Shell Oil Comapny

Paul Alfred Westbrook

Ronald Marshall Bass

Joseph M Machado

Leonard E Gerlowski

Roderick Leonard Shulver

Richard Allen Littlefield

Timothy Caywood Hurley

James Donald Haupt

The semi-permeable characteristics of polymeric liners may be used to characterize defects, if present, in loose liners contained inside piping and equipment. The use of polymer-lined equipment is common in the chemical, refining and other industries where the polymeric liner offers excellent chemical resistance and the outer shell gives the required strength and rigidity. Permeability characteristics of liners are investigated with particular reference to volatile process gasses and/or process-soluble tracer gasses. The resulting data are used to establish nondestructive testing techniques for evaluating the integrity of lined equipment during normal operation where a mass spectrometer equipped with a sampling probe is used as the sampling and sensing devices. Real-time data is compared to characteristic data, obtained under laboratory conditions, on a membrane of the polymer from which the liners are made. Acceptance or rejection of the equipment is determined by such comparison. Equipment containing defective liners may be removed from service before the defect causes a leak.

Nondestructive method for detection of defects and the condition of

The invention comprises a tool which can be inserted through the fill nozzle of an underground fuel storage tank to measure the tank wall thickness. The invention, in a preferred embodiment, uses ultrasonic thickness measurement technology, a well known inspection technique. A special type of ultrasonic probe known as a ZIP (Zero Interface Probe) is required to measure the thickness of fiberglass. A thickness measurement is accomplished by pressing the tool transducers firmly against the inside surface of the fiberglass tank after applying a couplant gel to the surface of the transducers. The tool is connected to an ultrasonic flaw detector, which generates a transmitted pulse and displays the transmitted and reflected pulses on a display screen. The thickness is determined by measuring the time-of-flight (on the display screen) between appropriate pulses. The time-of-flight is proportional to twice the thickness (since the sound pulse must travel to the back wall and return), the proportionality factor being the speed of sound in the fiberglass (speed.times.time=distance).

Inspection tool for measuring wall thickness of underground storage tanks

The present invention provides an aromatic acid, a salt of an aromatic acid, anhydride of an aromatic acid, or mixtures thereof in which at least 50 percent of the carbon atoms are in aromatic rings and which have a melting point above about 100.degree. C. as a plasticizer for polyvinyl aromatic polymers which are functionalized by grafting salt functional groups onto the polyvinyl aromatic blocks. When such a polymer is plasticized with the aromatic acid, salt of an aromatic acid or anhydride of an aromatic acid of this invention, the polymer retains excellent high temperature physical properties.

Plasticisers for salt functionalized polyvinyl aromatics

A miscible polymer blend comprising polyketone and phenolic-based novolac polymers is provided. These blends have and exhibit improved water vapor transport properties. A process for producing these blends and articles of manufacture produced therefrom are also disclosed.

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Richmond, TX, United States of America

Paul Alfred Westbrook