CORE SERVICE OFFERINGS
High-Temperature Inspection
TCR Arabia’s online Inspections enable reduced plant downtime and increased cost savings for plant owners. The R & D Department of TCR Arabia constantly endeavors to introduce new techniques to meet the needs of its customers and has introduced several online inspection techniques that can be carried out at high temperatures up to 350 degrees. TCR's skilled professionals have successfully executed major projects online in KSA, Bahrain and other countries.
The primary applications of High-Temperature PAUT (HT), ToFD (HT) and Corrosion Mapping are in-service Piping, Vessels and Tanks. High-temperature PAUT (HT), ToFD (HT) and ultrasonic inspection systems can also be used to locate wall thinning, determine corrosion rates and monitor defect growth rates for engineering evaluations. Determining corrosion rates and defect growth rates while equipment is on-stream can assist Engineers and Operational personnel to schedule T&I’s and equipment repairs and replacement, therefore lowering the overall risk to the facility.
High-Temperature ToFD and PAUT Ultrasonic inspection is a non-destructive testing method to inspect Plant Equipment/piping welds and parent metal while in-service for corrosion and In-service defects. The technology offers considerable benefits including:
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Reduced downtime of the plant, by improved maintenance planning
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Reduced shutdown time by improved RBI input ➢ Reduced production losses as inspection of an industrial plant can be carried out online
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Determine corrosion rates and monitor defect growth rates for FFS -engineering evaluations
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Monitoring of cracking growth and corrosion spots during production
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Inspection of on-line repaired areas, in accordance with ASME code case
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Wall thickness mapping of the area, before making hot taps
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Accurate corrosion monitoring and defect detection up to 350 deg C, on critical positions
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Significantly reduced risk on weld repairs during the construction phase of heavy wall vessels or “golden” welds
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Provides immediate feedback
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Digitised inspection records for future reference and verification
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Highest consideration of your health, safety and environment (HSE) rules
High-Temperature ToFD
A field-proven advanced ultrasonic inspection technique for accurate sizing of defects. Relies on the time of flight, rather than the amplitude of the ultrasound signal to size the defect and is therefore not as sensitive to defect orientation.
Benefits:
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Computerized imaging and recording of inspection results
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Ability to scan, record, export results to a database and compare past reports
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Sizing is not sensitive to defect orientation
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Facilitates characterizing lack of fusion defects or other planar flaws (cracks)
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Typically very fast once all of the probes have been positioned and setup
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In many cases, an entire weld can be inspected with a single pass of the rail
High-Temperature PAUT
With the capability to inspect surfaces up to 350 Deg. C, TCR is able to save plant downtime. PAUT inspection technique allows the user to employ a range of angles at the same time using sectorial scan. PAUT inspection technique can cover complete weld volume using a range of angles. SABIC, Saudi Aramco and other major clients have been benefited with the High Temperature PAUT technique.
Benefits:
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3 mm to 300 mm thickness equipment/piping can be inspected
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Heat resistant material engineered to handle temperatures from 10°C up to 350°C
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3/4” and above diameter pipelines can be inspected
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Detection, Sizing and monitoring of corrosion, weld defects, HTHA, HIC-SWC damage, and stress corrosion cracks
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Inspection of welds accessible from one side only
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Accurate locating and sizing of damages/Weld defects
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High POD (Probability of detection)
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Recordable encoded Data/image of a weld Inspection of dissimilar welds joints (CS/SS)
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Inspection of Inconel material
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Vastly increased inspection angle range and sizing accuracy
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Improved water jacket design, compatible with corrosion mapping and weld inspection wedges that achieves increased cooling capacity of probe mounting face
High-Temperature Corrosion Mapping
Our automated corrosion mapping inspection is based on the straight beam pulse-echo technique using dual element transducers.
Custom made high-temperature probes and wedges are built from plastics resistant to high-temperature degradation, and equipped with a cooling jacket around the array or cooling irrigation holes for air and water flow.
Benefits:
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5 mm to 125 mm thickness equipment/piping can be inspected
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Heat resistant material engineered to handle temperatures from 10°C up to 350°C
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6” and above diameter pipelines can be inspected
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Detection, Sizing and monitoring of corrosion, erosion, HIC-SWC damage
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Precise sizing of damages within 0.1 mm accuracy
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High POD (Probability of detection)
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Recordable image of corrosion mapping
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Vastly increased inspection angle range and sizing accuracy
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Improved water jacket design, compatible with corrosion mapping and weld inspection wedges that achieves increased cooling capacity of probe mounting face
HTHA relies on detecting the scattering of ultrasound energy
High-temperature hydrogen attack (HTHA) is a phenomenon of metal degradation that is well known in the petrochemical and refinery industry. High-temperature hydrogen attack (HTHA) is observed in steel that is exposed to a temperature of 200 °C or more. At such a high temperature, atomic hydrogen diffuses in steel. This hydrogen reacts with carbon present in the steel and forms CH4. The methane that is formed bubbles and forms voids at the grain boundary.
MC + 4H = M + CH4
These bubbles exert pressure and also coalesce resulting into fissures. The growth of voids and fissures weakens the metal, leading to a major crack. This reaction decarburizes the steel, produces micro cracks/fissures and lowers toughness of steel but not necessarily cause a loss in thickness.
Equipment susceptible to HTHA damage:
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High-Temperature Hydrogen attack has a number of typical units where Temp. is greater than 400 F (200C) and a hydrogen partial pressure among other factors
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Catalytic Reformers (CCR & Cyclic)
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Hydrotreating Units (Hydrogen Desulfurization and Hydrocracking)
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Isomerization Units (Butamer…..other Names)
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Ammonia plant
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Hydrogen Reformers
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Highly stressed locations of above equipment's/Units are most suspect, flanges, reducers, elbows, other pipe fittings in piping and long seam, Nozzle to head junctions, reducers of equipment.
Advantages
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Helps is assessing the damage that has occurred over time on the long-term exposure of steels in hydrogen service
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Supports in the Inspection of Large and Wide Areas
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Provides Accessibility with Convenience as Only One Side External Access is Required (Opening of Equipment or Removal of Catalyst is not Required)
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Depth Of Attack Can Be Estimated
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Equipment designed to be safe as per engineering codes has experienced such damages as well
Detection of hydrogen attack is important to assure safe operation of pressure vessels and piping susceptible to such damages
Limitations
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Deep Expertise Required In Interpretation
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Very Initial Micro Level Degradation (Decarburization) Cannot be Estimated
HTHA can lead to failure of equipment and major accidents:
TCR Arabia has teams that have trained in the USA to deliver high-quality HTHA service to its customers. TCR Arabia is an approved contractor for executing this core technique with all major companies in KSA. The technique detects the presence of fissures on the internal side of the low-alloy steel metal surface exposed to hydrogen at high temperature by scanning from the outside surface.
The procedure for testing is based on API 941 using different approaches like:
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Attenuation Measurement
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Velocity Measurement
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Spectral Analysis
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Analyzing Scattered Signals
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Testing Weld Joints and HAZ Using High-Frequency Shear Wave Ultrasound
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Advanced Ultrasonic Testing Like Phased Array and TOFD
The extent of damage by HTHA can be assessed using the above techniques as well as other internal techniques such as WFMPI (Wet fluorescent magnetic particle inspection), in-situ metallography and hardness testing. Testing from both sides overcomes the limitations encountered while testing only from outside.