UTComp engineering analyst Karelle Guiao presented a new paper on July 20 at the 60th annual Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference (PVP 2026), in Anaheim, Calif.

The paper, titled “Verifying Allowable Remaining Strength Factor in Fitness For Service Assessment of Fiber Reinforced Polymer Pressure Equipment,” was co-authored with UTComp founder and CTO Geoff Clarkson.

It’s based on the real-world results of a UTComp failure analysis of an FRP pipe in chemical service.

The paper illustrates the value of the new Remaining Strength Factor (RSF) calculation for FRP which is included in the proposed Part 16 of the API 579-1 / ASME FFS-1 standard.

For more, read the paper here.

Abstract:

Title: “Verifying Allowable Remaining Strength Factor in Fitness For Service Assessment of Fiber Reinforced Polymer Pressure Equipment”

Authors: Karelle Guiao, Geoffrey Clarkson

API 579-1/ASME FFS-1 Fitness For Service Code requires that assessment of pressure equipment use Remaining Strength Factor (RSF) to determine if equipment or components may continue to operate as intended by their design. For isotropic metal alloys, RSF is often determined by applying the effects of flaws or defects in the original design engineering. In the case of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) materials, the material properties used for design treat mixtures of reinforcement and polymer as anisotropic, homogeneous materials. When service conditions are applied, damage accumulates at different rates to each constituent, in particular polymer and reinforcement, of the mixture. Consistently, failure of polymer occurs well before the reinforcement, and this forms the basis for RSF of FRP components. When RSF is determined, what is the value of RSF that defines “End of Life”?