An Advanced System for the Visualisation and Prediction of Equipment Ageing

The control of major hazards involving dangerous substances in the chemical and process industry requires verifying equipment ageing according to the current legislation. This means to monitor its real conditions regarding degradation mechanisms and forecast their evolution over time. A system, named Virtual Sensor, supports this activity that is usually conducted during on-field inspections (safety walks). It is designed to collect ageing-related information, process data through some models, and produce prognostic estimates regarding the corrosion rate, the probability of the critical pit, the corrosion evolution on the equipment surface, and the residual lifetime, visualising the results in Augmented Reality (AR). An atmospheric storage tank of diesel oil was chosen as the case study; its 3D model was realised, and a miniature model was reproduced in the laboratory. Through the Virtual Sensor, data of past inspections were acquired. The application successfully managed and elaborated these data, showing the outputs in AR during a safety walk.