Investigation of Partial Safety Factor Approach for Flaw Assessment Procedure in Chinese FFS Code

Partial safety factor (PSF) is a reliability approach for considering the variance of parameters in flaw assessment procedure in major fitness-for-service (FFS) codes, such as recent API579 and BS7910 codes, but is still not adopted in Chinese FFS code GB/T 19624-2005. This study investigated the derivation method for PSFs based on GB/T 19624 procedure. The limit state equations for PSFs calculation were proposed based on GB/T 19624 level 2 failure assessment diagram (FAD). The distribution of random variables was determined according to China’s domestic features. The first order reliability method (FORM) and second order reliability method (SORM) were employed as reliability analysis methods, and the calculated results were both compared with that simulated using Monte Carlo method. The PSFs at different target reliability levels were established and compared with that in API 579 and BS 7910. The method proposed in this study provides a basis for introducing PSF approach into Chinese FFS code.