I recently went on a tour to a local water company plant where we were shown a sludge tank which is where the sludge in the water is removed and stored here.
The sludge can be acidic and so can cause damage to the tanks such as cracks and therefore leakages.
I was told that the company only knew about the damages when they actually occurred and not before.
What could be some ways to detect early signs of these tank failures in order to spot them before the leakages actually occur ?
There are interferometers that can scan the interior of machinery, like inside of a running jet engine, precisely, and produce high-quality signals or imagery as to the flow stream data or structural data. They are not necessarily too costly.
A company here in Los Angeles has made a special order device to scan inside of Japan's Fukushima's damaged nuclear reactor to find cracks in the core and the pumps.
These interferometers can detect cracks at their inception or check for early chemical change on the suspect spot on the tank.
Nondestructive testing methods such as Ultrasonic, Magnetic Flux Leakage, and Eddy Current are routinely used to inspect tank interiors that are in operation.
My advice to address the cause would be to coat the tank in a refractory material that is not vulnerable to the damage
