Recent Trend on Nondestructive Material Testing Method and Its Application to Chemical Plant Equipment

Newly developed methods for facility management like RBI (Risk Based Inspection) and FFS (Fitness For Service) have recently been adopted in industrial chemical plants for the purpose of enhancing safe, stable operation and extending their operational lives. These new methods introduced in this paper include an inspection method for stress corrosion cracks, an inspection method for parts with elevated temperatures during operation, an inspection method for reactor tubes under the baffle plates of carbon steel reactors, and diagnostic technology for ball bearings developed through collaboration between academia and industry on research. Non-destructive inspection technologies, which are very applicable to the protection of rotating machines from contamination by foreign objects are also introduced in this paper.