SEE THE UNSEEN- THERMAL IMAGING OF IN-SERVICE FRP

EQUIPMENT
Fiber-reinforce plastic (FRP) equipment have been used in process industries since
long due to being economical, light weighted and having improved mechanical
characteristics like strength, toughness etc. The composite also demonstrates nearly
immune behavior towards many known degradation mechanisms affecting metallic
equipment.
Assessing health of FRP equipment has become a challenging task for many years
and much has been written on this topic. Visual examination of internal and
external surfaces for anomalies (i.e. chalking, crazing, cracking, delamination,
erosion, discoloration, voids, corrosion, weeping etc.) is the most commonly used
method for assessing health of equipment, other non-intrusive methods include
thermographic inspection, thickness monitoring, hardness testing, radiographic
inspection and acoustic emission testing (AET) of FRP equipment.
This document aims to provide general guidelines for effectively performing onstream thermographic inspection of FRP equipment including storage tanks,
vessels, pipes, ducts etc. in order to assess the health for continued service.
Many factors must be considered for conducting thermal examination of FRP
equipment including construction of equipment, operating and surrounding
temperatures, fluid being handled, process parameters, previous inspection
findings, repair history and susceptible damage mechanism. We will discuss each o
CONSTRUCTION OF EQUIPMENT:
FRP equipment are usually having laminated construction comprises of structural
layers, corrosion barrier on process side and external UV coating to protect
external surfaces of structural layer from harmful UV light. Thickness of each of
these

However, findings of such on-stream inspections must always be supplemented

through internal inspections when the vessel is taken out of service.

. As this type of inspection is extremely limiting by low thermal conductivity of

FRP materials.