A Chinese structural integrity assessment procedure for pressure vessels containing defects

A Chinese structural integrity assessment procedure, Safety Assessment of I n-service Pressure Vessels Containing Defects (SAPV-95), is introduced in t his paper. This procedure provides a guide to the safety assessment of in-s ervice pressure vessels containing defects. Failure modes considered in thi s procedure are fracture, plastic collapse and fatigue. The R6 failure asse ssment diagram methodology is adopted by this procedure for fracture and pl astic collapse assessment. For fatigue assessment, a method similar to the BSI PD6493-91 procedure is used. This paper outlines the framework of the p rocedure and addresses some differences between SAPV-95 and British procedu res. This procedure is expected to become a document of the National Standa rd of China soon. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.