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ACOUSTIC
EMISSION
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SYSTEMS
The use of Acoustic
Emission to save costs and reduce down time on a plant.
We
believe that our range of Acoustic Emission equipment, by Physical Acoustics
Ltd, could have significant benefits for your organisation. Coupled with the
cost effectiveness of acoustic emission this technique has become ever more
popular the world over. The majority of tests carried out using Acoustic
Emission (AE) are MONPAC and TANKPAC.
TANKPAC
The cost
of shutting down and cleaning storage tanks ready for internal inspection is
costly and time consuming. If no repairs are required the costs have been
largely wasted and could have been better spent on other projects, or not at
all.
PAC, together with it's major customers have developed a
method of evaluating overall floor condition without removing the tanks from
service. The evaluation is based on experience from follow up internal
inspection and in many case the floor scanning of tanks monitored under
carefully controlled conditions.
TANKPAC is not an inspection
method, but a sorting system which can separate good tanks from bad ones and in
so doing concentrate maintenance where it is most needed. Highly sensitive
sensors are placed along the perimeter of the tank wall. Following a period of
conditioning during which the valves are closed and the heaters/agitators are
turned off the tank is monitored for a period of time. The fracture of corrosion
products is detected together with leaks which are active during the monitoring
phase. Defects may be located using a method of triangulation however the most
important information from a maintenance point of view is the overall condition
of the tank floor which is graded by the AE software from "A" to "E". A being
the best result and E being the worst.
MONPAC
This is an expert
system for evaluating the condition of metal pressure systems and tanks based on
over 2000 tests. Monsanto developed the procedures and applicability, PAC the
instrumentation and software. MONPAC is now widely used in the chemical and oil
industries. Benefits of the method are largely seen in the reduced inspection
costs and minimal down time of each vessel resulting from improved information
about the plant condition.
MONPAC is particularly effective on
spheres, columns and for tank shell integrity but may be used on complete
process systems. The software returns a colour coding for the severity of
emissions, complete with associated recommendations. Testing is carried out by
trained engineers familiar with all MONPAC’s procedures.
Location
of defects is made possible using the triangulation method i.e. three sensors
and their respective arrival times to each sensor. Additional software is
available on request and can be used in conjunction with MONPAC’s powerful
software base.
VPAC
VPAC enables
estimation of through-valve leakage based on measurements made using a PAC model
5131 Valve Leak Detector together with data on the size and valve type and
differential pressure. It was developed for use on refineries, chemical plants
and offshore platforms. Primarily the technology is for estimating gas losses,
gas to gas or liquid to gas. Limited leakage is also included in the technology
package. The system is virtually immune to environmental and process noise by
virtue of the advanced sensor technology. This ensures that measurements are
easily made on line with no requirement for extensive training of
operators.
Identifies
through-valve gas losses.
Estimates leak
rate.
Totally
non-intrusive.
On-Line
measurement.
Field Proven by
BP.
10 Year
Database.
Portable.
Intrinsically
Safe.
Simple
Operation.
300 Point
Memory.
PC Loss
Calculator.
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