Residual Life Prediction for In-service Pressure Vessels Containing Crack Defects

Residual life is tightly related to the period of examine and repair of pressure vessels. The accuracy of residual life prediction may have a great influence on the reliability and the cost of examine and repair of the in-service pressure vessels containing crack defects. Aimed at the problem of residual life prediction of pressure vessels containing crack defects, we put forward a new method on the basis of crack failure path and rate, which is based on the fracture mechanics and failure assessment diagram (FAD). Though there may be a lot of researches to do, this algorithm is higher in efficiency and easy to calculate, compared to the other methods. This method is original and creative. It provides a new research approach to study the residual life prediction.