Health monitoring of aboveground storage tanks' floors: A new methodology based on practical experience

An acoustic-emission technique is developed as a nonintrusive method and suitable maintenance-planning tool for inspecting the floors of storage tanks in order to find an optimum service-period duration. This paper deals with the methodologies and experiences gathered from field testing of above-ground storage tanks via the acoustic-emission technique conducted in refineries until now. The results of field testing conducted to date has led us to create a grading system for the purpose of maintenance of tank floors. The location of leak and corrosion sources that is based on the arrival-time difference in the acoustic-emission measurement is discussed, and findings gathered through source-location-placement algorithm and results are presented as a 2D map of tank-floor sources.