Fundamental considerations of the effects of flexible operation on the fatigue of power plant components

High temperature components, such as boiler parts or live steam lines in power plants, are subjected to operating conditions that may fully utilise the design reserves. A higher demand for flexibility in operation results in an increased number of thermal cycles.Commonly, code-based online calculation of a component’s degree of exhaustion relies on individual calculation of creep fatigue and cyclic fatigue. Sensor measurements from online...