Because many industrial plants are now reaching or have exceeded the end of their initial service life, there is an increasingly pressing need to deploy robust systems for monitoring the integrity of the ageing civil engineering infrastructure on these sites. An effective structural integrity management system is the most important defence against catastrophic failure at complex industrial plants.
Industrial civil engineering structures are generally very large (towers, chimneys), subject to high loads (reservoirs, silos) and/or rolling loads (cranes, loaders), positioned in aggressive environments (high temperatures, thermal shock) and regularly subjected to dynamic stress (rotating machines). Every structure has a specific function and its structural failure modes are specific to the stresses that it undergoes due to the industrial process.
Unplanned shutdowns, operating losses, loss of shareholder confidence or even tragic accidents.
And adjust the utilization rate of structures to stay within safe limits.
To bring it in line with the service life of the industrial site.
By planning and ranking preventive maintenance operations by priority.
With over 70 years of experience in structural inspection, evaluation and repair, Freyssinet offers support to develop a tailored asset management process for your infrastructure, backed by a SaaS inspection app, and uses the results to provide guidance on optimized corrective actions or improvements using cutting-edge techniques.
All visual inspections are carried out in accordance with a set of specifications aimed at quantifying and ranking the structural integrity of assets in a standardized manner. Freyssinet offers support for the drafting of these specifications by analysing your environment, the uses of each structure, their main failure modes and the associated consequences, and by identifying any signs and defects already apparent.
Photo: CRH
The aim of visual inspection is to identify any major damage or incidents and any obvious failure or deterioration of the structural components that might pose a threat to user safety and operational continuity. It is the most effective non-destructive evaluation technique for assessing the condition of the structures when the scale of the infrastructure assets means that it would be too complex and costly to put in place sensor instrumentation. It is generally carried out from ground level or from permanent access structures.
The effectiveness of regular visual inspections is entirely dependent on the inspector’s ability to detect faults and problems at an early stage, and to pass on precise, consistent and clearly recorded information to the engineer responsible for evaluation. Freyssinet offers visual inspection training for your teams and support for the performance of detailed inspections.
Regular, detailed monitoring of the apparent condition of structures means that the right action can be taken in terms of diagnosis (physical survey, laboratory tests and recalculations) and preventive or corrective maintenance, and the implementation and effectiveness of previous actions can be checked.
As required, Freyssinet offers assistance in the inspection, diagnosis, structural evaluation and design phases of your projects.
As a specialist in structural repair and reinforcement of all types of structure, operating through a global network of subsidiaries, if you have unconventional issues such as significant damage, change of use, alteration of utilization rates, modernization or even regulatory changes, Freyssinet can guide you towards optimized corrective actions or improvements using cutting-edge technology.
By using a tablet, photos of the defects can be uploaded directly in the app in real time for ease of cataloguing and evaluation.
After the detailed analysis of the inspection results, the app automatically generates an inspection report and dashboards, for one or more sites, that bring together the inspection data and the results of maintenance activities.
This means that managers can easily keep track of their asset inspection regimes and the condition of all of their structures at all times, and thus effectively steer the preparation of maintenance budgets.
