Objective
Objectives and content:
In recent studies of the economic effects of fracture in America and Europe the total loss to the gross economic product of advanced nations has been estimated to be 4%. This loss is not inevitable however and our understanding is such that given a viable, universally applicable procedure this figure could be halved in 10 years. The benefit will not be universally obtainable throughout all industries as some, particularly those where safe operation is critical already apply structural integrity management methods to optimise their efficient use of plant and equipment. Industries, which do not use such methods, would have a proportionately greater benefit, although all industries will benefit from the identification of a universally applicable integrity evaluation method. The aim of the proposed programme is to develop such a procedure, relevant to all industrial sectors, by combining methods, which have been available for a number of years and new analysis techniques. Guidance cannot currently be provided in a number of areas and hence specific research work will be required to allow analysis techniques to be developed.
The main areas of uncertainty will be studied in four major tasks; Treatment of Weld Strength Mis-Match, Plastic Behaviour of Cracked Components, Reliability Based Methods and the Treatment of Secondary Stresses. The new developments will be combined with current knowledge to derive an analysis procedure, which will be applicable for the evaluation of fracture risk in all components or structures. Software will be written to facilitate the validation of the procedure, which will be done using existing data from large scale tests and specific experimental studies when relevant results are not available. Because of the wide scope of the proposal the consortium has been carefully chosen to provide representation from extensive range of industries. These cover: steel suppliers (British Steel and ILVA), offshore (Shell and Exxon), nuclear (Nuclear Electric), chemical (Shell) and pressure vessel (Swedish Plant). in addition a number of research organisations (TWI, GKSS, VTT, Institut de Soudure) are involved as these have experience of specialist aspects c structural integrity and, through their member base, links to a wide industrial range. The University of Cantabria are independent fracture experts whilst MCS are specialist software writers. The UK Health and Safety Executive are regulating body for safety and failure risk assessments for all industries.
Funding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
S60 3AR Rotherham
United Kingdom
Participants (15)
1755 ZG Petten
SO45 3NP Southampton
79108 Freiburg (In Breisgau)
21502 Geesthacht
SE1 9HS London
57365 Ennery
90 Galway
GL4 7RS Gloucester
100 29 Stockholm
1031 CM Amsterdam
02044 Espoo
CB1 6AL Cambridge
39005 Santander
WA3 6AT Warrington
9000 Gent