particular attention is given to the piping support inspection as an example to show how guided wave techniques can be used to quantify corrosion wall loss.