In virtually every industry, performance of materials is a key to success. However, material behavior is determined by the complex nature of the material´s interaction with liquids, gases and / or solids at different temperatures and loads. Even minor changes in these parameters can result in significant differences in material behavior. In the past, prediction of material behavior was based upon experience, literature and tests, and system parameters could not be directly and confidently related to material damage rates.

The Innovative Solution

The bayPRINCE^® methodology for corrosion management follows a completely new approach. By providing a methodology to identify, analyze and understand the causes for corrosion damage, the bayPRINCE^® methodology makes pro-active control of corrosion damage possible and enables the development and continuous improvement of system specific corrosion management strategies. The following equation illustrates the basic concept: Experience + bayPRINCE^® = Knowledge + Confidence

The “experience” is the data collected over time about corrosion behavior in process plants. The origin can be for example inspection reports, laboratory corrosion testing or measurements from online corrosion monitoring systems. Such data can be gathered and stored systematically. The Bayer Technology Services corrosion information system KIS for example is such a systematic approach.

With the principle of intelligent, artifical neural nets that rely on trustworthy corrosion data, bayPRINCE^® can consider any eventuality of materials corrosion that traditional mechanistic or empirical models are hard-pressed to cope with. This solution will be specific to the modeled corrosion system and facilitates the prediction of likely corrosion rates and active damage mechanisms.

Industry and Customer Solutions, Workbench

Application of the bayPRINCE^® method finally leads to bayPRINCE^® solutions, provided in the form of a software solution. This software solution facilitates the analysis of corrosion mechanisms visually and numerically, for example to investigate material response to defined scenarios, or to perform optimization calculations.

bayPRINCE^® Industry Solutions are developed and maintained by Bayer Technology Services for industry-specific corrosion systems, for example for sulphuric acid systems relevant to hydrometallurgy, titanium dioxide production, nitration, supluric acid production, and heat recovery in sulphuric acid plants. bayPRINCE^® Customer Solutions implement the bayPRINCE^® methodology and are designed to characterize the unique corrosion system of a customer. The typical project execution model for developing a Customer Solution is structured into three steps:
Assessment

• Characterize the corrosion system to be analyzed
• Define the data requirements Strategy
• Collect and screen the data that is to be used
• Develop and validate neural net model Solution
• Transform model into bayPRINCE^® solution
• Integrate the bayPRINCE^® solution into existing corrosion management processes

The bayPRINCE^® Workbench provides the tools that enable the customer to manage corrosion data, develop models and bayPRINCE^® solutions independently and whenever needed.