Professional Documents
Culture Documents
and
Fire Proofing Materials
V. P. Sastry
TCR Arabia Company Ltd.
www.tcr-arabia.com
sales@tcr-arabia.com
Tel: +966-13-8475784/85
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, , 2015
Introduction
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
Introduction
Moisture into the insulation system may further
• Carry the air borne pollutants/corrosive substances’
• Water leaches out chlorides, other halides or sulphates leading
to corrosion.
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
Influencing factors
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
Susceptible areas for CUI:
Specific locations and / or systems…penetrations in the insulation and visually damaged
insulation areas.
• Environmental or surrounding areas include:
• Insulated Carbon steel and low alloy systems, operating temperatures between -
5°C and 150°C, frequent or continuous condensation and re-evaporation of atmospheric
moisture, systems normally operate above 150°C but are in Cyclic thermal/ intermittent
service or subjected to frequent outages.
• Susceptible temperature range for Stainless Steels is 65 to 204 deg.C.
• Carbon Steels /Alloy Steels show pitting/loss of thickness, Stainless Steels show pitting,
SCC in Chloride contamination.
• Areas exposed to mist over spray from cooling towers, steam vents, fire water spray
systems, deluge systems, areas subject to process spills, ingress of moisture, or acid
vapors.
• Protruding dead legs and attachments,
• Vibrating systems may loosen the insulation cladding joints,
• Steam tracing leaks beneath the insulation,
• Systems with deteriorated coating and/or wrappings,
• Cold service operating below the atmospheric dew point.
• Weather Proofing/Mastic Wraps
Some of these are covered in case studies.
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
Cold/hot thermal insulation and components:
Some of the insulation components inherently cause problem unless
enough care is taken.
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
Prevention
•Design aspects
specification is the key to cover all the design aspects of Insulation
Materials, cladding, Heat-traced Systems, Protective Coatings and
sealing, Shutdown/Mothballing, Quality Control/Quality Assurance
and follow.
Some examples include:
•Avoid creating inspection ports.
•Select where possible insulation systems like Foam glass which
hold less water.
•Old specifications did not call for protective coatings on the
pipe/equipment/structural, before applying the insulation. Use
coatings to prevent corrosion due to the entry of moisture. CuTI
resistant coatings are required for both cold and hot insulation7.
Coatings for systems without insulation may not work for systems
with insulation
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
Inspection
One of the important inspection requirements is to get the metal
loss due to CuTI. For this first initial thickness is required.
Baseline surveys are best carried out during the construction
phase, before applying coating and insulation. This helps in taking
corrective actions for components not meeting the specification
can be readily done.
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
Inspection
DP, Ultrasonic thickness measurements are commonly used,
where the insulation is removed. In addition, advanced NDT is
also required.
For CuTI inspection, Visual examination (for all cases of
without/local/full removal of insulation) helps in eliminating
misinterpretation with other NDT.
If inspection program is planned for multi plant complex, number
of insulated lines may be at least one lakh in addition to
thousands of equipment.
Removing insulation of all these lines even in small lengths, for
inspection, would be highly laborious, time taking and cost
intensive.
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
Inspection
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
Advance NDT : Thermography
It is important to inspect insulated pipe work, equipment and structural to identify
CuTI/CuFP sites. One can detect hot/cold spots with at least 10 deg. C temperature
differential across the thickness of the Component.
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
Advance NDT : Profile Radiography
This technique is used in the plant inspection. Where the process
plants use nucleonic gauges, the radiography source radiation
interferes with the nucleonic gauge radiation and plants may trip.
This problem becomes acute when the plants are adjacent to each
other. Also it is a slow technique when many lines are to be done.
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
Advance NDT : Lixi Profile
Lixi profiler, a portable battery operated unit as shown in (figure), uses Gd153
radioisotope source. When detector assembly is placed around pipe, small
amount of focused radiation beam penetrates the diameter of the pipe. The
amount of radiation received by detector (figure) is converted to an equivalent
steel thickness measurement by the instrumentation. Variation in density
(thickness) is plotted on a computer screen in real time image.
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
Advance NDT : Lixi Profile
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
Typical plot for a corroded insulated pipe
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
• Guided Wave Inspection
Ultrasonic screening in-service inspection tool to detect general corrosion and wall loss
for 100-150 ft. on either side of the probe.
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
Advance NDT : Pulsed Eddy Current (PEC)
PEC is a noncontact type inspection technique for carbon steel
objects, such as pipes and vessels.
It can measure % variations in steel thickness through any non-
conductive and non-magnetic material between sensor and steel
surface such as air, insulation material, concrete, plastics,
coatings, paint, sea water, marine growth deposits, oil etc.
Electrical current flows through the transmitter coils of probe and
generate a primary magnetic field. This field is unaffected by the
presence of any non-conducting and non-magnetic material and
penetrates undisturbed and magnetizes the top layer of the steel
beneath the transmitter coils.
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
Advance NDT : Pulsed Eddy Current (PEC)
2. Induced eddy currents Generate secondary magnetic field in the receiver coil
3. Diffusion of eddy currents. Onset of fast decay occurs when far surface is reached.
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
Advance NDT : Pulsed Eddy Current (PEC)
The current in the transmitter coil is switched off, collapsing the primary magnetic field.
The changing magnetic field induces electrical ‘eddy’ currents in the surface of the steel.
These eddy currents generate a secondary magnetic field and induces an electrical voltage,
which in the receiver coils.
The magnitude of this voltage as a function of the time is referred to as the ‘PEC signal’.
The PEC signal contains information about the thickness of the steel, as described below. A
specimen has a near and a far surface. Initially the eddy currents are confined to the near
surface (closest to the PEC probe) but, as time elapses, they travel (or ‘diffuse’) outwards
towards the far surface (figure 9). As long as the eddy currents experience free expansion
in the wall, their strength decreases relatively slowly.
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
Advance NDT : Pulsed Eddy Current (PEC)
However, upon reaching the far surface, their strength decreases rapidly.
The moment in time where the eddy currents first reach the far surface is
indicated by a sharp decrease in PEC signal, known as ‘transition point’
(figure 9). The time of the transition point is therefore a measure of wall
thickness. For example, the earlier the transition point, the sooner the
eddy currents reach the far surface and the thinner the wall must be. In
practice, each time a PEC measurement is done; voltage across the
receiver coils of the PEC probe is amplified, sampled and digitized by the
PEC instrument. This gives a digital record of the PEC signal over 3000
sample moments in time. The digitized signals are stored in a connected
computer. Dedicated software is used to analyze the shape of all PEC
signals and thereby determine wall thickness.
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
Remaining wall thickness of one leg of Horton sphere
Colour code: 85-90%; 90-110%
Circumferential position at 90 degrees
Top side end Vertical Position A B C D
Distance between 21 97.2 98.1 97.3 97
two points is 20 99.4 91.8 94.9 94.1
0.1m 19 95.9 93.7 98.9 99.1
18 97.9 96.7 94.1 98.7
17 94.6 94.9 96.3 96
16 98.1 97.9 91.7 96.9
15 97.6 95.3 93.1 94.8
14 95.8 99.6 95.9 97.4
13 89.4 97.4 96.2 93.9
12 98.8 94.8 100 100.8
Distance between 11 98.1 97.9 93.9 95.8
two points is 10 93.1 93.8 97.6 96.5
0.5m 9 99.2 96.2 90.8 97.1
8 98.1 95.6 92.8 93.3
7 99.6 100.8 101.8 97.3
6 88.5 90.8 92.7 89.4
5 94.0 93.5 91.4 88.3
4 91.5 90.3 93.8 89.1
3 94.8 90.3 93.4 88.9
2 95.6 98.1 92.3 97.9
1 95.4 97.6 94.2 98.0
Ground side end
Case Studies
Examples of reasons for CuTI experienced, measures
taken.
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
Fire proof insulation:
In the process column, bottom piping leaked exactly where the pipes crossing the fire
proofed skirt, due to long contact with water beneath the fire proofing. Specification is
updated to do CuTI paint before fire proofing.
Leakage of column bottom pipes in contact with column skirt fire proofing
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
12 O’clock clad joints
To protect water entry, the clad joints shall be at 6 O’clock
position
These should have been at 6 O’clock position to avoid direct water entry through
the joint gaps.
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
Deviation from design conditions
Different Normally No Flow (NNF) hydrocarbon carbon steel lines or dead legs of varied
diameters are hot mineral wool insulated expecting above ambient temperatures. But these
lines did not have any flow, experienced only ambient temperatures.
But these lines did not have any flow, experienced only ambient temperatures.
One such PSV upstream line was mineral wool insulated as per Line Designation Table (LDT),
but remained at ambient temperature.
Mineral wool insulated lines as per LDT but remained at
ambient T-used intermittently during plant shutdowns, for
commissioning/ decommissioning.
CuTI on intermittent
service line
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
Similarly Steam tracing line leaked and corroded the pipe under mineral wool
insulation as steam tracing is not activated on 6” Sch. 40 carbon steel lines for
benzene service.
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
Corroded cladding
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
Cladding joints sealing material life.
Sealing material works for some time. After that, due to dry up cracks or fall off,
the joints are exposed. Well before monsoon, these joints are to be inspected
and rectified in the problem areas. Another problem noticed is that the cladding
ends should not have wavy pattern to have proper sealing. If found, they have to
be smoothened / straightened.
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
Exposed insulation
Exposed insulation at the ends of the lines, supports etc. due to improper or
incomplete or no cladding
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
Influence of neighboring plants.
Insulated Stainless steel type 304 lines are vulnerable for cracking.
Make up water to De-aerator T 60 deg.C .
These lines are prone to failures as exposed to neighboring continuous plume from
cooling tower fan exhaust and steam leakages and contamination.
Corroded lines were replaced and provided with SS foil before insulation.
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
Leakage of steam tracing leaks
Maintenance
Insulation and cladding improperly done / not redone during maintenance
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
a) Open inspection pocket b) Improperly fitted Inspection pocket
RECOMMENDATIONS:
• Insulation system is designed and done as per international
norms, codes and standards.
• Learn from others’ problems, conduct necessary audits and
take precautions by the owner users for the assets.
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
Recommendations
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015
Acknowledgments
The author thanks the organizers for accepting the paper for
presentation.
Seventh Middle East NDT Conference & Exhibition 2015, Bahrain 13-16 Sept, 2015