Life and operational safety of power systems and chemical plants

Purpose: The problem addressed in the paper is the description of an effort and durability of components under the conditions of mechanical and thermal interactions. The problems of proper material testing methods have been shown as the important part of the components life assessment methodology. Design/methodology/approach: The FEM modelling has been used to determine the stress and strain fields in the components and to describe their behaviour under mechanical and thermal loading. Findings: An appropriate models description has been developed. So far, experimental verification of the usefulness of the model description to determine the stress and strain patterns in particular object and for chosen operation conditions has been made. Research limitations/implications: The developed description should be useful in problems of behaviour predictions of high temperature components and their durability assessment under different mechanical and thermal loadings in industry practical applications. Originality/value: The method, which more precise description of power industry components behaviour makes possible have been shown in the work. The work is addressed to researchers interested in problems of component behaviour prediction under different loadings that we can meet in the operation practice and to power industry engineering maintenance staff.