Development of Nondestructive Testing Method for Tube Inspection in
Fin-Fan Coolers in Kazakhstan’s Oil/Gas Industry
More info about this article: https://www.ndt.net/?id=28192
Sarken D Kapayeva1, Marek J Bergander2 and John Hansen2
1 Eastern Kazakhstan Technical University, Kazakhstan,
[email protected] 2 Ether NDE, United Kingdom,
[email protected] Abstract
Many oil/gas fields in Kazakhstan contain high levels of highly corrosive H2S and CO2,
sometimes at very high pressures. The management of corrosion is essential in
maintaining plant safety and integrity of the processing facility.
This paper describes the development of a non-destructive testing (NDT) method that
improves the reliability of air-cooled heat exchangers by reducing down-time related to
corrosive and erosive failure of fin-fan tubes. The project goal was to maximize the
output of oil and gas plants and refineries while reducing the plant operating cost. The
work first identified those NDT requirements for air-cooled heat exchangers damage
assessment that would provide the greatest economic benefit for Kazakhstan industry.
The main objective was to develop a state-of-an-art NDT method for air-cooled heat
exchanger tubes, capable to: a) detect any damage mechanism while testing from tube
internal diameter, b) accurately determine the damage in terms of wall loss, c) perform
inspection quickly and expediently, d) requires minimum tube cleaning.
Consequently, the method specially adapted for Kazakhstan conditions was developed
based on a combination of Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) technique for flaw detection
and with Hall effect measurement of wall thickness and gradual corrosion in tubes. The
method has been tested in both laboratory and field conditions and the results were
compared with accurate but slow ultrasonic IRIS method. High correlation was
obtained, which proved that the developed technology is capable to deliver similar
results at the speed almost 10 times faster and less than half the cost.
KEYWORDS: nondestructive testing, electromagnetism, heat exchangers, tube,
oil/gas, permanent magnets, magnetic flux leakage
1. Introduction
The project goal was the development of the innovation technology for tube testing in
fin-fan coolers (Figure 1) for oil/gas plants, chemical, steel, and other industries. Tube
inspection is an important tool to determine their conditions and detect damage at
initiation stage.
© 2023 The Authors. Published by NDT.net under License CC-BY-4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://doi.org/10.58286/28192
Figure 1. Typical design of fin-fan cooler (left) and view of a single tube (right)
Thousands of such exchangers are installed in every oil/gas plant, refinery, chemical,
steel-melting, electric power generation plants and many others. Tube inspection is an
important tool to determine their conditions and detect damage at its initiation stage.
Heat exchangers and condensers are designed to provide full separation between the
products in the tube and the products or medium outside the tube. On the other hand,
heat exchangers typically represent approx. 35% of surface exposed to corrosion in the
entire industrial plant [1]. A single leaking tube can not only cause a significant impact
to production but may also cause major environmental issues and the potential for loss
of life. According to US sources, heat exchangers in oil refineries receive only 1% of
inspection effort but they contribute to 50% of all business interruption costs [1].
Emergency closing of the plant has always destructive effects causing unknown
deterioration of heat exchangers and other components. In order to return this
equipment to service, their fitness-for-duty has to be established, and extensive tests
and evaluation has to be performed.
Many NDT methods have been used in the past to assess tube condition with various
degree of accuracy [2,6,7]. Table I at the end of this paper shows the advantages and
disadvantages of each method and can be treated as a state-of-an-art study. The most
common procedure involves conventional tube cleaning and then fast internal inspection
(with ID sensor) of 100% tubes with one of electromagnetic methods (RFET, MFL,
NFEC or biased EC) and then re-testing of a small sample with ultrasonic rotating probe
– commonly known as IRIS [4]. IRIS, although capable of detecting and evaluating
most of damage conditions, requires extremely clean tubes, usually achieved only by
chemical cleaning. This approach usually provides highly reliable results but, for
reasons of measurement time (cost), the data set is sparse.
2. Technical requirements for fin-fan tube testing
Current methods for performing NDT on fin-fan tubes, based on ultrasonics, eddy
current and magnetic methods provide only a sparse data and take a long time to
complete due to both extensive cleaning requirements and testing time. The objective
of this project was to develop a new testing method that 1) will address specific
damage mechanisms experienced in Kazakhstan oil/gas and other industrial plants, and
2) will be a major technical improvement to presently used methods in the world. The
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first stated goal was met by visits to selected industrial plants, discussions with
engineering personnel and obtaining tube samples with various degree of deterioration.
The majority of potential customers listed those requirements as most important [5]:
1) possibility of testing thicker tubes, with the goal to detect 20% deep defect in tube
1”x.130”, 2) possibility of detection of either internal or external gradual wall thinning
and accurately measuring the remaining wall thickness, 3) possibility to distinguish the
defect origination point, whether ID or OD, and 4) improving the accuracy of
quantitative data analysis in terms of percentage wall loss for each detected defect with
desired accuracy +/-10%. The plant personnel stated also that a majority of defects in
fin-fans are due to internal pitting corrosion, general corrosion causing gradual wall
thinning, external erosion/corrosion, internal inlet-end erosion and external grooving
under and close to tubesheets [4]. Therefore, the final objective was formulated that the
new method will be capable of fast evaluation of 100% tubes in a given heat exchanger
without necessity of expensive cleaning and partial re-testing with ultrasonic IRIS.
Further, the testing had to conform to existing standards such as API661/GOST
ISO13706-2011 (Air cooled heat exchangers for general refinery service), ASME
Section VIII, Shell DEP 31.21.70.31. Most tubes are 1 inch outside diameter (25.4mm)
and wall thickness from 0.083 to .130 inch (2.1 to 3.3mm). Rarely, tubes are 1.25 or 1.5
inch diameter. Tube material is either Carbon steel A-179, A-243 or ferritic low-alloy
steel with max 9% of Chromium.
3. Description of the new NDT Method for fin-fan tube inspection
3.1 Applications notes and novelties
The initial approach was based on developing a magnetic test method with multi-
sensor including coils and semiconductor sensors. This offers significant improvements
to present methods and procedures. Specifically, the test system based on a
combination of a Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) together with measurement of the
entire magnetic flux induced in a tube wall was developed and adapted to typical
industrial conditions. This work was made possible by recent advances in magnetic
materials, electronics, computer modelling and robotics.
Based on the results obtained in both laboratory and field condition, the developed
technology differs from previous work. Novel features involved in this approach are:
1) New method is based on combined principles of flux leakage with measurement of
magnetic flux inside the tube wall. This permits to detect both sharp and gradual
defects, thus eliminating a major limitation of MFL method.
2) Possibility to determine point of damage origin: internal vs. external. This has a
potential to improve the accuracy and to imaging of tube condition.
3) Innovative research on: a) practical measurements of magnetic fields around defects
for new magnetic materials (Neodymium-Iron-Boron) and their effect on the signal
waveform generated in sensors [3], b) study of new configurations of
electromagnetic coils and high-energy permanent magnets.
3.2 Description of Experiments
A) The possibility of testing thicker tubes was evaluated. Now, Neodymium magnets
are produced commercially which are twice as powerful as in 1980’s when first MFL
3
was developed. The new magnetizing circuits were designed and produced to magnetize
the tube from its internal diameter with the possibility to achieve appropriate
magnetization for the ID-to-wall ratio of 5, which permits testing of thickest tubes in
fin-fan coolers, i.e. 1” x .130” for carbon steels, ferritic and Cr-Mo steels.
B) Gradual wall thinning and measurement of wall thickness was achieved by installing
an additional sensor (Hall-effect sensor) into the internal probe that continuously
measures the magnetic flux through the circuit that includes a magnetizing circuit and a
tube wall. This approach was fully proven during numerous field inspections.
C) Recognizing the point of defect origin, ID vs. OD. This always represented a greatest
challenge since previous literature stated that this is not possible with MFL method
[1,6]. These authors had developed the theoretical background for such analysis that is
based on adding an additional coil in the passive magnetic field that reacts more
strongly to internal defects and is partially “blind” to external ones.
D) Various approaches were investigated for improvement of the accuracy of data
analysis with the goal to stay within +/- 10% of the tube wall [4,5]. They included: a)
speed compensation either electronically or by adding speed sensor detecting the probe
speed, b) designing a software that automatically measures amplitudes of each channel
(coils and Hall-effect) and selects appropriate data correlation for a specific type of
damage. The work is continuing and it will be reported shortly.
Based on the above discussion, a final internal probe was designed and built, that had
three independent sensors (channels). The design principle together with system
response to various defects is shown in Figure 2.
- Channel 1: signals from active coil (Coil A in Fig.2), installed in the center of the
magnetizing circuit. This coil records all sharp defects on the tube, originated both
from internal and external surface
- Channel 2: signals from passive coil (Coil B in Fig. 2), installed in the front of the
probe. This coil senses the area on the tube in passive magnetic field, thus only
sharp defects originated from internal surface and very deep defects originated from
external surface are detected. By comparing the amplitude and shape of signals
from both coils, it was possible to determine the defect point of origin and the
approximate percentage wall loss associated with the defect.
- Channel 3: signals from the Hall effect sensor that constantly measures the
magnetic flux flowing through the probe-tube circuit. The correlation exists
between the amount of magnetic flux and the wall thickness of tube, thus, the wall
thickness and its gradual variations can be detected and quantified.
In order to assess the accuracy of the newly developed test method, the results from
several inspections were compared to the results obtained with IRIS (Internal Rotating
Inspection System) results. This is an ultrasonic imaging method, that provides fairly
accurate results, usually within 10% of wall thickness, however it requires extremely
clean tubes and is very slow; only maximum of about 50 tubes can be tested during one
8 hrs shift. Figure 3 below shows the correlation between those two methods, which is
relatively high with calculated coefficient of correlation reaching 89% . This confirms
that the accuracy of this new MFL methods is similar to this, achieved by IRIS, i.e. +/-
10%. Indeed, numerous analysis performed on tubes removed from heat exchangers
have proven that conclusion.
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TUBE WALL
HALL EFFECT
S N SENSOR
COIL B COIL A MAGNETIC
CIRCUIT
O.D.
COIL A TUBE WALL
PENETRATION COIL B
PENETRATION
I.D.
COIL A:
COIL B:
Figure 2. Details of MFL probe design showing three sensors installed: Coil A in active magnetic
field, Coil B in passive magnetic field and Hall effect sensor for detection of gradual wall thinning
(assuming probe travels from left-to-right). Lower pictures show the response of Coils A and B to
various defect depth and origin, and the principle of data analysis, which is done by measuring
signal amplitudes and their ratios from both coils.
Figure 3. Data correlation in terms of percentage wall thickness determined from the results of
MFL vs. IRIS inspection methods
4. Conclusions
In conclusion, the newly developed MFL combination method was compared with all
other methods, which are currently used in industrial testing of finfan coolers/heat
exchangers. Table I shows such comparison, which was based on publication search,
discussion with plant engineering personel and authors’ personal experience. The data
on Table I demonstrates that most of design assumptions were met with the new
method and with proper use, it can be superior to all test methods used to-date.
5
Table 1. Comparison of different NDT methods for detecting specific finfan cooler
defects per published [5,6,7] and unpublished data
IRIS RFET Near Field Classic Magnetic New
Ultrasonics Eddy MFL Biased Eddy MFL
Current Curr. Method
Requirement for very clean clean clean somewhat clean somewhat
clean tubes clean clean
Interference from No Yes Only ID No Yes No
Aluminum fins screened
Detection of ID Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
sharp defects (pits)
Detection of OD Yes Yes No Yes No Yes
sharp defects
Detection of OD Yes No No Yes No Yes
defects close to
tubesheets or
supports
Detection of Yes Yes No No No Yes
gradual wall
thinning/erosion
Accuracy of Very Good Good Satisfactory Satisfactory Satisfactory Good or
quantitative data Very good
analysis
Recognize ID vs. Yes No No No Limited Yes
OD defects
Inspection speed Very slow Medium Fast 300 Fast 300 Fast 300 Very fast
Avg tubes per shift 50 150-200 300-500
Limits for testing No limit No limit Only ID Ratio of Unknown Ratio of
thick tubes reported defects ID-to-wall ID-to-
detected >7 wall >5
Typical equipment $100K $50K $50K $20K $50K $20K
cost
Level of Inspector High High Medium Medium Medium Medium
Qualifications
Notes: IRIS - Internal Rotating Inspection System
RFET - Remote Field Eddy Current
References and footnotes
1. R.Gonzalez, "Extended RBI for Exchanger Bundles", Inspectioneering Journal,
Sept/Oct 2019.
2. Bergander, M., US Patent No. 4,789,827: "Magnetic Flux Leakage Probe with
Radially Offset Coils for Use in NDT of Pipes and Tubes", Dec. 6, 1988.
3. Bergander M., “Application of High Energy Permanent Magnets for Nondestructive
Testing Sensors”, Proc. of Magnetics 2004 Conference, June 9-10, 2004, Denver
4. Bergander M., “Magnetic Flux Leakage Examination of Petro/Chemical Heat
Exchanger Tubing”, NDT&E Int. Vol. 30, No. 1, 1997
5. Kapayeva S., et al. “Ultrasonic Evaluation of Combined Effect of Corrosion and
Overheating in Steel 20 Water-Wall Boiler Tubes”, Insight, Vol. 59, No. 12, 2017
6. https://www.inspection-for-industry.com/fin-tube-heat-exchanger-inspection.html
7. http://files.chartindustries.com/hudson/FinFan_Life_Cycle_Cost_Analysis.pdf
