A review of factors affecting the use of Electrical Potential Drop (EPD) for creep life monitoring

Abstract

To help determine remaining lifetime of pressure vessels suffering creep, the authors have previously developed a method and presented promising results using a combination of AC and DC electrical potential drop (EPD) on-line monitoring, detecting both final cracking as well as incipient creep damage. The latter was tentatively ascribed to the development of cavitation damage, but recent modelling and separate off-line measurements have shown that cavitation is unlikely to provide enough of a change in electrical properties to explain all of the variations previously observed. Here we gather the results obtained to date, and review their likely relationships in an attempt to obtain a greater insight into the mechanisms at play. Whilst changes in both on-line and off-line EPD are largely in accord, the belief now is that the changes seen cannot be fully explained by cavitation development and that EPD is responding to other creep induced phenomena as well.