Method for monitoring thinning of pipe walls and piping component for use therewith

Abstract

A method of monitoring thinning of pipe walls in a piping system including selecting locations to be monitored, normally those pipes particularly susceptible to thinning from erosion/corrosion, boring holes in the outer surfaces of the pipes at the selected locations to depths greater than the thickness at which the pipes will rupture to leave predetermined residual wall thicknesses between the ends of the holes and the inner surfaces of the pipe walls, inserting tracer materials in the holes to be released in the pipes when pipe wall thinning exceeds the residual wall thicknesses of the holes, and determining the presence or absence of tracer materials in the holes to permit pipe wall thinning to be determined prior to pipe rupture allowing repair or replacement during scheduled downtime of the piping system. Preferably, a series of spaced holes are bored to differing depths at each location such that, knowing the difference in depth and thus residual thickness between holes and the time period between detection of tracer materials from each hole, the rate of pipe wall thinning can be determined, and the period of time in which the pipe can be safely repaired can be calculated.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.