Pressure Vessel Inspection
Code-Compliant Ultrasonic Examination for Pressurized Equipment
Pressure vessels in petrochemical, pharmaceutical, food processing, and power generation industries contain hazardous media under elevated temperature and pressure, making their structural integrity paramount to personnel safety and environmental protection. Ultrasonic testing is the principal volumetric inspection method for detecting weld defects, corrosion damage, and material degradation in pressure vessels during fabrication and in-service inspection per ASME, PED, and GB/T standards. CCNDT provides calibrated ultrasonic instruments and phased array systems purpose-built for pressure vessel examination workflows.
Fabrication Weld Inspection
Pressure vessel fabrication involves extensive welding of shell courses, heads, nozzles, and reinforcement pads, all of which must meet code-specified acceptance criteria before commissioning. Ultrasonic testing per NB/T 47013 (Chinese pressure equipment NDE standard) or ASME Section V detects lack of fusion, slag inclusions, porosity, and cracking in butt welds, fillet welds, and nozzle-to-shell joints. Phased array technology provides cross-sectional imaging that improves defect characterization accuracy compared to conventional single-element UT.
- Shell longitudinal and circumferential seam weld inspection per NB/T 47013
- Nozzle-to-shell and reinforcement pad weld phased array examination
- Head-to-shell and flange weld volumetric inspection
- Digital scan plans and encoded data for fabrication documentation
In-Service Corrosion & Damage Assessment
Operating pressure vessels experience internal corrosion, erosion, hydrogen-induced cracking, and stress corrosion cracking depending on the contained medium and operating conditions. Ultrasonic thickness mapping quantifies remaining wall thickness and corrosion rates for fitness-for-service evaluation. Time-of-flight diffraction (TOFD) and phased array techniques detect and size crack-like defects in welds and base metal for engineering critical assessment per API 579 or equivalent standards.
- Grid-based ultrasonic thickness mapping for corrosion rate calculation
- Hydrogen-induced cracking and stepwise cracking detection in sour service vessels
- TOFD and PAUT crack sizing for fitness-for-service assessment
- Turnaround inspection planning and execution support
Composite & Lined Vessel Inspection
Increasingly, pressure vessels incorporate composite overwraps, metallic liners, and clad constructions for weight reduction and corrosion resistance. Inspecting these multi-material constructions requires specialized ultrasonic techniques to evaluate bond integrity between dissimilar materials and detect defects unique to each layer. CCNDT's multi-frequency and multi-mode inspection capabilities address the growing complexity of modern pressure vessel designs.
- Composite overwrap delamination and fiber breakage detection
- Clad and lined vessel bond integrity assessment
- Multi-layer wall thickness measurement through dissimilar materials
- Custom probe and procedure development for non-standard vessel configurations
Talk to Our NDT Engineers
Tell us about your inspection target and we will recommend the right ultrasonic solution.