Expert system for evaluating the safety of pressure vessels

With more application of welding technology in important structures more attention was paid to the evaluation of the safety of welded structures, the life prediction and decision to repair the welded structures. Based on material fracture mechanism and Chinese standard of safety evaluations of pressure vessels, an expert system was developed to evaluate the safety of welded pressure vessels. The system can analyze the weld defects in a pressure vessel, convert different kinds of defects into equivalent cracks and obtain their equivalent sizes. Furthermore, the system can calculate the stress and strain in the positions of weld defects and make decision on whether the defects are tolerable or not according to the code. When it is tolerable, the system will calculate the safety margin. The fatigue life can be predicted if the defects undergo fatigue load too. Moreover, data bases are built for storing mechanical properties of material and evaluated results.