Ricardo R. Valbuena: About the Author
DNV Inc
Ricardo is currently the supervisor of the Materials Engineering Section of Det Norske Veritas (DNV) in Houston. He has a BS degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of Missouri-Rolla and a MS degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the Ohio State University. Ricardo joined DNV in 1992, after working at PDVSA and Union Carbide. At DNV, Ricardo has been heavily involved in inspection planning using Risk Based Inspection methodologies, development of engineering tools to evaluate the toughness properties of steels as well as detection techniques for Wet H2S damage, high temperature hydrogen attack, and creep.
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Published Articles
Damage of carbon steel pressure vessels due to various in-service damage mechanisms continues to be a serious concern in the refining and petrochemical industries. A survey conducted in 1990 by the NACE T-8-16 Work Group to determine the nature and extent of cracking problems in wet H2S refinery environments showed that there was insufficient information reported about the type of cracking found to correlate cracking incidence with cracking mechanisms. Most of the inspections for cracking reported were detected during internal inspection using Wet Fluorescent Magnetic Particle Testing (WFMPT). As a result, it was concluded that in addition to the service related cracks reported, a number of "cracks" detected were the result of original fabrication, repair or alteration of the pressure vessels.
