Patent Document ID: 20120330474
Application ID: 13580334
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. A method for evaluating simultaneously the effects of multiple, interdependent heat-exchanger degradation modes for a heat exchanger of a power plant in the context of a series of alternative heat-exchanger remediation strategies that include individual options for remedying one or more of the degradation modes, the method comprising: receiving probabilistic time-varying predicted future progressions of heat exchanger performance metrics for a plurality of alternative heat-exchanger remediation strategies, the performance metrics including: a secondary side operating pressure of the heat exchanger, a heat-transfer efficiency of the heat exchanger, a fraction of defective components within the heat exchanger that are subject to one or more heat-exchanger degradation modes, and an electrical power output of the plant; and receiving probabilistic time-varying predicted future progressions of financial metrics describing the accumulated financial benefit of each of the plurality of alternative heat-exchanger remediation strategies, wherein the time-varying predicted future progressions of heat-exchanger performance metrics for a plurality of alternative heat-exchanger remediation strategies account for routine post-outage heat-transfer transients that result from operating the plant in accordance with each of the plurality of alternative heat-exchanger remediation strategies.