Failures caused by Flow-Accelerated Corrosion (FAC) have occurred at both nuclear and fossil-fuel power plants, several with fatal consequences. Various plant areas have been impacted, including feed water pump, heater drain and economizer header piping systems.

This article discusses power plant FAC programs and the implementation of recent developments to select FAC inspection locations, perform cost-effective examinations, evaluate results and mitigate FAC failures. These advances include implementing the combination of software to assist in selecting examination locations and using positive materials identification (PMI) and RTD-INCOTEST (a pulsed eddy current NDT technique) to scan for wall thinning without removing insulation, leading to an effective inspection program.

After introducing FAC and the metallurgic conditions that allow for it, the article presents some of the available NDT technologies for assessing the condition of FAC susceptible components. The possibilities and limitations of each technique are addressed. Next the issue of choosing the right technology is treated. Finally some practical cases of inspection of individual components are shown, with particular attention to the past and running RTD-INCOTEST development and qualification.

After his degree in Material Engineering at the University of Trento – Italy – Riccardo Scottini joined RTD's Maintenance & Corrosion Services (MCS) department in 1999. After one year experience, he joined RTD's Development & System (D&S) department to support the RTD-INCOTEST development team and licensees worldwide. In 2003 Project Manager RTD Business & Market Development (B&MD), In 2006 Project Manager Applus RTD Offshore where He developed and focussed INCOTEST application underwater supplied by divers and ROV's. Since January 2008 He is Project Manager at the new corporate unit Applus RTD Application Support Centre.