A Survey of Failure Rate of In-Service Pressure Vessels in China’s Non-Nuclear Industry

Abstract Failure rate is very important for the reliability and risk assessment of in-service pressure vessels. As early as in the 1970s and 1980s, the failure rate data of in-service pressure vessels has been collected in various countries, such as Europe and the United States, and in great detail. These data were incorporated into the relevant reliability database such as OREDA and CEMHD5. However, the failure rate data of pressure vessels in China is rarely reported so far, which limits the development of reliability and risk assessment technology for the pressure vessels in non-nuclear and nuclear industries. In this paper, about fifty thousand in-service pressure vessels data in China’s non-nuclear industry were collected. The potential and catastrophic failure rate were counted based on exponential distribution model. The statistical results were compared and analyzed with those of other countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany. The analysis results showed that the thickness thinning and cracking caused by corrosive medium were two main causes for pressure vessel failures in China. The failure rate of in-service pressure vessels in China is higher than that in the Europe and the United States countries, which may be caused by the high sulfur and high acid crude oil.