running conventional power stations, it is therefore of interest to conduct a reliable lifetime assessment for
critical components. The challenge lies, firstly, in the very complex material behavior with hardening and
softening effects as well as in creep and relaxation processes.
Secondly, it lies in the great variety of different load cases with respect to strain ranges, strain rates,
temperatures and dwell times. A successful attempt to handle these was the classification of typical load cases,
allowing the approximation of an arbitrary transient load by a sequence of cold, warm and hot starts