).
Assessment of the piping system integrity for malfunctioning supports includes determining the highest ranked locations of consumed creep life and implementing applicable nondestructive examinations (NDE) at the selected locations. Consideration of the actual pipe wall thicknesses and evaluation of the piping system historical operating temperatures and pressures can improve the remaining creep life estimates. After evaluations of the site-specific NDE results, the Intertek strategy is to select locations with estimated remaining creep rupture lives less than 20 years for NDE during the next scheduled outage.
The process of 1) comprehensive piping system walkdowns, 2) simulation as-found stress analyses to observed field displacements, 3) NDE at the minimum remaining creep life locations, and 4) determining the next set of minimum creep life locations has been used to evaluate current piping system integrity and provide additional confidence in safely operating the piping system until the next scheduled outage.
Marvin Cohn has over 35 years of experience in the fields of engineering mechanics, stress analysis and metallurgy. Marvin is an author of more than 50 technical papers, including eight professional journal papers, and is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) as well as a member of the ASME B31.1 Power Piping Section Committee.
Intertek Engineering & Asset Performance Management solutions assist companies around the world, helping them to navigate the energy transition, minimize risks, optimize operational efficiency and asset reliability, meet regulatory and certification requirements, and above all ensure safe working environments for personnel. engineering-sc@intertek.com to learn more.