Concern for durability stems from both the natural desire to optimise the life of an investment and the wish to reduce the waste and environmental impact when abandoning a facility, whatever its nature.

Over the years Principia has carried out about 15 projects dealing with the life extension of nuclear power plants, investigating their response to the hypothetical occurrence of new design events.

Dams are typically designed for a long operating life, but the possibility of extending it is always welcome. However, there are phenomena, such as the slow chemical swelling that concrete undergoes in many dams, that may limit this life extension and even reduce the original design life.

Fatigue can be responsible for failures that must be avoided. Principia has performed many analyses of this type, with wind turbines being perhaps the most frequent originator of our fatigue studies.