Overview of Creep and Stress Rupture

This is the first of a two-part column on “Creep”. It presents an engineering overview of the phenomena, answers the question: “What is Creep?”, and provides readers with foundational knowledge for evaluating and managing remaining equipment life.

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API 579-1 is a complex document covering several different types of equipment that may contain flaws or damage. Due to its complexity, this article condenses it into six things you need to know.

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Fired heaters are among the most critical equipment in refineries and chemical plants. This article provides an overview of what a fired heater tube mechanical integrity program should include.

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This article summarizes a recent finite element analysis (FEA)-based study that employs creep simulation techniques to investigate the elevated temperature response of piping with peaked longitudinal weld seams.

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Avoiding cracking under pressure when managing high-energy piping systems is common subject matter in the power industry. Just as high-energy piping can give way to pressure, stress and fatigue, so can the people in charge of operating them when trying to determine what to inspect, where to inspect, and what to do with those inspection results once they have them.

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ProSource Radiography Services, a sister company and subsidiary of Pro-Surve is ready to tackle your radiography needs. Should you need a small bore piping survey or other need for computed radiography. ProSource can take conventional film, and convert them to digital files for easy naming and storage. ProSource is ready to be your Sole-Point-Of-Contact (SPOC) for your radiography needs.

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Fired furnaces in the petrochemical and refining industry are critical pieces of equipment that can have a major impact on process unit safety, reliability, and economics. They are complex pieces of equipment, where tubes and other pressure boundary components might fail due to relatively short periods of upset conditions.

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Metals will slowly deform under stress and higher temperatures by the mechanism known as creep. The amount of creep deformation that will be experienced is highly dependent upon the level of stress, level of temperature and material properties. It is vital that any component operating in the creep range have Integrity Operating Windows (IOW’s) established where upon operators are required to make adjustments if certain temperatures are reached.

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Steam reformers are an integral part of ammonia, methanol, hydrogen, and gas process plants around the world. THey are one of the highest cost, both in capital and maintenance, pieces of equipment in the plant. Typically, reformers contain several hundred vertically oriented straight tubes, referred to as catalyst tubes. These tubes represent a significant cost for replacement and can be a major source of plant unavailability if unplanned failures occur.

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Reformer catalyst tubes are commonly manufactured from high strength, creep and corrosion resistant alloys. They are relatively thick walled and are usually produced by centrifugal casting. Their lives are limited by creep, driven by a combination of internal pressure and through-wall thermal stresses generated by operational transients. The typical composition for alloys for reforming service is 25/20 Cr/Ni with the generic reference HK40.

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This publication outlines 101 Essential Elements that need to be in place and functioning well in order to effectively and efficiently preserve and protect the reliability and integrity of pressure equipment (i.e. vessels, exchangers, furnaces, boilers, piping, tanks, and relief systems) in the refining and petrochemical industry.

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