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Engineering Analysis

Value engineering directly translated into benefit

Fitness for Service Assessment / Mechanical integrity assessment / Remaining life

CADE’s engineering analysis services comprise those engineering, simulation and consulting multidisciplinary services that are aimed to assess critical plant equipment, high temperature piping, pressure vessels and structures when performance is not the expected, failure has occurred or mechanical integrity and remaining life must be evaluated.

Assessment of crack after creep range operation (engineering analysis)
Assessment of crack after creep range operation

Fitness-for-Service (FFS)

Fitness-for-Service (FFS) Assessment is a quantitative engineering evaluation to determine if an in-service equipment is safe and reliable to operate at specific conditions along a defined time. FFS must be consider as a critic stage of any Mechanical Integrity Program.

Some of cases in which FFS is a valuable engineering tool:

An asset lacks its original design information or it may have exceeded its useful life

For equipment operating in either high temperature and/or cyclic service

For decommissioned asset that may be used in a different service

Assets that have undergone any event that might have affected its serviceability like temperature excursions, overloads, different feed/external environment or a fire.

Most of times FFS is applied when inspection findings revealed a condition that may impact the future operation of the asset, such as metal loss (e. corrosion/erosion), distortion (misalignment, out of roundness, bulges or dents), laminations, cracking or blisters, etc. Then, a fundamental decision is required (to repair, to replace, to retire, to rerate or to re-operate).

Obviously, main benefits of FFS are to grant safe and reliable operation, but also allowing reductions in downtime by eliminating unnecessary repairs, giving extra time to plan shutdown and furthermore reduces eventual costs.

Along years CADE has applied successfully, and deepen his knowledge in FFS methodology, extending his application not only to in-service equipment, but also to post-fabrication acceptability, pre-commissioning validation or failure investigation support.

We offer a multidisciplinary approach, mechanical and process oriented, counting, in addition, on strategic partners or ad-hoc collaborations with reputed inspection, verification, testing and certification firms to provide full integrity evaluation including non-destructive testing (NDT), materials testing, field services, or notified body reports/services.

Geometry carachterization of permanent deformation of steam header pipe by means of laser tracking to be used in later FFS analysis
Geometry carachterization of permanent deformation of steam header pipe by means of laser tracking to be used in later FFS analysis

Failure and Root Cause Analysis

Plant equipment, high responsibility piping or critic components not meeting their intended design life, or accidents and failures often result from factors including:

CADE delivers comprehensive assessment and investigation of failures counting on a multidisciplinary engineering approach, as powerful tool to determine what have actually occurred when an in-service failure arise.
Usually, a combination of factors is responsible of failure. Determination of the influence of identified potential factors and how these factors have been combined to lead into a failure is the key to demonstrate, through a physical and /or a simulation model characterization, its source.
Once hypothesis of failure is demonstrated, corrective measures are proposed and validated by means of mathematic simulation models, including FFS evaluations, laboratory tests or on-field verifications. Subsequent modifications or upgrading measures can be engineered and designed by CADE.

rca methodlogy
CADE's methodology for Root Cause Analysis

Performance Analysis

CADE engineers collaborate with plant operators, process licensors and engineering firms to solve some of the industry’s toughest and critic equipment reliability, performance and plant availability challenges.

Operating and historical data analyses identify opportunities or foresee future issues. Modeling and technology-aided tools pinpoint problems. Lifecycle cost calculations provide solutions, technical recommendations and economic justifications.

Performance assessment includes evaluations of thermal, hydraulic and mechanical design, accumulated damaged through historic operation and impact of upset conditions on equipment and systems. CADE’s performance assessment have proven especially valuable in plants where process parameters have changed or where systems degradation has occurred.

pump performance optimizado
Analysis of pump performance along operation historic

Albacete

Parque Científico y Tecnológico

Paseo de la Innovación 3, 02006 Albacete – España

Tel. +34 967 19 01 72

Madrid

C/Raimundo Fernández Villaverde, 53 (Entreplanta)

28020

Madrid – España

Albacete

Parque Científico y Tecnológico

Paseo de la Innovación 3, 02006 Albacete – España

Tel. +34 967 19 01 72

Madrid

C/Raimundo Fernández Villaverde, 53 (Entreplanta)

28020

Madrid – España

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