Integrated Turnaround Integrity Assessment for High-Temperature Hydroprocessing Equipment
An anonymized prior-experience case showing how TES Canada technical personnel connected damage-mechanism review, inspection planning, advanced NDT, field metallography and engineering assessment within a two-week turnaround window for high-temperature hydroprocessing equipment.
Recreated workflow graphic showing how damage-mechanism review, inspection planning, advanced NDT, field-replica review, characterization, engineering assessment and final disposition are connected during a turnaround integrity program.
Representative anonymized TOFD response used to illustrate advanced ultrasonic screening during turnaround assessment.
Anonymized ultrasonic view illustrating bond-line response interpretation without facility or equipment identifiers.
Operational Context
This anonymized case reflects prior project experience of TES Canada technical personnel in previous roles. It is presented as personnel experience and does not imply that TES Canada was the contracting entity.
The work concerned aging high-temperature hydroprocessing pressure equipment in a petrochemical facility, including pressure vessels and heat exchangers that required integrity decisions within a two-week turnaround window.
The public version intentionally omits the facility identity, location, contracting parties, equipment identifiers, exact equipment counts, exact dates and traceable project details.
Engineering & Integrity Challenge
The turnaround team needed to connect damage-mechanism review, inspection scope planning, advanced NDT execution, field-replica review, characterization of findings, engineering assessment and final disposition without treating inspection outputs as isolated report results.
Relevant technical concerns included crack-like indications, clad or bond-line responses, high-temperature service degradation concerns and the need to separate manufacturing-related responses from service-induced damage.
Why the Situation Was Complex
The inspection window was constrained, access and surface preparation had to be coordinated with turnaround activity, and the technical team needed escalation paths for indications that could affect repair or continued-service decisions.
Ultrasonic responses and metallographic evidence required engineering context. The draft does not claim that a single NDT method conclusively detects, excludes or sizes every stage of high-temperature hydrogen attack or other degradation mechanisms.
TES Engineering Thinking
The assessment approach began with credible damage mechanisms and inspection objectives, then matched TOFD, PAUT, manual UT, magnetic particle testing, ultrasonic bond-line assessment and field replica metallography to the relevant geometry and degradation questions.
Where HTHA was a concern, the evidence was treated as screening and interpretation evidence requiring qualified engineering judgment. Findings were escalated based on mechanism relevance, inspection confidence and consequence, rather than on signal appearance alone.
A service-induced crack was detected, characterized and sized, then escalated for engineering assessment. The assessment used engineering assessment and fitness-for-service principles to support a repair disposition, and the repair was completed during the turnaround.
Technical Approach
Practical Outcome
The program converted inspection results into a disposition workflow: review the damage mechanisms, define the inspection scope, execute complementary NDT, review field metallography where required, characterize findings, escalate to engineering assessment and document final disposition.
The outcome was not simply more inspection coverage. It was a governed pathway for deciding which findings could be monitored, which required engineering assessment and which required repair or other disposition before return to service.
Lessons Learned
Turnaround inspection programs need a live escalation path from NDT findings to engineering disposition.
Inspection coverage alone is not integrity assurance; method selection must be tied to credible damage mechanisms and geometry.
HTHA-related screening language should remain qualified unless the evidence directly supports a stronger conclusion.
Manufacturing indications, clad or bond-line responses and service-induced damage require different interpretation and disposition logic.
Facing a Similar
Integrity Challenge?
TES brings practical engineering thinking to the integrity challenges that aging infrastructure and operational pressure create. If this case experience resonates with a challenge you are navigating, a technical discussion is the right first step.