Abstract: In order to reduce test period and removal cost of insulation layer, Acoustic emission technology was applied for the large-scale coke tower test .Subsequently, conventional non-destructive testing methods were used to recheck the acoustic emission inspection results. As a result, there exists good one-to-one correspondence relationship between both ways on defects locations. These facts proved acoustic emission inspection’s feasibility and effectiveness on coke drum test, and the successive application case also provides an important reference on similar large-scale petrochemical equipments’acoustic emission test.