Acoustic energy of high intensity often results in vibration, causing fatigue
damage, continuous repair work and increased running costs. Vipac's engineers
identify structure borne as well as airborne noise and vibration and determine
appropriate control measures by using vibration and acoustic intensity measurement
techniques at the source and surroundings. Local acoustic shock phenomena such
as high pressure pipe flow at valves are diagnosed and remedial measures put in
place to reduce and sometimes even eliminate acoustic shock waves. Fatigue damage
due to acoustic induced vibration, initiated by intense hydrodynamic and acoustic
pressure fields from various flow control devices can be identified by computer
modelling and reduced to maintain the requisite level of safe operation.
Several failure mechanisms that have the potential to lead to loss of Process
System Containment are often not identified as a hazard, either at the conceptual
or detailed design stages of a new asset, or when operational changes are being
considered for an existing plant. These failure mechanisms include vibration
fatigue, corrosion and erosion. Vipac has developed a proprietary method,
designated Process System Integrity (PSI) assessment, for identifying, quantifying
and managing the risk of failure due to these failure modes. PSI assessment has
been implemented on a number of new and existing projects and has demonstrated
considerable benefits, both in terms of compliance with safety case requirements
and substantial cost savings by minimising unforeseen process outages.
To find out more about these services, please email: