MISTRAS offers non-destructive testing (NDT) monitoring solutions for corrosion and cracking in piping and pipelines in the oil & gas, power generation, and manufacturing industries.
Using industry-proven non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques, MISTRAS’ monitoring helps identify piping & pipeline damages before they cause more serious damage to other assets, the facility, or the environment.
Piping and pipelines are subject to a variety of defects, including, but not limited to:
- Cracking
- Corrosion
- Wall thinning
- Pitting
- High temperature creep
- Fatigue
- Thermal shock
- Weld defects
MISTRAS offers a variety of remote sensing technology so assets can be continuously monitored to detect damage as soon as it occurs.
Refinery Pipe Wall Thickness Trending
MISTRAS provides trending solutions to track pipe wall thickness in hard-to-access and high-temperature refinery piping.
Pipe wall thickness is a critical measurement for determining piping integrity. Corrosion and erosion in pipe walls can increase safety risks and decrease productivity if left untreated, as internal build-up can prevent product from moving through the piping. Because of the difficulty of accessing at-height and high-temperature piping, damages in these assets often go unnoticed, potentially allowing them to worsen.
MISTRAS' pipe wall thickness trending solutions utilizes ultrasonic testing (UT) technology to detect, trend, and report wall thickness measurements for overhead lines, reducers, elbows, tees and more. Our monitoring sensors are attached to the pipe with a clamp, rather than through welding, ensuring that structural integrity is not affected when MISTRAS installs the sensor.
MISTRAS' pipe wall thickness monitoring solutions communicate measurements directly back to a plant’s inspection data management software (IDMS, integrating with MISTRAS' industry-leading Plant Condition Management Software (PCMS) and other top-tier IDMSs.
Process Piping Fluid Corrosivity Monitoring
Internal corrosion monitoring is imperative for maintaining asset integrity and checking for abnormalities within your assets. MISTRAS’ internal piping monitoring solutions feature fluid corrosivity detection systems that are capable of withstanding and reporting in the harshest conditions, such as extreme temperatures and hazardous flow environments.
Our internal piping monitoring solutions, which utilize vibrating tuning fork probes, are carefully inserted into process piping streams to detect for fluid corrosivity. With longer operational lifetimes and higher sensitivity than traditional corrosion monitoring devices, MISTRAS’ fluid corrosivity monitoring solution boasts vibrating tuning fork sensors that alert operators to areas that are especially susceptible to corrosion and wall thinning.
Traditional tuning forks are compromised by scale deposition because their corrosion response is dependent upon mass loss. The fork tines on MISTRAS’ detection solution respond to mass loss by causing a spring constant change, virtually eliminating the effects of corrosion product deposition and minimizing fouling effects.
Rather than increasing resonance frequency as a response to mass loss, these modern, oscillating sensors decrease frequency, which is accomplished by inserting corrodible elements into the corrosion-resistant tuning fork tines. As a result, the base’s spring constant gets smaller, and resonant frequency reduces as the base corrodes, helping operators detect for damaging anomalies within critical process piping assets.
High Energy Piping (HEP) Inspection & Monitoring
High Energy Piping (HEP) system failures in power plants can be caused by micro- and macro-cracking, flow noise variations, thermal fatigue, and thermal expansion, all of which can potentially lead to serious consequences.
Piping replacement is not always practical, and periodic inspections during outages allow cracks to worsen in the meantime. MISTRAS Group offers a state-of-the-art Acoustic Emission (AE) solution to continuously monitor for HEP cracking, helping you stay informed of your critical piping’s condition at all times.
Through HEP monitoring, MISTRAS helps plant operators to extend the intervals between traditional inspections, and enables them to make more informed maintenance decisions immediately if a crack deteriorates quickly, or on more long-term run/repair/replace decisions. Cracks are detected remotely and communicated back to plant maintenance personnel, and MISTRAS analysts provide support to address defect indications.
Pipeline Monitoring Services
Our remote pipeline monitoring solutions keep you informed of your pipeline’s condition at all times using permanently installed guided wave ultrasonic (GUL) collars to monitor large pipeline volumes. This technique can detect minuscule changes in pipe cross-sections (identifies changes of less than 1%), while limiting the need for inspectors to visit hard-to-access locations.
MISTRAS' pipeline monitoring solutions are often pre-installed on pipes and cabled back to a platform. MISTRAS monitors hundreds of buried, sleeved, and subsea pipes, and those in contaminated or hazardous locations.