A power producer operating combined-cycle and conventional steam units struggled with tube-wall thickness data arriving too late during short outage windows.
Ultrasonic testing (UT) crews measured thousands of boiler and heat-recovery steam generator (HRSG) tube locations for flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC) and fireside erosion, but the readings were compiled in multi-tab spreadsheets that had to be manually compared against prior outage baselines.
Current state before intelliSPEC
- Late tube-replacement calls: By the time UT spreadsheets were cleaned and compared against ASME Section I / B31.1 minimum wall thickness, the outage was already halfway through its window.
- Inconsistent tube numbering: Different NDE vendors numbered rows, harps, and elevations differently from outage to outage, breaking multi-year erosion trend lines.
- Scramble for the Authorized Inspector: Pulling weld maps, hydrotest records, and prior NBIC NB-23 inspection histories for jurisdictional boiler sign-off required days of document hunting.
Configured path
The fleet implemented intelliVISION, intelliNDT, intelliINTEGRITY, and intelliPROJECTS, with boiler-interior capture running offline on intelliEDGE.
- Fixed tube and circuit geometry: Boiler panels, headers, and FAC-susceptible elbows were modeled once in
so every outage crew recorded against the exact same elevation and tube identity. - Offline UT inside the casing: NDE technicians working inside the boiler drum and HRSG modules captured UT thickness readings over Bluetooth into
with zero signal. - Automated
and remaining life: On sync,computed short-term and long-term wear rates against ASME B31.1 and Section I formulas, flagging tubes below threshold for immediate replacement in.
Measured outcome
- Outage scope frozen with data: Tube plug and dutchman replacement lists were generated directly from the corrosion engine the day the UT walk finished.
- Multi-outage FAC trending: Fleet engineers compare tube-wall loss across outages on one consistent coordinate map, catching accelerating FAC before a forced tube leak.
- Ready-on-arrival NB-23 packages: Authorized Inspectors review vessel history, NDE reports, and repair sign-offs from one controlled record.