Fretting fatigue and wear damage of structural components in nuclear power stations—Fitness for service and life management perspective

Fretting fatigue and wear problems have major economical and safety impact on the nuclear industry. This keynote paper provides examples of the fretting problems encountered in nuclear power stations and an overview of the methodologies used to assess their root cause, their potential effect on the integrity of structural components and the future damage projection for risk management. The limitations of existing models that are commonly used to predict fretting wear rate are discussed. A system approach to the fretting wear/fatigue problem allowed us to significantly improve the capability of predicting fretting damage through the recognition of the problem nonlinearity, and the effect of self-induced changes. The application of linear elastic fracture mechanics principles for predicting the fretting wear and fretting fatigue strength is demonstrated. The paper underlines the critical roles of the following two factors. First, the validation of the above mentioned methodologies, through experimental investigation of the long-term fretting wear and fatigue behavior of structural components under realistic operating conditions. Second, the qualification of in -situ measurements of fretting wear damage using nondestructive evaluation NDE and inspection methods.