FITNESS FOR SERVICE ASSESSMENT (FFS)

What is fitness for service?

is a best practice and standard used by the oil & gas and chemical process industries for in-service equipment to determine its fitness for continued service.

FFS serves as a rational basis for defining flaw acceptance limits and allows engineers to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable flaws and damage based on industry recognized and generally accepted good engineering practices.

The FFS of any material is determined by performing a fitness-for-service assessment per standardized methods and criteria. Performing accurate FFS evaluations is an integral aspect of fixed equipment asset integrity management as an alternative to using the original construction design code. The FFS of a piece of equipment may be viewed both in terms of current and future FFS or remaining life.

API 579/ASME FFS-1

is one example of a FFS methodology currently used by industry professionals and a standard developed and published jointly by the American Petroleum Institute (API) and ASME. It describes several fitness-for-service (FFS) assessment techniques

Supplement to in-service inspection codes & construction codes?

Supplement to in-service inspection codes

The methods and procedures in this Standard are intended to supplement and augment the requirements in API 510, API 570, API 653, and other post construction codes that reference FFS evaluations such as NB-23.

Construction codes

The assessment procedures in this Standard can be used for FFS assessments and/or rerating of equipment designed and constructed to the following codes:

• ASME B&PV Code, Section VIII, Division 1, Rules for construction of Pressure vessel

• ASME B&PV Code, Section VIII, Division 2, Rules for construction of Pressure vessel (Alternative rules)

• ASME B&PV Code, Section I, Power Boilers

• ASME B31.1 Piping Code, Power Piping

• ASME B31.3 Piping Code, Process Piping

• ASME B31.4 Piping Code, Pipeline transportation for Liquid

• ASME B31.8 Piping Code, Gas transmission and distribution

• ASME B31.12 Piping Code, Hydrogen Piping&Pipelines

• API Std 650, Welded steel Tanks for Oil storage

• API Std 620, Low Pressure Storage Tanks

• API Std 530, Heater tube calculation

What is assessment procedure of FFS?

STEP 1: Flaw and Damage Mechanism Identification

STEP 2: Applicability and Limitations of the FFS Assessment Procedures

STEP 3: Data Requirements

STEP 4: Assessment Techniques and Acceptance Criteria

STEP 5: Remaining Life Evaluation

STEP 6: Remediation / Recommendation

What is ffs assessment levels?