**6. Conclusions and recommendations**

The effect of geometry found to strongly affect the FAC wear rate. For example, the maximum value of the wear found to be located within 5D downstream of the orifice. Also, the analyzed trends obtained from the plants inspection data show significant increase in the wear rate due to the component proximity. The CFD simulation of the hydrodynamic parameters such as *TKE* and *MTC* found to characterize the FAC wear rate downstream of piping components. Additional experimental and numerical investigations are required to further evaluate the close proximity effect for different components configuration. Findings of the present work will allow the power plant FAC engineers to identify more accurately susceptible components and reduce the inspection scope/time.
