Abstract
The Fitness-For-Service Joint Committee published the second edition of API 579-1⁄ASME FFS-1 in 2016. This standard was originally published for the refinery and petrochemical industry as a Recommended Practice 579 from the American Petroleum Institute (API) in 2000. At that time the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) also began to discuss post-construction issues. ASME and API determined to establish the joint committee to avoid the possibility of overlap, duplication and conflict in two parallel standards. Then the first edition was published for wider range of users including process, manufacturing and power generation industries in 2007.
This standard covers quantitative engineering evaluations of the structural integrity for an in-service pressure equipment that may contain a flaw or damage. This report focuses the assessment of dents, gouges and dent-gouge combinations. Typically in the transmission pipeline industry two of the common damage mechanisms are dents and gouges. Some technical background and the outline of assessment procedures are introduced in accordance with API 579-1⁄ASME FFS-1. The evaluation of gouges was included in the local metal loss assessment of the first API version. Also the evaluation of dents was in the assessment of shell distortion. From the 2007 version of the standard, these were described in Part12 as an independent part of the assessment.
