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Abstract
Boiler tubes in power plants have nite life because of prolonged exposure to high temperature, stress and aggressive
environment. Service-exposed platen superheater and reheater tubes (148,900 h) made of 2.25Cr-1 Mo steels in a 120
MW boiler of a thermal power plant were evaluated for remnant life. The investigation included hot tensile tests, hardness measurement, dimensional measurement, microscopy and creep tests. Experimentally determined yield and ultimate
tensile strength, and estimated 10,000100,000 h rupture strength in the temperature range 520580 C, exhibited a
decreasing trend with increasing temperature. Microstructural study did not reveal any signicant degradation in terms
of creep cavities, cracks, graphitization, etc. Analysis of tensile and stress rupture data revealed that although there was
degradation of the tubes due to prolonged service exposure in terms of the ultimate tensile strength values, stress rupture
plots showed that the service exposed superheater and reheater tubes could remain in service for a length of more than 10
years at the operating hoop stress of 40 MPa/540 C, provided no localised damage in the form of cracks or dents develop.
# 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Creep; Boiler tube; Residual life; Stress rupture test; Service exposed
1. Introduction
Remaining life assessment (RLA) of aged power plant components in the present highly competitive
industrial scenario has become very popular both for economy and safety reasons. In India there is a great
demand for RLA since some of the 60,000 MW capacity power sectors have become older than 20 years. In
real life both premature retirement and life extension (in relation to design life) can be encountered. The
decision for retiring a component is not purely technical but also one of economics and safety. This has
attracted a few multinationals for RLA studies and the broad purpose is:
Evaluation of parts for the degree of aging and remaining life.
Replacement of parts.
Improvement in the construction of components through material substitution, shape alteration and
reinforcement.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-657-426-091; fax: +91-657-227-0527.
E-mail address: asokroy@nmlindia.org (A.K. Ray).
1350-6307/03/$ - see front matter # 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S1350-6307(03)00063-3
646
Development of an on-line diagnosis system to monitor aging of components and assure proper
functioning of the unit within a xed period of time.
Boiler components used in power plants have nite life because of prolonged exposure to high temperature, stress and aggressive environment. However, past experience has shown that for a variety of reasons
these may have signicant remaining life beyond the design specication. This is best estimated by conducting a systematic life assessment exercise during a planned shutdown. In most cases damage accumulation starts from the outer surface. It manifests itself as surface cracks. Therefore careful visual
examination and non-destructive tests (e.g. DPI, MPI) carried out on the outer surface can give a fair idea
about the health of the component. In addition use of ultrasonic aw detectors can also detect nucleation
of defects within the material.
It is widely known that carbon and CrMo steels are extensively used as high temperature components in
power plants [111]. Even though most of these components have a specic design life of 20 years, many of
these have been known to have survived much longer. In view of the increasing cost of setting up new
plant, there is now considerable interest in life extension of existing units. In order to arrive at a quantitative estimate of the remaining life of such aging components, it is necessary to have creep and stress rupture
data.
The present work thus incorporates determination of tensile properties in the temperature range of room
temperature (25 C) to 600 C, creep rupture properties in the temperature range of 550700 C and
microstructural study to assess the condition of service-exposed reheater and platen superheater tubes for
their continued service.
1.1. Material and history of the service exposed boiler tubes:
The material specication with service condition and history of operation of the service exposed superheater and reheater tubes of the boiler are given in Table 1.
1.2. Dimension and visual examination of the service exposed tubes
The dimensional measurement (see Table 1) carried out on these tubes did not show any appreciable
change in outer diameter (OD). Wall thickness and the cross sections of the service exposed tubes were
found to be of uniform thickness. Dimensions of the OD were measured at two mutually perpendicular
directions along the length of the tube at intervals of 150 mm. There was no evidence of any localized
attack on the outer and inner surfaces of the tube.
Table 1
Material specication, dimension and service condition of service exposed tubes
Material
Reheater outlet
Material specication
Design steam pressure at outlet
Operating steam pressure outlet
Operating temperature
Design temperature
Steam ow
Outer diameter (OD)
Thickness
Service-exposed (running) hours
BS 3059/622/50 SE
151 kg/cm2
133.6 kg/cm2
540 C
570 C
393,000 kg/h
50.8 mm
10.97 mm
148,900 h
BS3059/622 Si
33.044 kg/cm2
28.0 kg/cm2
540 C
570 C
361.400 kg/h
50.8 mm
3.25 mm
148,900 h
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2. Experimental
Chemical analysis (Table 2) shows that the materials under the present investigation are basically
2.25Cr1Mo steels conforming to the grades specied in Table 1.
Optical metallographic examinations (Figs. 1 and 2) were carried out on the service exposed tubes. The
average hardness values (VHN) of these tubes are shown in Table 3.
Tensile tests at room temperature 25, 500, 575 and 600 C of the service exposed tubes were performed
using a digitally controlled 8562 Instron servo-electric testing system, equipped with a three-zone split
furnace with PID control. Standard tensile specimens were made from the service exposed materials as per
Table 2
Chemical analysis of service exposed boiler tubes
SL. No.
1
3
4.
Type of material
Mn
Si
Cr
Mo
0.12
0.15
0.15 max
1.14
0.62
0.6 max
0.08
0.21
0.5 max
0.045
0.034
0.05 max
0.03
0.033
0.03 max
2.23
2.49
2.6 max
0.9
1.05
1.13 max
Fig. 1. Optical microgmph of the service-exposed reheater outlet tube at 500 revealed ferritic and bainitic structure with no evidence
of creep cavitation damage, oxide scale deposition at inner and outer surface or spheroidization of the tube. The ferrite grains are
dispersed with carbides.
Fig. 2. A typical optical micrograph of service exposed platen superheater outlet tube at 500 showing a ferritc bainitic structure with
no evidence of spheroidization and creep cavitation damage. The ferrite grains are dispersed with carbides.
648
Table 3
Hardness values of service-exposed reheater and superheater tubes
Sl. No.
Type of material
1
3
168
173
ASTM E8-79 specication. Tensile tests were carried out on the base metal only from the longitudinal direction of the service exposed tubes. During tensile tests, constant test temperature within 2 C and constant
displacement rate of 0.2 mm/min were maintained. The variation of the Yield Strength (0.2% Proof
Stress) and Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS) with temperature of testing is shown in Fig. 3(a) and (b).
Accelerated stress rupture tests using constant load Mayes creep testing machines were carried out as per
ASTM 139/83 specication with at specimens made from the longitudinal direction of the service-exposed
tubes. These tests were carried out in the temperature range of 550700 C and in the stress range of 36
129 MPa. The stress levels above the operating stress at each temperature were selected in such a way as to
obtain rupture within a reasonable span of time. The hoop stress sh acting on the service exposed tubes
was calculated as 40 MPa.
Fig. 3. (a) Plot of yield strength (0.2% proof stress) with temperature for the service-exposed platen superheater outlet and reheater
outlet tubes. (b) Plot of ultimate tensile strength (UTS) with temperature for the service-exposed platen superheater outlet and
reheater outlet tubes.
649
The stress rupture data have been plotted in terms of stress vs LMP (LarsonMiller Parameter) along
with the ASME (minimum) data line [12] for a similar grade of steel, for the purpose of comparison (Fig. 4).
For the grade of steel under investigation [12], the LarsonMiller Parameter LMP T20 log tr ,
where T=Temperature in K and tr=Rupture time in hours. The life of the tube in hours was then estimated at various temperatures from the LMP value read from Fig. 5.
Regression analysis of stress rupture data for service-exposed reheater and superheater tubes has been
carried out using a standard software package, in order to evaluate the long-term rupture strength of the
tubes over the range of temperature presently investigated.
LMP T20 log tr ao a1 log S a2 log S2 . . . . . . . . . . . . am log Sm ;
where S=Rupture strength in Mpa, m=Order of polynomial, ao, a1, a2 and am polynomial constants
(Table 4). Table 5, and Figs. 6 and 7 reveal the variation of rupture strength, S of the service exposed tubes
with temperature, in the temperature range of 520580 C, for various rupture times and at m=1.
Fig. 4. Plot of stress versus LMP (LarsonMiller Parameter) for the service-exposed tubes.
Table 4
Polynomial constants from regression analysis
Type of material
Order of polynomial
a0
a1
m=1, C=20
m=1, C=20
0.537610
2
0.6762610
2
0.23631856105
0.22533105
46.68142
21.746043
650
Fig. 5. Plot of temperature versus balance life of the service-exposed platen superheater outlet and reheater outlet tubes.
Table 5
Estimated rupture strength in MPa
Type of material
Temp. C
Order of polynomial
Time (tr) in h
10,000
30,000
100,000
520
540
550
560
570
580
m=1,
m=1,
m=1,
m=1,
m=1,
m=1,
C=20
C=20
C=20
C=20
C=20
C=20
161.0
138.9
127.9
116.9
105.8
94.8
143.6
121.1
109.9
98.6
87.3
76.1
124.6
101.6
90.1
78.6
67.1
55.6
Platen superheateroutlettube
520
540
550
560
570
580
m=1,
m=1,
m=1,
m=1,
m=1,
m=1,
C=20
C=20
C=20
C=20
C=20
C=20
98.5
88.3
83.1
77.8
72.8
67.7
94.3
79.9
74.7
69.5
64.2
59
81.6
70.8
65.5
60.1
54.8
49.4
651
The microstructure of the service exposed reheater and platen outlet tubes mainly consisted of a ferritic
bainitic structure (Figs. 1 and 2). The ferrite grains are dispersed with carbides. Evidence of graphitization
and creep damage in the form of cavitation and decarburization was not observed in any of the service
exposed tubes. Therefore, it is clear that the service exposed reheater and platen superheater outlet tubes
have had hardly any appreciable degradation from the microstructural point of view.
Fig. 6. Plot of rupture strength versus temperature for the service-exposed reheater outlet tube.
Fig. 7. Plot of rupture strength versus temperature for the service-exposed platen superheater outlet tube.
652
653
Fig. 8. Plot of hardness versus LMP (LarsonMiller Parameter) for the service-exposed platen superheater outlet and reheater outlet tubes.
that the hardness data lie on or above the mean data line for 2.25Cr1Mo steels as reported in the literature
[18,19]. A similar behaviour was also observed from the stress versus LMP plot (Fig. 4), where most of the
data lie on or above the minimum and mean data line for 2.25Cr1Mo steel. Since there was not any
appreciable change in the hardness values of such steels even due to prolonged service exposure, it justies
that the temperature of the metal wall was not less than the steam temperature.
So far as the remaining life at 540 C/40 MPa is concerned, it is possible to obtain a minimum life of
> 100,000 h for the service-exposed reheater and platen superheater outlet tubes provided there is no evidence of localised damage. Another check for safety of the service exposed pipes in terms of residual life is
recommended to be carried out after 50,000 h of service life from the view of economic and safety reasons.
Also during shut down of the plant, NDT tests may be carried out to assess the condition of the materials
for their future serviceability.
4. Conclusions
The study leads to the following conclusions:
1. So far as the residual life at 540 C/40 MPa is concerned, it is possible to obtain a minimum life of
about 100,000 h for the service-exposed reheater and platen superheater outlet tubes provided there
is no evidence of localised damage in the form of surface cracks, cavitation or dents.
2. Analysis of tensile data revealed that there is some deterioration in ultimate tensile strength of the
service-exposed reheater and platen superheater outlet tubes compared with those of the virgin tube
reported in the literature, but these variations are within the specied limits for similar grade of steels.
3. The service-exposed reheater and platen superheater outlet tubes appear to be in a reasonably good
state of health. Another check for safety is recommended after 50,000 h of service. Also during shut
down of the plant, NDT tests, viz. dimensional (thickness and diameter) measurements, hardness
measurement and insitu metallography may be carried out to assess the condition of the materials.
654
Acknowledgements
The authors are thankful to Mr. Santokh Singh, Mr. Hira Lal and Mr. Sashi Bhushan Singh for their
assistance in the stress rupture tests. The authors are grateful to the Director, National Metallurgical
Laboratory, Jamshedpur and the Department of Metallurgy, NIT Jamshedpur, for their kind permission
to publish this paper.
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