Chapter 1: Introduction and Overview

The ability to accurately assess the remaining life of components is essential to the operation of plants and equipment, particularly those in service beyond their design life. This, in turn, requires a knowledge of material failure modes and a proficiency for predicting the near and long term effects of mechanical, chemical, and thermal stressors. This chapter presents a broad overview of the types of damage to which materials are exposed at high temperatures and the approaches used to estimate remaining service life. It explains how operating conditions in power plants and oil refineries can cause material-related problems such as embrittlement, creep, thermal fatigue, hot corrosion, and oxidation. It also discusses the factors and considerations involved in determining design life, defining failure criteria, and implementing remaining-life-assessment procedures.