Remnant Life Assessment (RLA) Study

Residual Life is that time period during which a material especially an engineering material shall retain the fitness characteristics that are important for its services. Residual Life Assessment studies are generally conducted for aircraft's components, power plant components and several other machines which are frequently subjected to fatigue and creep loading conditions. For conducting RLA studies, the methods and techniques should be selected carefully. Identification of the failure prone areas and their treatment is very essential for preventing accidents. The equipments which need RLA studies include boilers, piping, pressure vessels, storage tanks, pumps, turbines, compressors, etc.

Significance of RLA Studies:

It is necessary to keep equipments in efficiently operating condition and maximize the life of that equipment. There are different types of components in equipment which require a routine inspection to check their proper working condition. By carrying out inspection, all the information related to the degradation which can affect the service life of that equipment is obtained which will help to provide an early warning to take appropriate actions before facing the failure. After the whole study and past experiences, suitable methodologies can be incorporated to avoid such issues in future which may cause expensive downtime problem.

Conducting RLA Studies:

Before planning to conduct RLA studies, several information regarding the history of a component, its service time period, etc. needs to be collected. Previously, the method that was practiced for RLA studies of expensive equipments was the Visual Inspection but very soon it made a realization that a scientific approach was required for the Residual Life assessment. Besides the other techniques, Non-Destructive Testing techniques are also employed for RLA studies of Pressure vessels. Electrical Tests like ELCID, Ten Delta, RSO, IR, PI etc. are performed on generator and transformer for condition assessment. After all the studies, a correlation between the operational parameters and the results obtained from NDT is drawn which is used to estimate the Residual Life of a particular equipment.

Spectro carries out the determination of in-service degradation of crucial components which works under harsh temperature, pressure & cyclic stresses leading to creep, fatigue & corrosion problems. The specially designed software which enables real-time monitoring of the test components is implemented. We are well-adapted to conduct Condition Assessment & RLA studies and have gained professionalism in this field.

Spectro is accredited by Central Boilers Board and we are a certified Remnant Life Assessment Organization and also a well known Material Testing Laboratory. We provide In-Service Inspection for RLA Studies of for ensuring Safety and Integrity of equipments of the Thermal Power Plants, Hydro Power Plants, Petroleum Refineries, etc. to maintain the operating capacity for a longer period of time.

As per Indian Boiler Regulation 1950, the critical components which may get subjected to high temperature and pressure needs examination through Non Destructive Testing (NDT) timely as per the regulations. We own a team of well-specialized experts who are deeply involved in carrying out RLA Studies to ensure better operations.