Corrosion is one of the most common causes of fixed equipment degradation, loss of containment, and unplanned maintenance. Effective corrosion management requires more than periodic thickness readings—it requires understanding how degradation develops, where it occurs, why it accelerates, and how operational changes influence equipment integrity.
At Advanced Inspection Solutions, corrosion management begins with understanding damage mechanisms, process conditions, operating history, and asset-specific risk. AIS integrates API 571 damage mechanism principles with API 580 risk-based methodologies to help owner-operators focus inspection resources where degradation is most likely to occur.
Our objective is simple:
Identify degradation before it becomes failure.
AIS develops inspection strategies that combine:
The objective is not simply measuring metal loss.
The objective is understanding what drives degradation and managing risk before integrity is compromised.
Effective corrosion management begins with identifying credible damage mechanisms.
AIS utilizes API 571 principles to evaluate degradation risks affecting:
Common damage mechanisms may include:
Understanding active damage mechanisms allows inspections to focus on the most likely failure locations.
AIS places significant emphasis on corrosion circuit development.
Corrosion circuits group equipment and piping systems with similar degradation characteristics, allowing inspections to focus on areas exposed to similar corrosion risks. Circuit development may consider:
Corrosion circuits provide a more effective framework than treating an entire process unit as a single inspection area.
Effective corrosion monitoring depends upon quality data collection.
AIS assists clients with developing Condition Monitoring Locations based on:
Well-positioned CMLs improve corrosion rate accuracy, remaining life calculations, and future inspection planning.
Corrosion rates help determine the condition and projected life of equipment.
AIS utilizes corrosion data to evaluate:
Long-Term Trends
Short-Term Trends
Corrosion rate analysis supports:
Corrosion rarely occurs without a cause.
AIS evaluates process variables that may influence degradation, including:
Understanding process chemistry often explains why one component experiences significant degradation while similar equipment remains unaffected.
Corrosion rates are directly affected by operating conditions.
AIS encourages owner-operators to establish Integrity Operating Windows that monitor variables capable of influencing degradation.
Examples include:
Monitoring these variables helps identify changing conditions before increased corrosion rates impact equipment integrity.
Corrosion management and Risk-Based Inspection work together.
AIS utilizes corrosion data to support:
Probability of Failure
Evaluating:
Condition Monitoring Locations (CMLs)
Evaluating:
This approach helps prioritize inspection resources where corrosion presents the greatest mechanical integrity concern.
AIS develops corrosion-focused inspection strategies based on:
Equipment Design
Operating Conditions
Process Chemistry
Historical Findings
Every asset should be inspected based on its own degradation risks rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
Many corrosion programs focus on metal loss.
AIS focuses on understanding why the metal is being lost.
By combining API 571 damage mechanism identification, API 580 risk methodologies, and asset-specific inspection planning.
AIS develops corrosion management strategies that support:
"Corrosion is not the problem—unmanaged corrosion is. Effective stewardship begins by understanding degradation, managing risk, and acting before integrity is lost."