Proceedings of the ASME 2013 Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference

PVP2013
July 14-18, 2013, Paris, France

PVP2013-97333

ACOUSTIC EMISSION TESTING OF HIGH STRENGTH STEEL LPG SPHERICAL TANKS

Jun Jiang
Nanjing Boiler & Pressure Vessel Supervision and Inspection Institute
Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, China
Rong Yi
Nanjing Boiler & Pressure Vessel Supervision and Inspection Institute
Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, China
Lili Que
Nanjing Boiler & Pressure Vessel Supervision and Inspection Institute
Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, China

defects of the pressure vessel generate acoustic

ABSTRACT emission signals, and then collect these signals
We use acoustic emission technique for the using acoustic emission instruments. This
detecting of 1000m3 LPG spherical tank. The overall technology can quickly identify the location of
moitoring and local monitoring, as well as a the sound emitting source and make re-inspection
combination of the two methods are applied. By and assessment for these acoustic emission
lowering the threshold value, detection sensitivity is sources, so as to shorten the maintenance cycle
improved. 23 effective acoustic emission sources are and reduce the economic costs.
discovered, in which 21 crack defects are retest. In this work, we have maken acoustic
emission testing for a 1000m3 LPG (liquefied
INTRODUCTION petroleum gas) spherical tank, using the
The pressure vessels are widely used in all combination of the overall monitoring and local
walks of life. Once the accidents of leakage or monitoring methods. It is found that there are 23
rupture of the pressure vessels happen, it may effective acoustic emission sources and 21 crack
lead to fire, explosion and poisoning, causing defects exist after re-inspection
serious damages to the properties and lives. In
order to increase the company's core THE GENERAL SITUATION OF THE
competitiveness, the pressure equipments must be SPHERICAL TANK
on long-cycle operation, and the maintenance and This LPG spherical tank belongs to a
inspection costs must be minimized. Petrochemical Companywith the number of G909.
The acoustic emission can be detected in the Its design pressure is 1.8MPa + (static pressure).
working condition of the pressure vessels. By Its design temperature is -10 to 50 ° C. The
changing the parameters of the process operation maximum operating pressure is 1.6MPa. The
of the pressure vessel, it can make the active operating temperature is room temperature. Its

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 diameter is 12410mm and the volume is 1000m3. local monitoring is shown in Fig.2.
The medium is liquefied petroleum gas. The main Two pressure cycles are applied for the
material is SPV50Q, with the nominal wall pressure test program of the acoustic emission
thickness of 34mm. The spherical tank was testing, in which the clean water is filled to
designed and manufactured by the CBI, Ltd., increase the pressure. The whole process is in
Japan, and was built by a local construction accordance with the requirements of
company. This tank was put into use in November GB/T18182-2000 and combined with the actual
1987 and during the inspection process in April situation of the tank at the scene.
2001, it was found that there were a lot of cracks
on the inner surface of the butt weld fusion line. LOADING THE PROGRAM
Through the hydrogen elimination processing, On-site noise measurement has been
welding and the overall treatment of stress-relief, conducted prior to the testing, with a signal of
this tank has been used ever since after passing less than 52dB. Because the result of attenuation
the hydrostatic test. measurement is more than the 16MnR material,
the threshold value is set to 40 dB in order to
THE DETECTION SCHEME ensure the detection accuracy.
Two instruments namely the SWAES-35 and The location calibration of the 44
SWAES-50 multi-channel digitized acoustic representative triangle positioning arrays and the
emission detection analyzers produced by Beijing 32 representative linear positioning arrays all
Shenghua Technology Co., Ltd. are used. The provide good positioning results.
WAE2002 source localization testing analysis
software is applied. The sensors are SR150 ANALYSIS ON THE DETECTION DATA
resonant sensors (with preamplifier and can be We mainly apply some commonly used
calibrated by self-excitation), with the center parameter analysis methods to analyze the
frequency of 150kHZ, the main amplifier gain of detection data. Since the threshold value is lower,
40dB and the bandpass frequency of 20-120kHZ. the effective sound source signals and the noise
46 channels of SWAES-50 acoustic emission signals are mixed, we will distinguish them by the
instrument are used to make overall monitoring following methods.
on the spherical tank, in which the spherical The waveform judgment: to distinguish the
positioning is applied. Besides, 32 channels of burst signals, the continuous signals and the
SWAES-35 acoustic emission instrument are used sensors’ self-excitation signals. In this detection,
to monitor the up and down girths of the spherical the main objective is to detect the cracks of the
tank, in which the linear positioning is applied. spherical tank, thus the burst signals are the main.
The overall monitoring: a total of 46 probes The signal recognition before the pressure
(five layers in total: 6 probes on the first and boost and during the two times depressurization
fourth layers, 10 probes on the second and five processes: if a signal source occurs frequently in
layers, 12 probes on the third layer and 1 probe at the entire inspection process, the signal is not
the top and bottom center of the spherical tank necessarily a signal generated by the defect. We
respectively) are arranged in a triangular array. should focus on checking the location of the site
The specific arrangement of the probes on the on the spherical tank, and analyze that whether
tank are shown in Fig. 1. the signal is generated by the vibration, collision
The local monitoring: a total of 32 probes are and friction of the scaffolding, in and out of the
arranged circumferentially (two layers in total: media, sensor self-excitation of the sensors, etc.
located around the upper and lower large girths). For the vicinity of the weld and the stress
The detailed arrangement of the probes of the concentration areas, even if the pressure boost

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 stage is inactive, we also consider it as effective use the acoustic emission technique to achieve the
acoustic emission source. in service inspection for spherical tanks.
1. The combination of the overall monitoring and
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION local monitoring methods can confirm and
During the online overall monitoring complement each other, thereby improve the
process, it is found that there are 18 valid acoustic detection rate of the hazard sources.
emission positioning sources on the spherical tank, 2. For the material with larger attenuation, the
as shown in Table 1. During the local monitoring sensitivity of detection can be ensured by
process, it is found that there are 12 valid acoustic lowering the threshold value.
emission positioning sources on the tank, as 3. It is better to use two pressure boost stages and
shown in Table 2. two pressure holding stages. Data acquisition
It can be seen that there are 7 sources before the pressure boost stage and during the two
overlaps (L1 = S11, L2 = S12, L3 = S13, depressurization processes is very important in
L4 = S14, L7 = S8, L9 = S9, L11 S6) the identification of valid acoustic emission
between the overall monitoring and local sources and noise signals.
monitoring, therefore there are a total of 23 Part of the noise signals can be filtered out
active acoustic emission sources (2 at the through waveform judgment.
lower plate patchwork, 8 at the bottom 4. The inspectors should master the information
great girth sewn, 6 at the upper girth sewn, of the equipment running record, the opening and
1 at the Y-shaped patchwork on the upper parking record, the operating parameters, the
polar circle, 4 at the longitudinal seam of medium composition, the load fluctuation, and the
the equatorial belt and 2 at the base metal), abnormal situation during the running process, etc.
as shown in Fig.3. According to GB / T They should be able to determine what the defect
18182-2000 “Acoustic emission testing and may be and the possible location of the defect,
evaluation method of the metal pressure which will be of great help to the analysis on the
vessels”, the comprehensive grade acoustic emission signals.
classification of the acoustic emission 5. This detection is implemented under conditions
sources is required re-inspection. of hydrostatic test, but it can also be extended to
After the MT, UT re-inspection on the the use of the medium pressing manner. For the
above 22 acoustic emission sources, it is LPG spherical tank, we should reduce the
found that 21 sources indicate surface maximum operating pressure by at least 15%
cracks. We did not find defects on the other preferably one month before the test to ensure
two sources sites on the base metal, which safety.
may be a result of stress release during the
acoustic emission detection process. References
According to GB/T18182-2000, it can be [1] 1000m3 spherical tank acoustic emission
conclude that: the acoustic emission testing report[R].Nanjing boiler & pressure vessel
sources with defects can be assessed in supervision and inspection institute,2005.(in
terms of severity level, whose results are Chinese)
"serious" and "very serious". [2] Shen G T, Liu S F, Dai G. Acoustic emission
CONCLUSIONS testing[M].2004,08.(in Chinese)
For those spherical tanks that cannot be [3] GB/T18182-2000:Acoustic emission testing
stopped due to various reasons but have reached and evaluation method of the metal pressure
to the inspection cycle and must be tested, we can vessels.(in Chinese)

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 Table 1 The comprehensive grade of the acoustic emission sources in the overall monitoring
ID of Pressure Pressure Pressure Pressure Comprehen
Status Intensity
sources boost 1 holding 1 boost 2 holding 2 sive grade
S1 × Ο × × Inactive High B
S2 Ο Ο × × week High D
S3 Ο Ο × × week High D
S4 Ο Ο × × week High D
S5 Ο Ο × Ο active High E
S6 Ο × × × Inactive High B
S7 Ο × × × Inactive High B
S8 Ο × × × Inactive High B
S9 Ο × × × Inactive High B
S10 Ο × × × Inactive High B
S11 Ο × × × Inactive High B
S12 Ο × × × Inactive High B
S13 Ο × × × Inactive High B
S14 Ο × × × Inactive High B
S16 Ο × × × Inactive High B
S16 Ο × × × Inactive High B
S17 Ο × × Ο week High D
S18 Ο × × Ο week High D

Table 2 The comprehensive grade of the acoustic emission sources in the local monitoring
ID of Pressure Pressure Pressure Pressure Comprehensive
Activity Intensity
sources boost 1 holding 1 boost 2 holding 2 grade
L1 Ο × × Ο week High D
L2 Ο × Ο Ο active High E
L3 Ο × × × Inactive High B
L4 Ο × × Ο week High D
L5 Ο Ο × Ο active Medium D
L6 Ο Ο × Ο active Medium D
L7 Ο × × × Inactive High B
L8 Ο Ο Ο × active Medium D
L9 Ο × × × Inactive High B
L10 High High F
Ο Ο Ο Ο
active
L11 Ο × × × week High B
L12 Ο Ο Ο × active Medium D

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 Table 3 The re-inspection results of acoustic emission sources
Length of Length of
ID Location defect Remark ID Location defect Remark
(mm) (mm)
Multiple Multiple
1 S1 10-30 14 S14、L4 10-120
crack crack
Multiple Multiple
2 S2 20-50 15 S15 10-70
crack crack
Multiple Multiple
3 S3 20-30 16 S16 10-40
crack crack
Multiple
4 S4 20-40 17 S17 30 crack
crack
No magnetic Multiple
5 S5 － 18 S18 30-70
mark display crack
Multiple Multiple
6 S6、L11 40-60 19 L5 30-120
crack crack
Multiple
7 S7 50 crack 20 L6 20-190
crack
Multiple Multiple
8 S8、L7 20-150 21 L8 10-40
crack crack
Multiple Multiple
9 S9、L9 30-50 22 L10 20-40
crack crack
No magnetic Multiple
10 S10 － 23 L12 10-30
mark display crack
Multiple
11 S11、L1 20-60
crack
Multiple
12 S12、L2 20-50
crack
Multiple
13 S13、L3 20-100
crack

North
Top

West East

Bottom South

Front view Vetical view

Fig 1. The overall arrangement of the probes on the tank

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 Top North

East

West

Bottom South

Front view Vertical view

Fig. 2 The local arrangement of the probes on the tank

(a) G909 upper hemisphere (b) G909 lower hemisphere

Fig 3 The location map of acoustic emission sources

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