Anurag Dhutti

By Anurag Dhutti and Tat-Hean Gan

This chapter presents technological innovations that support asset integrity management—a crucial activity for optimising plant efficiency. In ageing thermal and geothermal power plants, critical assets such as steam piping are subject to high pressures and temperatures that accelerate damage mechanisms. Traditionally, the critical locations of these assets undergo routine inspection which is both costly and time consuming and affects the plant reliability and energy availability. There is an increasing trend in the application of non-destructive testing (NDT) and information technologies to in-service monitoring of these assets. The aim of this chapter is to provide a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art monitoring technologies for steamlines, with a focus on high temperature ultrasonic guided wave techniques. The enabling technologies, which include high temperature sensors, diagnostic data analysis algorithms and their monitoring performances, are reviewed. These technological advancements enable inspection without interruption of plant operations, and provide diagnosis and prognosis data for condition-based maintenance, increasing plant safety and its operational efficiency.

Part of the book: Power Plants in the Industry

By Anurag Dhutti, Shehan Lowe and Tat-Hean Gan

This chapter presents advancements in structural health monitoring (SHM) using ultrasonic guided waves (UGW) technology for metallic structures to support their integrity and maintenance management. The focus is on pipelines and storage tanks, which are critical assets in the Oil and Gas industry, whose operational conditions can greatly accelerate damage mechanisms. Conventional routine inspections are both costly and time consuming and affect the plant reliability and availability. These operational and economic disadvantages have led to development of SHM systems which can be permanently installed on these critical structures to provide information about developing damage and optimise maintenance planning and ensure structural integrity. These technology advancements enable inspection without interruption to operations, and generate diagnosis and prognosis data for condition-based maintenance, hence increasing safety and operational efficiency. The fundamentals, architecture and development of such SHM systems for pipes and above ground storage tanks are described here.

Part of the book: Advances in Structural Health Monitoring