Power Generation
Thermal power plants subject their pressure parts to relentless thermal cycling and high-temperature creep. Boiler tubes, superheater headers, turbine casings, and high-energy piping systems operate at the boundary of material capability. Every day of unplanned downtime represents significant lost revenue, and inspection scope must be precisely targeted at the highest-risk components.
Applicable Standards
Critical focus areas
- Boiler and high-energy piping integrity
- Flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC) programs
- Steam cycle water chemistry impact tracking
- Remaining creep life estimation for hot-wall components
- Outage planning and inspection scope optimization
Key Challenges
- Cycling operation stressors compressing inspection windows
- Aging infrastructure life extension under commercial pressure
- Base-load reliability requirements with zero tolerance for forced outage
- Fatigue life tracking across thousands of weld joints
Active damage mechanisms
Reliatic ships with a pre-loaded damage mechanism library for Power Generation. Each mechanism is linked to its relevant inspection techniques, examination intervals, and regulatory acceptance criteria.
Boiler Tube Fatigue (Thermal Cycling)
Low-cycle fatigue in waterwall, superheater, and reheater tubes driven by start-stop cycling, slagging-induced thermal gradients, and soot-blower erosion.
Creep Damage (High-Temperature Components)
Time-dependent deformation and void formation in headers, steam pipes, and turbine casings operating above the creep regime threshold for extended periods.
Flow-Accelerated Corrosion (FAC)
Oxide dissolution in single-phase condensate and feedwater systems and two-phase wet steam extraction lines, driven by water chemistry, temperature, and geometry.
Fireside Corrosion and Erosion
Material wastage from combustion products — molten ash deposits in coal-fired units, vanadium attack in oil-fired units, chlorine-induced corrosion in biomass plants.
Hydrogen Damage (Waterside)
Under-deposit corrosion generating hydrogen that diffuses into tube steel, causing intergranular micro-fissuring and sudden thick-lip failures with no advance wall-loss indication.
Platform Configuration for Power Generation
Outcome
Optimize outage inspection scope with risk-ranked component prioritization, extending plant availability with ASME and EPRI life assessment standards as the reference.