Sensitivity of Estimated Tube Life to Material Property Variation

Abstract

The estimated tube life of the Incoloy 800 tubes of a solar receiver panel under nonaxisymmetric loading is compared for various material property assumptions. The basis of each life evaluation is an elastic-creep analytical study of up to 20 load cycles. The effect on tube life of a variation in the creep rate for the failure modes of creep ratcheting and creep fatigue is studied in some detail. As shown for these elastic-creep conditions, the creep damage and mean diametral strain accumulations per cycle decrease linearly over the calculated 20 cycles when plotted against cycle number on a log-log scale. The predictions of total creep damage and mean diametral strain in 10,000 cycles based on the extrapolated log-log scale curve are substantially lower than the predictions based on multiplication of the change in value of the 20th day of operation by 10,000. A limited evaluation of the effects of variations in other material parameters is also made.