EVALUATING THE STRUCTURAL AND MECHANICAL INTEGRITY

OF PRESSURE VESSELS AND COMPONENTS BY MEANS OF

ACOUSTIC EMISSION TESTING
Claudio Allevato - Stress Engineering Services, Inc.

Energy Resources Technology Symposia

Joint Conference ETCE 2000 & OMAE 2000
February 14 - 17, 2000, New Orleans, Louisiana

ABSTRACT
The application of acoustic emission testing (AET) utilizing process generated thermal stress, pressure
swings, and hydrostatic loading to locate and evaluate service induced cracks in a variety of refinery
and chemical process equipment is discussed. Improvements in overall safety and mechanical
reliability of a number of high, ambient and cryogenic temperature units have been achieved, while
minimizing downtime. AET a global non-invasive NDT (non-destructive technique) method identifies
areas where active/growing defects are present and ignores nonactive (fabrication) defects, which are
unlikely to result in equipment failure. Examples of successful industry experiences using AET are
described. A brief discussion of AET theory is presented.

KEY WORDS: acoustic emission, non-destructive, cracking, testing, reliability, AET, NDT.

Allevato, C., (February 2000), “Evaluating the Structural and Mechanical Integrity of Pressure Vessels and
Components,” ASME ETCE/OMAE 2000 Joint Conference, February 14 – 17, 2000, New Orleans, Louisiana.

SES_TP16.doc