10D-1 On-Line Ultrasonic Inspection at Elevated Temperatures

An ability to perform on-line inspection on live plant without stopping an industrial process would be extremely valuable across a wide range of sectors including: power generation, petrochemical, offshore and steel. Frequently, plant operating temperatures are higher than existing contact inspection technologies can withstand and there is a need to have regular scheduled outages to allow cooling to occur before inspections can take place. There is significant interest therefore in the development of high temperature inspection capabilities to reduce the need for these outages. On-line monitoring would also be important as this would give the confidence needed to enable plant to operate safely beyond initial design life.