High Temperature Component Life Assessment

This book is concerned with the material properties and stress analysis relevant to the design and lifetime prediction of equipment which operates at elevated temperatures where creep and fatigue processes take place. The advances that have been made in the characterization of high temperature crack growth behaviour in recent years are also investigated and explained. The scene is set by considering some industrial applications before introducing the fundamentals of creep deformation and fracture. Fracture mechanics and limit analysis methods are described and models for the initiation and propagation of cracks under static and cyclic loading are discussed. These are accompanied by a consideration of the procedures developed for identifying the mechanisms and thus controlling failure. Recommendations are included for obtaining reliable high temperature crack growth data experimentally, culminating in a consideration of how accurate lifetime predications can be made in a realistic environment. Complicated mathematics has been minimalized with the emphasis placed instead on obtaining solutions to real problems without the use of extensive numerical analysis.Such an approach provides an invaluable reference text for senior undergraduates in engineering as well as the many professional engineers, metallurgists, materials scientists and research workers involved in the design, operation and maintenance of equipment with high operating temperatures. This book should be of interest to mechanical and aeronautical department libraries, materials scientists and metallurgists concerned with development, design and safety measurements of components subject to creep and fatigue loading, researchers in power, aircraft and chemical process industries.