Techniques to Support Life Management Decisions for Nuclear Plants

Many plant components are subjected to high temperatures and stresses during their operation where they undergo creep. Long-term, high temperature operation causes degradation of mechanical properties and hence reduction in remaining components' life. By defining current metal mechanical properties, the remanent life can be accurately predicted. The traditional destructive testing methods require large specimens. However it could be a problem to obtain such large samples from a component in service without violating its structural integrity. Consequently, various non-destructive or miniaturised specimen testing techniques have been developed over the past two decades.