Life management of cycling plant components utilising RemLifeTM software

Abstract

Due to changes in the mix of power generation that includes both wind and solar, base-load power, for example coal and combined cycle plants, are faced with challenging market conditions that increasingly necessitates operating the units in a cyclic mode. These types of operations can place increased damage rates on the plant. In order to categorise and understand the damage, the common practice is to undertake a Remaining life assessment. These assessments can be both time consuming and expensive, particularly; if multiple components are to be assessed. This paper describes a computer package developed that enables the user to quickly and efficiently assess the remaining life of high temperature components. The program is based around state of the art creep-fatigue methodologies and is designed to rapidly simulate different cycle types and assesses the relative merit of each type of operation. This paper will outline the basic program methodology and illustrate a case study undertaken on a tertiary stage superheater header, that is proposed to change from base load to two shifting operation.