A Survey of Piping Vibration Screening Methods in Oil, Gas, and Petrochemical Plants

Abstract

Oil, gas and petrochemical facilities are founded on pipeline systems that enable the safe transfer of fluids that are highly pressured, have a high temperature and operate in a complex environment. These systems, however, are very prone to vibration-related issues, including hydraulic and mechanical vibrations such as pressure waves, flow instabilities, acoustic resonance, and rotational equipment vibrations. Over-piping vibration may result in fatigue cracks, fretting effects, leakages, and disastrous failures, which present severe threats to the safety of the plants, their reliability in operation, and the environment. To reduce these risks, vibration screening and monitoring techniques are widely adopted to detect high-risk piping systems earlier and inform maintenance and design decisions. The paper provides an extensive review of the piping vibration problem and the screening method applied in oil, gas and petrochemical facilities. It examines the place of piping systems, causes and processes that lead to vibration-induced damages and the effects of vibration on plant safety and operations. The paper also analyses the current screening, monitoring, and control techniques, such as in-line and off-line inspection, sensor-based monitoring, passive, active and semi-active techniques of vibration control. Comparative review of more recent studies identifies progress, weaknesses and gaps in the research, with the necessity to develop scalable, validated and integrated vibration screening models of industrial piping systems.