2. Identifying the aging process

2.1 What questions does an operator have?

The operator, who undertakes a study of the ageing of his plant, has two major concerns:

• Finally, it is absolutely essential to anticipate the actions required to control any ageing; any ageing must be anticipated in order to counteract it;

• loss of production or availability, maintenance, repair or replacement costs; the ageing of a component must not penalize profits; it is therefore important to detect components at the origin of ageing, to foresee the evolution of this ageing and to take the necessary measures and countermeasures.

Ageing control is also a problem of scale, with the following levels:

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