A stochastic computation model for the creep damage of furnace tube

The service life of high temperature furnace tubes varies significantly in engineering practice. Predicting the service life of the tubes has thus lon g been a concern. Due to the difficulties in defining variability of creep data, previous research has mainly concentrated on deterministic creep dama ge models. In order to study the random nature of service life, a new stoch astic creep damage model is proposed in this paper. A comparison with resul ts calculated by use of the Monte Carlo method verifies the creep damage mo del. The randomness of the creep damage is demonstrated with a calculation on HK-40 furnace tubes which provides an effective means to assess the reli ability of the furnace tubes. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights res erved.