Nondestructive Testing: Necessary Evil or Benefit?

摘要

Modern NDT methods for new construction and maintenance tests are becoming ever more quantitative and nonintru-sive. For NDT of new construction, this implies that the more one knows about the material properties and operational conditions, the better the acceptance criteria for weld discontinuities can be based on the required weld integrity and can be fine tuned to a specific application. In the pipeline construction industry, this is already happening. In plant maintenance, the availability of quantitative and noninvasive screening of NDT methods will reduce the time needed for shutdowns and increase the intervals between them. Modern NDT methods will become just as important a tool for risk based inspection approaches and maintenance planning as operational parameters and degradation mechanisms already are. In both of these NDT application fields, these tendencies can lead to rationalization, with cost reduction as a result, while maintaining or even improving existing safety levels. In this way, NDT can cease to be seen as a necessary evil and become clearly seen as a benefit.