Fitness for Service Evaluations

When cracks or corrosion damage in a structure or component have been discovered, owners are faced with a decision - continue to operate at full or reduced capacity, repair or replace? The economic decision must be subordinate to plant and personnel safety.

Fitness for Service Evaluations

SOCOTEC's extensive experience in materials, fracture mechanics and fatigue analysis, stress analysis, corrosion, and non-destructive evaluation are strategically suited for performing the fitness-for-service assessments necessary for the continued use of structures and equipment. Such assessments are performed on a wide range of structures and equipment which have sustained damage due to cracking and/or corrosion, as well as structures requiring continued use based solely on capital requirements.

Fatigue and fracture mechanics analysis have become an essential tool for use by engineers in the evaluation of structures and equipment, particularly regarding the repair of existing facilities. The development of structural integrity programs based on fracture mechanics concepts are complex tasks which involve an assessment of structural integrity, and fracture and crack growth characteristics in various, sometimes harsh environments. Consequently, a sound understanding of fracture mechanics and fatigue is essential to the performance of fitness-for-service assessments. SOCOTEC's technical capabilities place it at the forefront of these analysis techniques.