In-service inspection of mounded LPG bullets for un-interrupted operations, presents a major operational and maintenance challenge to plant operators. These buried LPG bullets can be >50-meters in length and several meters in diameter!

There are many challenges to in-service & non-invasive integrity evaluation of insulated pipelines. These include insulation liftoff, pipe material, wire mesh, pipeline attachments etc. which significantly affect efficacy & accuracy of online CUI evaluation. Furthermore, critical defects like cracks, through wall holes & localized pitting, remain undetected.

Bottom Shell course of a storage tank are welded to annular plate, both from inside and outside of tank. Detecting  cracks in these critical inner & outside continuous fillet welds (also called Zero Weld), is a very challenging task, especially when the tank is still in operation.

Insulated above ground storage tanks present a difficult blind scenario for bottom plate and insulated shell courses integrity evaluation. Off service internal & external inspections are expensive, tedious, of prolonged duration and affect plant operations & product logistics significantly. Acoustic emission technology allows for quick, clean & efficient in-service inspection of such insulated assets for detection of existing and growing defects like corrosion, leakage and crack.

Integrity of breathing air tubes & cylinders is critical for safety of divers of DSV, Diving Bells and evacuees of Hyperbaric Lifeboats.  Acceptance of acoustic emission technology by class societies, opens door for quick, clean & efficient on-board inspection of pressurised Kelly Tubes and cylinders for corrosion and cracking.

Another milestone achieved by Arise team for an aviation client!    Arise team successfully carried out asset integrity assessment of a 16” buried pipeline, employing advanced Acoustic Emission inspection technique. This required NO excavations and was completed within a day! Site operations remained unaffected during inspection activities.

Fuel distribution terminals are generally located away from consumption centres. Major coastal fuel terminals are normally located next to fuel unloading jetty. Location of such remotely located storage tanks presents uncommon, unique and even unexpected challenges for acoustic emission inspection of storage tanks. As acoustic emission sensors are sensitive to external interferences, area around tank during data collection should be kept as quiet as practically possible.
 
However, even if all such precautions are taken, there may still be incidental sources of external disturbances, e.g., random vehicular or marine vessel movement, intense winds, flying aeroplanes etc. At times, very uncommon disturbances may arise from movement of birds, lizards, frogs etc. on tank roof, shell, annular plates, connected pipelines etc., which complicates filtering of such sporadic and unexpected interference signals from overall tank inspection data to mitigate possibility of any false calls.

High temperature refractory lined column shells are susceptible to corrosion and Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC) due to degradation of refractory material over time. The development of cracks in refractory allows high temperature column contents to come in contact with internal shell surface. Depending on extent and frequency of thermal cycling as well as operating high pressure, these exposed shell surfaces may also be prone to SCC.
 
In-service evaluation of such internal shell surface defects from high temperature external shell surface involves major personnel safety, cost and time implications. Such inspections must be done regularly, covering extended inspection areas once progressive refractory degradation of the column has been identified.