On-Line Remaining Life Assessment of Hot Reheat Pipe Bend

Abstract

An ageing in-service Hot Reheat (HRH) pipe bend before Intermediate Pressure (IP) Stop/ Control Valve of a Utility was identified for real-time creep-fatigue damage assessment. A data acquisition system has been installed to record thermal hydraulic parameters, such as pressure, temperature and flow on real time basis. The HRH piping including low pressure bypass line incorporating various supports such as directional restraints, constant weight hangers and spring hangers, was modeled using straight and bend elements. Static stress analysis was performed to find out the forces and moments at either ends of the pipe-bend for sustained and expansion loadings using piping analysis program CAESAR-II. A detailed 3-D Finite Element Model of the pipe bend was also developed using 20-noded brick elements. The 3-D FE model along with material parameters and loading are used by code BOSSES for on-line monitoring of damage. The nodal temperatures (obtained by temperature transient analysis), recorded internal pressure, associated piping loads, etc. are then used in a stress analysis module to calculate stresses at different gauss points of the pipe bend. The temperatures and stresses at different time are then used to compute fatigue and creep damage and to assess growth of different postulated cracks at various locations of pipe bend, as well as remaining life. All the information are upgraded and restart files are saved for successive computation. The real-time process data of the pipe bend are made available to the Researcher’s Desk through Client-Server Network.