ACOUSTIC EMISSION TESTING FOR CORROSION MONITORING AND DEFERRAL OF STORAGE TANK TURNAROUNDS

摘要

Storage tank turnarounds have both financial implications and impact supply chains. Owner-operators have deployed different on-stream corrosion monitoring and inspection techniques to assess storage tank conditions and explore opportunities for reducing downtime and postponing internal inspections. One of those opportunities is Acoustic Emission Testing (AET), which has been widely used to assess the extent of tank bottom corrosion and qualify storage tank turnaround deferrals. This article reviews the effectiveness of AET for inspecting tank bottoms in two ways; namely, benchmarking regulations in different countries and comparing AET and Magnetic Flux Leakage Testing (MFLT) results through a case study The article also proposes a set of alternatives to using AET for tank bottom inspection and the deferral of internal inspection.