Cherchez la Corrosion Big Effects of Little Corrosion Alex Nadezhdin Norbord Inc.

4960 Levy Street St-Laurent, QC, H4R 2P1 Canada Abstract The engineered wood industry involves production processes which are essentially dry in nature. Although moisture and condensation are present in steps such as flaking, drying, blending, and pressing of the wood furnish, the effect of bulk corrosion is mostly trivial and/or non-critical to the equipment. Instead, the secondary effects of corrosion such as wear and cavitation enhancement, or the hydrogen embrittlement of the high strength fasteners may have expensive consequences in terms of reliability of the overall process. The article presents several examples of big impact caused by little, sometimes invisible, corrosion in the background. Key words: corrosion, hydrogen embrittlement, OSB Introduction Structural panel, also known as OSB (oriented strand board) has been arguably the fastest growing segment of wood-based construction materials in North America and Europe over the last 25 years. The main characteristics of OSB are predictable structural properties, controlled swell by moisture and the ability to use juvenile and low quality plantation wood as the feed stock. The production starts with debarked logs which are then cut into roughly rectangular flakes of 0.5 mm to 1 mm thickness, 75 to 90 mm long and various widths. The flakes containing up to 50% w/w water are dried down to between 2 and 8% moisture, then blended with small amounts of resin and wax. Next, the flakes are formed into a three-layered mat on a continuous belt and pressed either continuously between two stainless steel belts or in a multiopening stack press containing 10 to 12 or more floating platens, to which the heat is supplied via internal channels using thermal oil or, rarely, steam at roughly 200 C. The overall production sequence is essentially dry, although some water comes in contact with the equipment via cooling spray on the back of flaker discs, condensation in the dryer exhaust streams, fine spray of adhesive and wax emulsions, and the steam released from the flake mat Scott McQuat Norbord Inc. 4960 Levy Street St-Laurent, QC, H4R 2P1 Canada

upon pressing between hot platens. There is also occasionally water entering the system as a mist released by the automatic fire suppression system, during fire-quenching, and maintenance shutdown cleaning. In most cases the effects are trivial, visible and easy to handle, with a few exceptions which are described in the paper.

Figure 1: Multi-opening OSB press assembly The cases of important corrosion described in this document include accelerated wear in postdryer cyclones, cavitation in thermal oil systems due to pitting caused by trace amounts of water and Sulfur in thermal oil, Hydrogen embrittlement of high strength fasteners in contact with water during storage and in a nominally dry application, and the hidden oxygen-cell corrosion set up inside continuous press rolling rods normally operating in the 150 C range. Case Studies Case Study 1: Accelerated Wear of Dryer Outlet Cyclone Rotary dryers, the workhorse of the modern OSB process, are slightly inclined rotary vessels through which green flakes and hot gas generated by a burner move co-currently towards the outlet. The flow then passes to a separation step from which the dry wood is transported to the next processing stage, while the exhaust exiting at 120 C is passed through a wet electrostatic precipitator (WESP) and regenerative thermal oxidizer (RTO) to clean and destroy entrained organic pollutants. The wood/gas separation is often conducted in a cyclone, which is subject to wall thinning often interpreted as wear. This notion is usually reinforced by the inevitable presence of grit and silica coming from wood that gets entrained in biomass burner exhaust (biomass presently being a conventional source of heat for the dryers). Based on this theory, hardened steel plate is sometimes specified for such application. The consequences of such choice are unjustifiably high cost of construction and premature failure as is seen in picture [Figure 2].

Figure 2: The razor thin wall of a rotary dryer cyclone The cyclones seen in figure 2, were installed at the outlet of single-pass rotary dryers in 2006 as part of a newly constructed production line. The cyclones were insulated and served without issues for the last 5 years, until complete penetration through the wall was apparent by escaping steam and flakes. Further inspection indicated that several square meters of the wall became paper thin and open to outside. The photos in Figure 3 show both sides of a section cut from the damaged cyclone wall; the shiny metallic side being the inside surface, while the dark, oxidized side with insulation still on it is the outside. The upper edge was razor thin and cracked in several locations. The material, a structural steel with elevated content of manganese, had Vickers hardness (VHN) greater than 200, which is well above the ~140 VHN of the ordinary mild steel.

Inside cyclone Outside surface Figure 3: The 2 sides of thinned wall sample: on the left working surface The clean appearance of the inside surface may suggest a mechanical erosion by hard ash components (e.g. silica) making their way through the dryers. A closer examination under low (x10) magnification shows a grooved pattern compatible with abrasive wear on the inside surface, but also, pitting of the surface as seen in Figure 4 below.

Corrosion pits in the wear surface

Figure 4: Pitting is seen on the working surface of worn out cyclone wall Upon closer examination, one can see multilayered pits with corrosion products at the bottom, leading to corrosion being a contributor to wall thinning in spite of shiny, rust-free appearance. The so called erosion-corrosion mechanism basics are well described in reference.1 Replacing the wall with relatively low cost, 12% Cr stainless steel (UNS S40977) solved the problem at a fraction of the cost required to seal the entire structure against sucking in cold air, which leads to the localized condensation and corrosion. Case Study 2: Corrosion Accelerates Cavitation Damage in Hot Oil Channels Modern OSB presses use thermal oil heating to activate the adhesive on the wood flakes. The oil flows from the heater to metal press platens where the wood mat is pressed and cooked. In this case, oil began to leak at various locations in a thermal oil pipe manifold in a newly commissioned continuous OSB press. One of leaks occurred at an end cap of the header. The picture in Figure 5 shows a sectioned view of a failed end cap with a clearly visible hole through the thickness of the metal.

100 mm

Figure 5: Profile of the penetrated thermal oil header cap

The image shows that there is no significant thinning on the cap wall, except a very narrow region around the penetration itself. Initially, no thinning was detected by an ultrasonic thickness survey of the pipes in locations such as elbows, inlets, or around fittings, which would be likely to wear by the flow of abrasive media. However, for the specific position of the end cap relative to sharply turning oil flow provides conditions ideal for forming of highly localized cavitation damage sometimes referred to as a hydraulic whistle, which is schematically shown by the drawing in Figure 6:

Region of reduced pressure

Figure 6: Hydraulic whistle created by dead end in the thermal oil header Examination of the damaged end cap area under the scanning electron microscope (SEM), showed: a) Metal loss pattern indicative of mechanical action such as wear by cavitation b) Small-scale pitting inside the worn out recesses with confirmed presence of crystalline particles containing Fe and S as main components (the signature of corrosion) in the bottom of the pits.

Figure 7: The surface of the hole at low magnification (x40) under SEM; pitting seen in the middle of a coarser wear pattern

Figure 8: Corroded sites inside the hole at high magnification (x1500); elemental analysis showed presence of Sulfur The metallographic cross-section of the end cap hole seen in Figure 9 shows a normal ferriticpearlitic microstructure with generally smooth and slightly compressed edge, indicative of the erosion factor. The presence of a closed type pit in the main hole surface confirmed local corrosion attack caused by thermal oil impurities, most likely Sulfuric acid. In other words, corrosion-aided erosion was identified as a mechanism of wall penetration.

Figure 9: Metallographic cross-section of the hole: smooth, compressed edge with a closedtype pit in it

Replacing the failed caps with UNS S30400 eliminated leaks in the short term, but replacing the Tee type ends with a round elbow allowed the system to run problem free for the last 10 years. In other words, corrosion became non-essential when special hydrodynamic conditions ceased to exist.

Case Study 3: Hydrogen Embrittlement of Fasteners in Wet Service This next case deals with the use of high strength fasteners in dynamically loaded production equipment. The so called hydrogen embrittlement (HE) of carbon and low alloy steel fasteners is part of the more general case of stress-corrosion cracking, which is driven simultaneously by stress and corrosion factors.2 Some authors only allow using HE terminology for the cases related to fabrication process, which could include pickling and electroplating, the rest being classified as embrittlement in service, being a part of the more general stress corrosion cracking phenomena.3 In this text HE is used for the embrittlement in service for brevity. A typical feature of such mechanism is the presence of branching, i.e., secondary cracking which crosses the main plane of fracture surface. The HE mechanism is normally interpreted as the result of atomic hydrogen, a primary product of steel surface corrosion by acid (including such a weak one as water), migrating into the bulk of metal and forming pockets of elemental hydrogen gas at impurities or grain boundaries inside the metal micro-structure. Those pockets push metal grains apart forming non-connected microcracks capable of coalescing into larger cracks under stress applied in service. An early sign of such embrittlement, beside microscopic observation is the reduction in maximum elongation value as compared to the one specified for a given material. In the OSB industry, thin wood flakes are made from debarked logs by a machine based on fast rotating forged steel head with sharpenable or disposable knives placed in heavy pie-like carriers (in one of the two predominant designs). A carrier is attached to the disc via a set of hex-cap screws made from Dacromet(1) coated SAE(2) Grade 8 high strength bolts. The face of the disk sprayed with water as coolant during cutting creates a possibility of exposing the screws to moisture on a semi-permanent basis. Many precautions are used to prevent HE from happening in service, such as the protective coating, a tight fit, a water-barrier polymer grease, and a regularly scheduled fastener replacement. Despite of prescribed precautions, a catastrophic failure occurred when one of the carriers became loose and separated from the disc triggering the separation and flying off of all other carriers around the circumference of the disc. The investigation began by collecting all the cap screws (8 per carrier) broken in the process with some of them still lodged in the disc. In full accordance with the described failure, the vast majority of the broken screws displayed pure shear fractures. Nevertheless, some of the screw fragments lodged in the disc and scattered around, had a distinctly grainy fracture surface with well pronounced beach marks, indicating an alternative failure mechanism, which might have taken place before the overall flaker failure. While several carriers had one or 2 fasteners of the latter kind, one of the carriers had 6 screws broken this way. We were quite confident that this particular carrier was the first one to separate. Pictures taken from the third party investigation report show the appearance of the described fracture surface after cleaning.4 It shows a characteristic pattern which is incompatible with either shear or fatigue failure in spite of the presence of ratchet and beach marks.

(1) (2)

Trade name Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), 400 Commonwealth Drive, Warrendale, PA 15096-0001.

Figure 10: Fracture surface after cleaning. Black rectangle marks the area shown at higher magnification under SEM. Upon closer examination under SEM, characteristic features of HE were revealed and correspond with the discovery of prolonged contact of bolts with water due to the absence of water-proof tight fit between the carrier and the disc surface and skipping of a scheduled bolt replacement time.

Figure 11: Closer view of the rectangular area in Figure 10; intergranular separation is consistent with HE mechanism

Case Study 4: HE Prior to Service Unfortunately, HE of high strength fasteners may occur even before they are placed in demanding service. At one point, a set of hex-cap screws, similar to those described in the preceding case started snapping one by one only a few days after installation in a flaker disc. The fracture surface showed previously observed HE-type appearance, in spite of the absence of visible corrosion and virtually intact corrosion-protective coating. The metallographic examination of a polished axial cross-section of the fastener revealed the true condition and some of the history of this batch of fasteners prior to shipment. The photos below clearly show a micro-crack crossing an inclusion inside the metal structure (sign of embrittlement), and a pit in the surface of the fastener. The pit is partially filled with the protective coating material indicating that the pit had formed prior to coating. In other words, surface corrosion (the cause of HE) has taken place during the period between original fabrication and protective coating before shipment. This could have been the result of storage under conditions allowing moisture condensation or a pickling/cleaning step not followed by an adequate bake out to purge the Hydrogen.

Figure 12: HE of high strength bolt prior to service Case Study 5: HE of High Strength Fasteners in Dry Service Pressing of wood in panel board industries is mechanically the most strenuous operation which requires high pressures across large flat areas at elevated temperatures. This is often achieved by using the multi-opening stack presses where suspended platens bound by simultaneous arms to move up and down in synchronous manner are being pressed together with wood mat between each pair. The stress is ultimately applied against a stationary platen which transfers the load to the frames. Over the period of several decades, the press design has undergone substantial evolutions going from columnar to welded frames construction and ending up with the modern arrangement of bolted construction which relies on the strength and stiffness of high grade bolts used all around the frame and simultaneous arms. Normally, such bolts are not subject to side bending and by far exceed the strength limitations imposed by working stresses. So, when the first failures were discovered after a few years in

service, a fractography and metallographic study was completed in order to determine the failure mechanism. First of all, in spite of generally shiny metallic appearance of the first failed bolts, tiny pits seen under the microscope suggested a surface corrosion attack, most likely by moisture condensed from generally humid atmosphere around the press. The appearance of the fracture surface indicated a bending component and ratchet marks around the perimeter. The in depth microscopy study, including SEM to search for signs of fatigue, showed that although there were some small area showing striations, the majority of the fracture surface showed evidence of branched cracking crossing the plane of main crack propagation. In some cases this ancillary cracking could be seen even under optical stereo microscope and on the polished metallographic cross-section. The discovery of branched cracks perpendicular to the main crack are clear signs of stress-corrosion, and in this case, hydrogen embrittlement mechanism.

. Figure 13: The metallographic cross section perpendicular to the fracture surface is showing secondary cracks suggesting partially intergranular propagation mode. Once again, the HE is seen as a contributor to failure mechanism, despite the minimal exposure to moisture due to the high temperature of metal surfaces during pressing. Nevertheless signs of surface corrosion were found on the heads and other locations, which could have been the result of periodic condensation during weekly down days. Case Study 6: Hidden Corrosion behind Oil Plug Our final case study describes the severe corrosion which took place in a closed cavity behind an oil plug in a moving part which normally operates at temperatures well above the boiling point of water. In a continuous OSB press the wood mat is inserted between two continuous stainless steel belts through which pressure and heat are transferred from hot platens. The lubricated rolling rod carpet between the platen and the belt allows for belt movement over the stationary platens. The roller rods are made from medium carbon steel in the annealed condition and case hardened on their surface to withstand the high pressures exerted in the press. Each 18 mm

diameter rod has a 9 mm hole drilled out on each end to a depth of about 140 mm in order to insert lubricated pins attached to the moving side-chains which run parallel to the belt at half speed. Although there is minimal interaction between the pins and the roller rods, the pins are constantly lubricated by using specialized high temperature oil. Throughout the life of the continuous press, the roller rods have failed periodically by fatigue initiated from inside due to several different mechanisms. To our surprise we have found that one of them has involved massive corrosion pitting of the cavity behind the pin and a densified oil plug formed due to thermal oil deterioration and wood dust accumulation in service.

Figure 14: Roller rod carpet being evaluated for end cavity wall thickness by using ultrasonic thickness gage

The appearance of pitted surface seen in the axial cross-section of the roller rod (Figure 15) leaves little doubt about the conductive liquid participating in the attack, in this case, liquid water, which penetrated the cavity behind the pins at one time in service history.

Figure 15: Axial cross-section of the rod ends with pitting clearly seen at the ends of the rod cavity

Considering the rods and pins operate at temperatures of >150 C, much exceeding the boiling point of water, the only possibility for this to happen would be during extended shutdown following pressure water wash, which indeed has been practiced at the plant. The presence of sticky oil plug blocking access to fresh air had greatly exacerbated the corrosion process via the so called oxygen concentration cell,5 where the relatively small area of wetted steel under low oxygen atmosphere played the role of anode of the galvanic cell, while the cathode was the rest of the roller rod surface fully exposed to air. Pitting at the diameter change between the end of cavity and the solid rod has been a natural fatigue starter. Once again hidden corrosion taking place during prolonged shut down of the press has led to a failure of critical metal parts running in an essentially dry production process. DISCUSSION The main objective of this presentation has been to give an outline of various cases of liquid corrosion in a predominantly dry production process. Many associated issues could constitute a subject of separate papers, such as, for example the selection of exhaust gas ducting and fan design and materials, corrosion of ceramic bed in environmental control devices, stresscorrosion cracking of stainless wet electrostatic precipitators, deterioration of mill chains and so on. While being rather mature in terms of optimized production processes and equipment, the panel board industries still have some room to progress towards rational design and production conditions aimed at minimizing costly corrosion damage. While high operating stresses and cyclic nature of many operations of the panel board production tend to focus operators and designers attention on mechanical issues, first of all wear and fatigue, taking into account potential contribution of wet corrosion during operation and shut down periods is expected to substantially reduce frequency and severity of failure. CONCLUSIONS Mechanical wear in wood drying operations is often the result of corrosion-erosion due to moisture condensation in post-dryer ducts and cyclones. Sometimes the corrosion contribution with important consequences can be detected only by using powerful magnifying devices such as SEM analysis. Selecting of high-strength fasteners, however advantageous it would be for achieving the design objectives needs to be critically analyzed in terms of possibility of the in-service embrittlement even under nominally dry service conditions. Pressurized water cleaning of the production equipment which normally operates in an oily environment needs to be reviewed from the perspective of potential to create pockets of water in contact with metal surface, which under conditions of limited fresh air access would form aggressive oxygen cells destroying equipment literally from inside out.

REFERENCES (1) Rihan, O.R., Nesic, S., Erosioncorrosion of mild steel in hot caustic, Corrosion Science 48 (2006) 26332659 (2) Hendrix D. E., Hydrogen embrittlement of high-strength fasteners in atmospheric service, Materials performance Y. 1997, vol. 36, No. 12, pages 54-56 (3) Sisson, R., Hydrogen Embrittlement and Electroplating, Fastener Technology International, August 2001, 50-51 (4) Acuren confidential report A07605-03479-01-02R0-60CAS006 (5) Concentration Cell Corrosion, Corrosion Technology Laboratory, n.d. [accessed 2012 July 20]; Available from: http://corrosion.ksc.nasa.gov/conccor.htm