ICorr Technical Event
(Evening Event)

Company: Sonomatics
Speaker: Kevin McDonald

Synopsis: Integrity management of equipment relies heavily on inspection to ensure the asset remains fit for service. Inspection can take several forms, each requiring planning to ensure the inspection is efficient and effective plus analysis to ensure the most informed integrity management decisions are reached. Sonomatic have developed and regularly deploy a suite of software tools to enhance each stage of the integrity management process.

In the pre-inspection planning phase, digital tools – such as a digital twin or similar component model – can be used to better visualize inspection plans and to keep an accurate record of requested inspection locations. This model can then be deployed during an inspection campaign allowing data to be populated to facilitate easy visualization for multiple stakeholders. Data would remain within the model for evaluation and analysis which, again, allows easy explanation and presentation to stakeholders.

Post-inspection evaluation using digital tools can extract maximal value from inspection data providing significant enhancements to most current processes. Crucial to the integrity management process are calculations on corrosion rates and remaining life estimates. However, when there is a large catalogue of previous inspection data there is often little consideration given beyond the two most recent results. A digital approach, where all inspection history can be housed in an easily accessible platform, allows the use of corrosion rate calculation using a longer-term statistical trend. This makes use of all previous data and provides the most representative corrosion rate possible. In addition, when calculating corrosion rates, emphasis is generally placed solely on changes to the minimum values. When more expansive inspection data has been recorded, such as a corrosion map, it is rare that growth of other corrosion features of a shallower depth than the minimum is considered but this is often where corrosion growth is most pronounced. To assess such trends, an accurate like-for-like comparison is essential, looking at areas common to both inspection campaigns; digital tools are crucial in assisting with this analysis.

Crucial to this topic is quality data that is representative of the current state of the inspected component. Sonomatic’s digital tools house propriety algorithms that can differentiate between internal corrosion, external corrosion and inclusions as well as providing insights into potential coating breakdown.

This talk will cover Sonomatic’s extensive experience in types of analysis described above.