Many engineers regard materials selection as simply the selection of a material of construction of new facilities, plant additions, or revamps. In reality, materials selection is more complex than that because materials selection is also part of a plant’s routine maintenance activities and is often the subject of discussion between operations, planning and maintenance personnel.
Such discussions frequently illustrate that materials selected for short-term solutions differ from those adopted for long-term solutions. In either case, the materials selected, along with the specified fabrication procedures, must satisfy regulatory requirements. Thus, the process of materials selection must accommodate variable materials selection criteria, including those of the governing engineering and inspection codes.
For simple jobs such as replacements in kind or for jobs with which the responsible engineer has prior experience, materials selection is usually a straightforward task. However, some jobs involve complex combinations of requirements, which may include:
- Demanding mechanical requirements.
- Special fabrication requirements such as post weld heat treatment (PWHT).
- Aggressive corrodents or crack-inducing agents.
- Upset conditions (i.e., non-standard operating conditions).
- Limited capital budgets.
- Tight schedules.
Since the candidate material may have to accommodate a variety of criteria, the process of materials selection can become a complicated task.
Ref. D. A. Hansen and R. B. Puyear, Materials Selection for Hydrocarbon and Chemical Plants, CRC Press