Fatigue monitoring system FatiguePro for electric power plants

Fatigue is the main factor of secular change of the machinery and equipment in LWR and thermal power plants. Fatigue advances with the operation cycles of start-up and shut-down of plants. In the case of thermal power plants, since the operation is carried out at high temperature, the secular change due to the interaction of creep and fatigue determines the life of plants. FatiguePro is the automatic monitoring system for fatigue, developed by the research project of Electric Power Research Institute, and it possesses the function of always evaluating the degree of progress of the fatigue of machinery and equipment using the operational information of plants. First, it has been installed in LWR power plants in USA, but later, the function of evaluating creep fatigue damage was added, and the installation in thermal power plants is in progress. The analysis techniques represented by the FatiguePro have the merits that special sensors are not required, any point of evaluation can be selected, and the monitoring of stress condition is always possible. The functions and the principle, the examples of installing the FatiguePro, Creep-FatiguePro and the actuality of system customizing are reported. (K.I.)