Two different engineering flaw assessment procedures are applied to compone
nt tests of pre-cracked pressure vessels. The first one is a failure assess
ment diagram (FAD) approach according to the PD6493 procedure of BSI. The s
econd one is a crack driving force (CDF) approach provided by the engineeri
ng treatment model (ETM). The theoretical background of both the methods is
discussed. As compared with the experiments both procedures yield conserva
tive predictions of the experimental failure loads. The conservatism is sho
wn to be acceptably small from a user's point of view. (C) 2000 Elsevier Sc
ience S.A. All rights reserved.