When we discuss industries such as the Petrochemical or Power and Automotive or Nuclear and Paper or Pharmaceutical failures are not acceptable but still they do occur. A turbine blade could fail in an aircraft engine due to thermal fatigue or creep. An important pipeline in the Chemical industry could fail due to corrosion. These failures need to be investigated in order to establish the actual cause. This investigation is necessary in order to prevent a recurrence and initiate changes in design or material as warranted. Thus it’s a disciplined failure analysis carried out in a modern laboratory that will confirm whether the failure has occurred due to fatigue, creep or stress corrosion cracking, operator’s error or a faulty design.
Failure analysis is a painstaking scientific process more akin to forensic science. It could involve metallography or chemical analysis and destructive or non-destructive testing techniques. In complex cases where, for example, aircraft debris may have to be sifted for clues accident reconstruction involving computer modeling and simulation techniques could be necessary. In the simpler cases a good metallography laboratory will establish whether the heat treatment had been adequate or not. To establish tensile strength and capacity to withstand impact loads, there are facilities for testing for tensile strength at 1000 c and impact testing using the notched bar at temperatures as low as –196 c. Hardness values can be checked using various standards such as Brinell, Rockwell and Vickers.
A combination of failure analysis techniques such as metallography, fracture mechanics, mechanical testing, SEM analysis etc. can be used to determine the cause of failure of components in industries spanning pulp and paper, pipeline, civil industries, and petrochemical.
Failure analysis is a painstaking scientific process more akin to forensic science. It could involve metallography or chemical analysis and destructive or non-destructive testing techniques. In complex cases where, for example, aircraft debris may have to be sifted for clues accident reconstruction involving computer modeling and simulation techniques could be necessary. In the simpler cases a good metallography laboratory will establish whether the heat treatment had been adequate or not. To establish tensile strength and capacity to withstand impact loads, there are facilities for testing for tensile strength at 1000 c and impact testing using the notched bar at temperatures as low as –196 c. Hardness values can be checked using various standards such as Brinell, Rockwell and Vickers.
A combination of failure analysis techniques such as metallography, fracture mechanics, mechanical testing, SEM analysis etc. can be used to determine the cause of failure of components in industries spanning pulp and paper, pipeline, civil industries, and petrochemical.
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