Towards Fast Numerical Studies for Maintenance and Lifecycle Problem Analysis: New Simulation Methods on Example of an Industrial Study Case

Companies exploiting industrial installations are currently submitted to various constraints in the context of maintenance and lifecycle problem analysis: time and cost of production stops, efficiency of maintenance solutions, production safety criteria, etc. Hence, the reduction of the time of projects may lead to important research perspectives in terms of fast numerical prototyping and solution assessment methods. In this paper, we present a typical industrial problem of fast assessment of mechanical state of a production installation. We focused on the study of a cracked component of a reheater as well as we proposed a new design for this component to improve its mechanical behavior under an exceptional overload. In order to reduce the operational study time, the Extended Finite Element Method (X-FEM) has been used to model non-linear crack phenomenon without any human modification of a complex 3D model on the level of geometric model and mesh. An alternative design of a damageable element has been proposed to avoid all risk of possible cracking. This design task requires a mechanical analysis of locally modified structure under a cyclic loading. We also present a new prototyping method based on direct modification of meshes and allowing reducing the time of numerical study.