High temperature defect assessment procedures

Development of a unified fracture risk evaluation method for industry will provide assurance for new innovative constructions in choice of materials and/or fabrication methods and assurance in plant operation. Safe plant operation with extended component life and enhanced decision making processes in run/repair/replace situations is facilitated by validated defect assessment procedures. Guidelines and methodologies for high temperature defect assessment and well developed in-house expertise exist in Europe. However, lack of commonality and very limited validation significantly limit their application. Substantial effort has been made by Industry and Research Organizations during the last decade to generate data and draft codes of practice. A systematic and coordinated approach will produce a validated and easy-to-use unified defect assessment procedure. The present paper gives a review on the high temperature defect assessment procedures which are most commonly used by the EC supported Thematic Network project PLAN partners both in their projects and in their organizations. This is followed by a review of ongoing programmes in collaborative EC Projects. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.