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A Study Guide
for
Pressure Equipment Inspectors
www.msts-training.com
December 2014
Situation 2: You are assigned as the bundle inspector during a chemical plant turnaround. You are
organized, have copies of all the old inspection data, and are basically having a great time inspecting
remote from all the normal turnaround hub-bub. But one of the last bundles inspected has unexpected
deep corrosion and is made of an exotic alloy. The word quickly gets out and suddenly the key Operations
& Maintenance Leads show up at the bundle cleaning area. Their first question is not, Hows the
weather?, or, Hows the bundle cleaners doing?, but ... Will the bundle make the next operational
run??? You sheepishly look at the past records and tell them you will not know until after you have
plugged the data into the computer. They walk away disgusted, muttering something about your lack of
ability.
The result: Youre embarrassed!
Situation 3: A vessel fails and results in a tremendous fire. Two contract craftsmen are injured and will
have permanent disabilities. During the post-fire investigation, it is determined that you made a mistake
when calculating the corrosion rate. The actual corrosion rate was 0.020 ipy, but you missed a decimal
and used 0.002 ipy! The primary cause of the fire was your mistake.
The result: Youre embarrassed! You sorrow for those hurt, youre depressed, you may be fired, you may
have your API certs pulled, and youll probably have to admit your mistakes in a lawsuit. All because of a
silly little decimal point!
December 2014
Whats a Subscript?
Before proceeding further, lets understand subscripts! In math, subscripts are used to differentiate
between values that use a similar symbol. For example, t often represents thickness. However, many
thicknesses are important to us, e.g. nominal thickness, minimum thickness, etc. Subscripts clearly
communicate which thickness you are using in a calculation. Always use subscripts in Corrosion Rate
calculations. YES THAT MEANS YOU!
tmin
a subscript
Table 1 lists the most common thicknesses and the common math symbol.
Table 1:
Types of
Thicknesses
Thickness
Math Symbol
Nominal thickness
tnom or tnominal
Initial thickness
Previous thickness
tpre or tprevious
Last thickness
Retirement thickness
Notes
Based on std pipe or plate thickness
At a TML - First thickness reading.
Also called base or first reading.
At a TML - The previous(prior)
thickness reading
At a TML - The most recent thickness
reading. Also called current or actual
thickness
Minimum allowed thickness. Also
called minimum thickness
What is a Speed?
A Speed is how fast something moves. Speed always has units of a distance per time. Speeds are
expressed different ways depending on what units are most convenient. For example, traveling in a car,
speed is measured in miles-per-hour (mph). It would be ridiculous to say were traveling 3,801,600 inchesper-hour, but thats exactly the same as 60 mph. Typical speed units are illustrated in Table 2.
Table 2:
Speed Units
Speed Types
Automobiles
Bullets
Light
Corrosion
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US Speed Units
miles per hour
feet per second
miles per second
inches per year, or
mils per year
US Symbols
mph
fps
mps
ipy or mpy
December 2014
Speed =
340 miles
6 hours
= 56.7 mph
Key! All speeds always use the term per, as in miles-per-hour, or inches-per-year. In mathematical
terms, what is the meaning of per? PER means DIVIDED BY. Remember this and you will
always be able to write the formula for a corrosion rate or any other speed. So miles-per-hour is just
miles-divided by-hours.
Determining a Speed
Automobile Speed (mph):
Corrosion Speed (ipy):
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December 2014
Travel direction
El Paso
0
Fort Stockton
San Antonio
220
555
Mile Markers
Speed =
Speed =
Distance Traveled
Time Traveled
880 - 750
=
3:00 1:00
Time Remaining =
Louisiana
Border
Houston
Time Remaining =
130 miles
2 hours
= 65 mph
Distance To Go
Speed
750 555
195 miles
= 3 hrs
=
65
65 mph
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December 2014
Formula #1:
Corrosion Rate
Corrosion Rate =
metal loss
time period
tprevious tlast
time period
Thickness Data
TML #
Jan. 2014
Jan. 2004
01
0.450
0.500
CR =
tprevious tlast
time
CR =
0.500 0.450
2014 2004
0.050
10
= 0.005 ipy
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December 2014
Time to Practice: Calculate the Corrosion Rate in the following exercises. An Answer
Key is provided in the website as another pdf file to download.
Jan. 2015
Jan. 1995
08
0.260
0.400
CR =
tprevious tlast
time
CR =
ipy
Nov. 2014
Nov. 1999
C-5
0.675
0.750
CR =
CR =
ipy
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December 2014
Thickness Data
TML #
March 2015
March 2008
TH-3
0.280
0.350
CR =
tprevious tlast
time
CR =
350 280
2015 2008
70
7
= 10 mpy
Since we used mils, the units on
the answer are in mils-per-year
Thickness Data
TML #
Nov. 2014
Nov. 1992
32
0.410
0.480
CR =
CR =
mpy
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December 2014
Date
Month #
Fractional
Year
Decimal
Year
Total Years
April 1998
4th
4/12
0.33
1998.33
Feb. 1995
June 2011
Nov. 2007
Thickness Data
TML #
March 2015
Oct 2012
N-2
0.275
0.288
tprevious tlast
time
0.288 0.275
2015.25 2012.83 =
0.013
2.42
= 0.0054 ipy
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December 2014
Thickness Data
TML #
Sept 2014
April 2010
HD-2
0.521
0.565
CR =
CR =
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10
ipy
December 2014
Formula #2:
Remaining Life
Remaining Life =
tlast tmin
CR
Thickness Data
TML #
tminimum
Jan. 2015
Jan. 2005
0.270
0.300
0.350
Life =
tlast tmin
CR
Life =
0.300 0.270
0.005
0.030
0.005
= 6 yrs
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11
December 2014
TML Data
TML #
Corrosion Rate
tminimum
March 2015
D-7
0.007 ipy
0.150
0.198
Life =
Life =
yrs
TML Data
TML #
Corrosion Rate
tminimum
March 2015
D-8
0.003 ipy
0.150
0.211
Life =
Life =
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12
yrs
December 2014
Inspection Code
API 510 - Vessels
Inspection Type
Internal
External
Thickness Readings
External
External
Internal
UT of Shell
Formula #3:
Next Inspect Date
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13
December 2014
Vessel Data
Vessel
Remaining Life
Last Inspection
V-100
12 yrs
January 2015
Vessel Data
Vessel ID
Remaining Life
Last Inspection
V-200
14 yrs
March 2015
=
Step 2 - Calculate the Next Inspection Date (NID)
NID
=
=
=
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14
December 2014
Vessel Data
Vessel
Remaining Life
Last Inspection
V-300
9.5 yrs
October 2014
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15
December 2014
Last Insp
Date
Last Insp
Date
(number)
Remaining
Life
(yrs)
Inspection
Interval
(yrs)
Next Insp
Date
(number)
Convert
Partial Yr
to Months
Next Insp
Date
V-10
April 2014
2014.33
18.7
9.35
2023.68
8.16
Aug 2023
V-20
Feb. 2015
V-30
Sept 2014
5.5
V-40
Nov. 2011
20
V-50
May 2014
11.2
Formula #4:
Short-Term Rate
Short-Term Rate =
metal loss
time period
tprevious tlast
time period
Formula #5:
Long-Term Rate
Long-Term Rate =
metal loss
time period
tfirst tlast
time period
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December 2014
Thickness Data
tminimum
Jan 2015
Jan 2010
Jan 2007
Jan 2005
0.380
0.440
0.465
0.480
0.500
tprevious tlast
time period
465 440
5
= 5 mpy
tfirst tlast
time period
500 440
10
= 6 mpy
tlast tmin
=
Corrosion Rate
440 380
6
= 10 yrs
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17
December 2014
Thickness Data
tminimum
Jun 2015
Jun 2009
Jun 2006
Jun 2002
0.640
0.718
0.742
0.745
0.750
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18
December 2014
Thickness Data
tminimum
May 2015
Oct 2010
May 2007
Jan 2003
0.395
0.454
0.477
0.492
0.500
= 2015-5/12 = 2015.42
= 2010-10/12 = 2010.83
= 2003-1/12 = 2003.08
tprevious tlast
time period
477 454
=
2015.42 2010.83
23
4.59
= 5 mpy
tfirst tlast
time period
500 454
2015.42 2003.08
46
= 3.7 mpy
12.34
tlast tmin
=
Corrosion Rate
454 395
5
59
5
= 11.8 yrs
NID
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April 2021
19
December 2014
Thickness Data
tminimum
Feb 2015
May 2009
Jun 2004
Nov 1997
0.212
0.288
0.296
0.305
0.322
20
December 2014