Patent ID: 8316712
Filing Date: 2012-11-27
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
1. A method for revealing, recognizing and assessing fracture hazards of electro-chemical corrosion, pitting, and corrosion-fatigue, said method comprising: (i) detecting a presence of a flaw development process in an inspected equipment, said flaw development process comprising at least one of corrosion product nucleation and development, pitting, plastic deformation development, and micro-cracking, wherein said detecting comprises: the sheaf of AE signal properties is selected from the group comprising energy vs. average frequency, amplitude vs. average frequency, and energy vs. hit rate; (ii) comparing, for each location, said measured AE signals, corrected for said attenuation, with the characteristic AE signatures in the database; (iii) identifying a presence of the flaw development process only when the measured AE conforms to a characteristic AE signature in the database within a predetermined tolerance; and (iv) determining an intensity of the flaw development process by comparing a measured AE energy vs. hit rate with ellipses of dispersion of energy vs. hit rate from the database.