Material deformation and degradation mechanisms such as corrosion, fatigue, fracture, creep and plastic deformation play a key role in the failure of mechanical systems. Understanding these mechanisms is vital to the safe and efficient operation of rotating machinery.
Our recognised experts understand these mechanisms, and can help you to prevent failure of your rotating machinery as an integrated part of our structural integrity and asset performance capabilities.
We support our clients over a wide range of challenges, including:
- Life extension of high value assets
- Quantification of component failure risk through probabilistic methods
- Analysis and resolution of in-service failure problems
- Certification of safety critical components
- Concept design of lightweight rotating machinery systems.
How we can help
Analysis and design
Our lifing experts work as part of multidisciplinary teams to offer a range of analysis and design services, from full scale blank sheet design in-house, to providing our analysis expertise to assist your own design teams and processes.
Our understanding of deformation and degradation mechanisms is augmented by a range of supporting capabilities, including data analysis and statistics, finite element analysis, fracture mechanics and engineering software development. This allows us to provide bespoke services relevant to your individual challenges.
Assurance and certification
We understand that high confidence in the safe operation of assets is of utmost importance to you. Our understanding of creep and fatigue mechanism has played a key role in successful certification of systems for clients in a range of industries, including aerospace, nuclear and marine.
Troubleshooting and failure investigation
Our lifing capabilities, coupled with test and measurement capabilities and a network of external academic and commercial partners, enable a full service offering that helps you manage the risk of plant failure. We can diagnose material performance problems using test and simulation, and we can model potential solutions to deliver impartial advice on your best way forward.
Asset management
We can help you set up condition monitoring systems to integrate numerical representation of assets with material models and service data, to provide deeper insights into your machine performance and condition.
Our capabilities
- Materials science expertise and insight into fatigue, creep, fracture mechanics and plastic deformation mechanisms
- Assessment and prediction of service lives
- Planning, management and interpretation of materials testing programmes
- Probabilistic studies and risk mitigation
- Bespoke software development, including implementation of analysis methods and finite element user functionality
- Code assessments
- Fracture mechanics analyses.