EVALUATION OF THE DEFECTS IN TYPE-I CNG CYLINDER USING

ACOUSTIC EMISSION TECHNIQUE

Suparerk Sirivedin (1), Tonphong Kaewkongka(2), Jirapong Lim(3)

(1)
King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok
Bangsue, Bangkok 10800, Thailand Email : ssv@kmutnb.ac.th
(2)
Department of Physics, Chulalongkorn University
Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand Email : tonphong.k@chula.ac.th
(3)
Department of Production Engineering,
King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok
Bangsue, Bangkok 10800, Thailand Email : jir@kmutnb.ac.th

ABSTRACT the vehicles. Therefore, this test method is impractical due

Defects on compressed natural gas (CNG) storage
cylinders can often result in damage of costly cylinders.
Acoustic emission (AE) testing was performed on type I
steel cylinder. These studies suggested that the elastic stress
waves or acoustic emissions generated during the
microscopic dislocation can propagate across the storage
cylinder surface to be detectable by the sensors attached at
the ends of the cylinder. This paper presents a preliminary
study on the signal transmission and propagation of acoustic
emission (AE) signatures across the cylinder with and
without a predefined surface crack. During the test, a
gradual increase in hydrostatic pressure up to 400 bars was
applied to the cylinder. The AE signals were recorded as a
function of time and the increased pressure. It is therefore
obvious that AE can be used to capture the defects due to
crack propagation.
Index Terms— CNG Cylinder, Acoustic Emission,
Surface Crack Propagation,
1. INTRODUCTION
To assure the safety of vehicles using compressed
natural gas (CNG) is an important issue in Thailand. There
have been several accidents from CNG-cylinder explosions
in the past. The periodical inspection requires the first
inspection after the cylinder has been using for 3 years.
However, the inspection is normally carried out by visual
inspection. Consequently, the risk is relied on the inspection
by licensed professional engineers since the internal defects
cannot be examined.
to time-consuming and high inspection cost.
Recently, acoustic emission (AE) technique has been
standardized for gas cylinder inspection as described in
ISO/DIS 16148.2 [1]. Using AE technique, the inspection
can be quickly performed without disassembling the
cylinder from vehicle. However, Craig Webster [2] has
found out that the AE test based on ISO/DIS 16148.2 is
unable to evaluate defects in Type I steel cylinder. Mark P.
Connelly and Han Dinh [3] proposed the AE technique
called “Source Location Acoustic Monitoring (SLAM)” to
inspect US Postal Service vehicles. They concluded that the
inspection cost for acoustic emission SLAM test is about
half of the cost for conventional hydrostatic test. They also
claimed that the SLAM test has the ability to locate both the
external/internal flaws.
Stephen J. Hudak [4] has used AE technique to
evaluate remaining life-time of the cylinders. He found that
at the initial crack of about 25 percent of the wall thickness
the cylinder has the remaining life-time for 95 years!, while
the deeper crack of 40 percent of the wall thickness the
cylinder is last for 5 years under the cyclic load caused by
daily refueling pressure ranging from 300 to 3,000 psi.
A major benefit of AE inspection is that it can allow
the whole volume of the cylinder to be tested non-
intrusively in a pressurized operating condition. Generally,
the global AE inspection is used to identify areas with the
presence of defect problems and other NDT methods are
then used to identify more precisely location and the root
cause of the AE sources.

The fully inspection can be accomplished by ultrasonic

test but this method requires removal of the cylinder from
 The aim of this research is to study the feasibility
of condition monitoring of CNG storage cylinder using AE
sensors and its propagation of the stress waves through the
type I CNG steel cylinder with and without surface crack.

2. EXPERIMENTAL APPARATUS

Acoustic emission is a natural phenomenon of

stress wave generation and propagation spontaneously when
a material is subjected under stress. Plastic deformation and
growth cracks are the primary sources of acoustic emission
in metals. The acoustic signal can be detected by a
piezoelectric transducer, which converts the mechanical
energy carried by the elastic wave into an electrical signal as
shown in Figure 1.
The AE inspection is usually carried out during a
controlled loading or pressurization of the material or
specimen. A conventional AE parameter, AE hit rate is used
to identify the presence of the acoustic emission activities
produced during the microscopic failures. Figure 2 SIMPAL system from Holroyd

The AE signal enveloper converts the amplified

signal to ‘rf’ signal which is digitized to personal computer
for further data logging and processing. The SIMPAL
system equipment (Holroyd Instruments, UK) was used as
acoustic emission data logger and processing in this work
(see Figure 2). The AE data can then be captured to data
logger (PC). In the experiment, four AE sensors were
attached to the cylinder without crack (see Figure 3), and
with a surface crack (see Figure 4). Characteristic and
dimensions of surface crack are shown in Figure 5.

Figure 1 Acoustic emission system

The resonant type of acoustic emission transducers

(Holroyd Instruments, UK: Model ASS-1) are mounted on
the circumference of the surface of the valve.

It provides the 100 kHz of resonant frequency which

responses well with the material degradation and
microscopic crack initiation. The acquired signal is then
amplified with 60 dB gain pre-amplifier.
Figure 3 Installation of AE sensors on CNG cylinder
 Figure 4 Installation of AE sensors on CNG cylinder
with a longitudinal surface crack

The cylinder used in this experiment has a capacity of

60 litres. It has a diameter of 300 mm, the length of 990 Figure 6 Installation of CNG cylinder in a test chamber
mm and the averaged wall thickness of 8 mm. The cylinder
was installed in a chamber of a high-pressure hydrostatic
3. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
testing machine (see Figure 6).

3.1 Hydrostatic test on CNG cylinder without crack

A hydrostatic test with an applied pressure up to
300 bars was performed on a CNG cylinder without a
surface crack. The parametric input indicates the pressure
level (with the maximum voltage 10 Volt corresponding to
300 bar and minimum 0 Volt corresponding to 0 bar). The
first acoustic emission hit rate (AE Hit Rate) was detected at
the applied pressure of 90 bars (see Fig. 7).

NGV-Node 0 (11/09/2008 , 1:09:01)

Log Hit Rate vs Recorded Date/Time
1.00 11.00
10.00

Figure 5 Surface crack characteristic 9.00

8.00
7.00
6.00
.10 5.00
The threshold was set at 40 dB based on observed 4.00
Lo g H it R a te

P a ram e tr ic

background noise. A gradual increase in hydrostatic 3.00

2.00

pressure up to 400 bars was applied to the cylinder. 1.00

0.00
.01 -1.00
1 4:39 :2 0
1 4:43 :2 7
1 4:47 :3 3
1 4:51 :4 0
1 4:55 :4 6
1 4:59 :5 3
1 5:04 :0 0
1 5:08 :0 6
1 5:12 :1 3
1 5:16 :1 9
1 5:20 :2 6
1 5:24 :3 2
1 5:28 :3 9
1 5:32 :4 6
1 5:36 :5 2
1 5:40 :5 9
1 5:45 :0 5
1 5:49 :1 2
1 5:53 :1 9
1 5:57 :2 5
1 6:01 :3 2
1 6:05 :3 8
1 6:09 :4 5
1 6:13 :5 2
1 6:17 :5 8
1 6:22 :0 5
1 6:26 :1 1
1 6:30 :1 8
1 6:34 :2 4
1 6:38 :3 1
1 6:42 :3 8
1 6:46 :4 4
1 6:50 :5 1
1 6:54 :5 7
1 6:59 :0 4
1 7:03 :1 1
1 7:07 :1 7
1 7:11 :2 4
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Recorded Date/Time

Figure 7 AE hit rate v.s. pressure for CNG cylinder

without surface crack
3.2 Hydrostatic test on CNG cylinder with a crack
A hydrostatic test with an applied pressure up to 300
bars was performed on a CNG cylinder with a surface crack.
A crack length, l = 30 mm and a crack depth, a = 2 mm was
introduced in a longitudinal direction of CNG cylinder by
hand grinder. The accumulated AE counts of 7 times were
detected at the applied pressure between 120-140 bars.
Figure 8 AE counts v.s. pressure for CNG cylinder with
a surface crack at hydrostatic test
3.3 Burst test on CNG cylinder with a surface crack
A burst test was performed on a CNG cylinder with a
surface crack. A crack length, l = 50 mm and a crack depth,
a = 6 mm was introduced in a longitudinal direction on the
same CNG cylinder, which enlarged a crack size by hand
grinder. At the applied pressure between 100-170 bars,
more than 100 AE counts were detected.
AE signal was not detected after 170 bars until the
applied pressure was increased to 310 bars. The
accumulated AE counts more than 2 million times were
detected at the applied pressure between 310-340 bars. The
CNG cylinder leaked at the location of surface crack at the
applied pressure of 340 bars.
Figure 9 AE counts v.s. pressure for CNG cylinder with
a surface crack at burst test
4. CONCLUSIONS
Due to “Kaiser effect” in which the material
recognizes its service stress, the applied pressure to cause
AE hit must be greater than the service pressure. When the
surface crack was introduced onto the CNG cylinder, a
greater number of acoustic events are likely to occur than
CNG cylinder without crack. As the surface crack size is
increasing, a large number of acoustic events were detected
at the same pressure level. Therefore, acoustic emission
technique can be used to evaluate and assess how severe of
the defects in Type-I CNG cylinder.
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank Energy Technique
Development Institute, Department of Energy Business of
Thailand for testing facilities. They would also like to thank
Iron & Steel Institute of Thailand for financial support
throughout this paper.
 6. REFERENCES

[1] ISO/DIS 16148.2, “Gas cylinders-Refillable seamless steel gas

cylinder- Acoustic emission examination for periodic inspection”,
International Organization for Standardization, 2006.
[2] C. Webster, “Development of Non-Destructive Evaluation
(NDE) Techniques for CNG Fuel Tanks”, Report for
Transportation Development Centre of Transport Canada, Canada,
2007.
[3] M.P. Connolly, H. Dinh, “Fleet Inspection of Compressed
Natural Gas Cylinders for Natural Gas Vehicles Using Source
Location Acoustic Monitoring” SAE Technical Paper Series No.
961174, SAE International, 1996.
[4] S.J. Jr. Hudak, “Assuring the Safety of Natural Gas Vehicles”
Technology Today Magazine, Sept. 1991.