Open Access

ARTICLE

Structural Integrity and Health Monitoring of Road and Railway Tanks based on Acoustic Emission

G. Savaidis¹, M. Malikoutsakis¹, A. Jagenbrein², A. Savaidis³, M. Soare⁴, M.V. Predoi⁴, A. Soare⁴, I.C. Diba⁴

1 Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
2 TUV Austria Services GmbH, Vienna, Austria.
3 School of Pedagogical and Technological Education, Greece.
4 S.C. Nuclear NDT Research & Services, Bucharest, Romania.

Structural Durability & Health Monitoring 2013, 9(2), 129-154. https://doi.org/10.32604/sdhm.2013.009.129

Abstract

Development of corrosion or/and fatigue crack propagation are the most common causes of structural degradation in road and railway tank vessels. An acoustic emission based monitoring procedure in conjunction with follow-up nondestructive testing is here proposed as a promising alternative to the conventional inspection processes enabling continuous health monitoring of the tank structures. Thereby, finite element analysis taking the respective ADR and RID tank design loads into account is proposed as a capable tool to be applied in early stages of development to reveal the hot spot areas, where acoustic emission sensors have to be positioned. The developed health monitoring procedure is successfully validated on tank structures providing degradation in terms of natural and artificial corrosion and fatigue cracks. The results pinpoint the capability of acoustic emission testing to reliably detect and identify each individual degradation mechanism in early stages under operational loading conditions.

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Keywords

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