Engineering Critical Analysis or ECA is also known as "Fracture Mechanics," "Fitness-For-Service" or "Structural Integrity." The chief ambition of Engineering Critical Assessment is to determine if a piece of equipment or structure is sound enough to meet the service requirements for which it was intended. For example, in the AUT pipeline inspection industry it is crucial that welds are analyzed to determine if there are any defects which can shorten a pipeline's service life.
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Most welding fabrication codes specify maximum tolerable flaw sizes and minimum tolerable Charpy energy, based on good workmanship, i.e. what can reasonably be expected within normal working practices. These requirements tend to be somewhat arbitrary, and failure to achieve them does not necessarily mean that the structure is at risk of failure. An Engineering Critical Assessment (ECA) is an analysis, based on fracture mechanics principles, of whether or not a given flaw is safe from brittle fracture, fatigue, creep or plastic collapse under specified loading conditions.
ECA is often used to evaluate defects as it is less conservative than traditional criteria and can reduce the reject rate of welds considerably. ECA offers constructive guidance for AUT qualifications such as flaw type, equipment type, flaw detection uncertainties and flaw sizing. View More
