Fitness for service assessment

The Petrochemical industry is one of the most important industries both worldwide and in Singapore. The petrochemical industry in Singapore is one of the key industries in Singapore and accounts for 5% of Singapore's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Even as Singapore moves towards a knowledge and services based economy, the traditional strongholds of manufacturing and industry still dominates a significant part of our economy. It is thus important to ensure that these industries can function at their optimal capacity without any major unscheduled service disruption, which could lead to losses monetarily or even worse, in terms of human lives. Fitness-for-Service assessments are an important part of the process for keeping these key industries running optimally. They serve as an important line of defense against any unintended disruption of service due to malfunctioning or failure of machinery components and parts. The API-RP 579 is one such standard utilized in the assessment of fitness-for-service for the petroleum industry. Up to three levels of assessments can be performed on a part under assessment to determine its fitness for continued service. In contrast to the straightforward and conservative calculations that are typical of design codes, more sophisticated assessments of metallurgical conditions and analysis of local stresses and strains can more precisely indicate the fitness for service of operating equipment and offer a sound basis for run-repair-replace decisions.Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical Engineering