Piping Inspection

The Piping Inspection article provides you with information about the inspection of
piping and piping testing in a construction site, as well as in operational plants.
This article provides you lots of invaluable information about following items:

Inspection and Testing During the Construction Phase

Inspection and Testing During the Operation Phase

Piping System Codes and Regulations

Maintenance and Repairs

Piping Inspection article, alongside the other linked articles are useful for Construction
Contractors Quality Control Personnel, Second and Third Party Inspectors, Purchasers,
Sellers, Plant Inspectors, HSE Engineers, Integrity Engineers, Operation and
Maintenance Engineers, and any Other Interested Individuals.
What is the definition of a pipe?
Based on API Code, the definition of pipe is a pressure-tight cylinder used to convey a
fluid or to transmit a fluid pressure.

If you look to the refinery or chemical plant, you can see the jungle of pipes which are
connecting the vessels together. Statistic shows that 40 % of total mechanical failures in
the units are because of the process piping.
This article provides you information about site inspection of process piping as well as
important points on in-service inspection in process plants.

What is the Process Piping Inspection Requirement at a Construction Site?

The construction code for process piping is ASME B31.3 Code and it covers the
minimum requirements for design, materials, fabrication, inspection, testing, and
commissioning.
With the above explanation, your inspection and test plan (ITP) for process piping needs
to meet the requirements of ASME B31.3 Code.
ASME B31.3 refers you to the other ASME code sections for some activities. For
example for welding refer to the ASME Code Section IX, pipe fitting design and
selection to the ASME B16.5 and for Nondestructive testing to ASME Code Section V.
The process piping design and construction is not under the ASME Code scheme of
stamped items.
It means there is not certification for construction contractors by ASME, and it is the
responsibility of owner to select a qualified and experienced contractor for its process
piping construction project.
This is the reason that in the ASME B31.3 code you cannot see the wording of
Authorized Inspector, and instead the words owner inspector have been used.
The owner inspector can be the owner's own qualified inspector or the inspector of a third
party inspection company under contract with the owner.
Throughout the ASME Construction codes, when you see the words authorized
inspector, you notice there is an ASME Stamp scheme there.
Contrary to the ASME B31.3, the ASME B31.1 code for power piping (boiler external
piping) have the ASME stamp scheme. The construction contractor must be certified by
the ASME organization and must hold the PP stamp.
So the wording for inspector in the ASME B31.1 is "authorized inspector," which means
that this person has specific qualifications and a commission card from NBIC.
For more details, review the Pressure Vessel Certification article. The certification
process for the power piping contractor is similar to the pressure vessel.
The detail of inspection requirement in the construction field is addressed in the process
piping inspection and test plan.
Inspection and Test Plan for Process Piping

What is In-Service Inspection Requirement for Process Piping?

The In-Service Inspection code for your process piping is API STD 570.
The title of the code is Piping Inspection Code: In-service Inspection, Rating, Repair, and
Alteration of Piping Systems.
The other API recommendation practices and codes are also necessary to be used in
conjunction with this Code.

Some of these Recommend Practices are:

API RP 574 Inspection Practices for Piping System Components,

API RP 577 Welding Inspection and Metallurgy,

API RP 571 Damage Mechanism Affecting Fixed Equipment in the Refining

Industry,

API 578 Material Verification Program for New and Existing Alloy Piping
Systems

ASME construction and referenced code sections also might be used such as
ASME B31.3 and ASME Code Section IX.
For repair, the requirement of API STD 570, or ASME PCC-2 need to be met.
The title of ASME-PCC-2, which was first published in 2006 is: Repair of
Pressure Equipment and Piping.
The API 570 Piping Inspectors are qualified persons to do the piping system
inspection.

What are the Important Items in the Piping Inspection?

These are only important points or a summary of points for the process piping inservice inspection and should not be assumed as the entire piping inspection
procedure.
A piping inspection procedure is a comprehensive document, which need to
cover inspection methods to be employed, equipment and material to be used,
qualification of inspection personnel involved and the sequence of the inspection
activities at the minimum.
You may use the following content as a summary of points for the in-service
inspection of the piping system.

Creating a piping inventory list indicating the line number, pipe

specification class, rating, schedule, pipe origin location (from) and pipe
destination location (to)

Creating piping isometric sketches to facilitate inspection and the recording

of corrosion monitoring locations (CMLs)

Dividing whole unit piping into piping circuits based on process condition
and potential degradation mechanism

Selecting appropriate NDE techniques for each piping circuit based on the
circuit damage mechanism

Determination of CMLs points in piping isometric sketches based on the

potential for general or localized corrosion and service specific damage
mechanisms

Determination of piping service class based consequence of failure and

instruction stated in API 570 or based on the Risk Based Inspection
method.

Carry out external inspection for corrosion, leaks, previous temporary

repairs, clamps, coating breakdown, insulation damage, vibration,
misalignment, pipe support deterioration specifically in touch points and to
air to soil interface, pipe hanger distortion or breakage and frizz damage

External thickness measurement on CMLs on each piping circuit

Corrosion rate calculation based on metal loss in a specific time interval

Retirement thickness calculation based on the minmium required thickness

and minimum required structural thickness

Remaining life calculation based on the available thickness for corrosion

and the corrosion rate value

Determination of piping circuit inspection interval based remaining life

calculation and piping service class

Determination of piping inspection interval for non-thinning damage

mechanism

Making supplementary inspection with the proper NDE method for piping
circuits susceptible to creep cracking

Making supplementary inspection with the proper NDE method for piping
circuits susceptible to the creep cracking

Making supplementary inspection with the proper NDE method for piping
circuits susceptible to environmental cracking from Chloride SCC,
Polythionic acid SCC, Caustic SCC, Amine SCC, Carbonate SCC,
Hydrogen blistering and hydrogen induced cracking (HIC), etc.

Application of other NDE methods if it is necessary:

1. PEC (pulsed eddy current), LRUT (long range UT), LREM (long range

electromagnetics), RT for wall thickness loss, and CUI and neutron backscatter
and infra-red thermography for detection of wet insulation
2. MT (magnetic particle), WFMT (wet fluorescent magnetic particle), PT (penetrant

testing), EC (eddy current), UT shear wave, AUT (automated UT), TOFD (time of
flight diffraction), RT, ACFM (alternating current field measurement), AET
(acoustic emission) for investigating cracking
3. Thermography for detection of fouling and hot spots

Internal inspection in opened flanges for deposition, corrosion, localized

corrosion, erosion, etc.

Internal inspection of clad or lined piping for disbanding, bulging and

cracking

Internal inspection of refractory lined piping for erosion, deterioration of

anchors, undercutting of refractory and coke build up behind refractory

Flange joint inspection for distortion and leakage and flange face
inspection, ring groove and gasket for corrosion, erosion , cracking and
mechanical damage

Internal inspection of dismantled valve for corrosion, erosion, mechanical

damage and cracking

Specific attention and internal inspection of critical check valves

Inspection of injection points for localized corrosion

Inspection of dead legs for corrosion

Corrosion under insulation inspection of piping in susceptible temperature

(-12 to 175 C) either by advance NDT or by removal of insulation and
making visual inspection

Making appropriate reporting and report keeping and implement proper

system for quick access to the records