Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Gas flow
External
interconnecting 4. Tubes in vertical HRSGs are free
piping to expand independently and in three
directions as indicated by the arrows
in the sketch
Tubes fixed
by header
Location of Tubesheet
thermal stress
Casing
Tubes fixed by lower
manifold and link pipes
3. Piping layouts are important and
2. Poor coil configurations for cycling often overlooked by owner/operators 5. Tube connections to headers are
duty can precipitate tube failures at the design stage bent, providing operational flexibility
COMBINED CYCLE JOURNAL, First Quarter 2006 33
CYCLING OF HRSGs
The Route to Dead chamber for return
bends and headers
Effective Finned-tube region
Generator Rotor
Maintenance
Leads in One Experts in
Economizer
winding design,
Direction... manufacture Casing
weld
& installation.
Evaporator
Superheater
Vent door
value would be for engineers charged The triple-pressure, reheat HRSG undetermined time in the future.
with developing a lifetime assess- outfitted with approximately 500 Despite very graphic industry
ment plan for fatigue. thermocouples was designed to experience, some plants still are
the minimum requirements of the not draining headers consistently
ASME Code. Thus, evaluation of and/or completely.
Experience in thermal transients using thermal/
mechanical modeling or finite-ele-
n Another example of potentially
severe fatigue-related damage to
cycling HRSGs ment analysis was not required nor
performed, even though the plant
tubes, headers, and pipes is the
arrangement of superheater and
Measurement of damaging ther- had been specified for cycling ser- reheater heating surfaces and
mal transients in F-class hori- vice. Focus of designers was lowest their respective interstage attem-
zontal HRSGs, Robert W Ander- initial cost. perators in configureations that
son, Competitive Power Resources Pearson and Anderson reported are conducive to gross overspray
Corp (US), and Michael Pearson, that poor design practicesmost well during startups and shutdowns.
J Michael Pearson & Associates publicized as such for many years The problem is caused by a fail-
(Canada). were repeated in this boiler and are ure to locate attemperators where
The Pearson/Anderson presenta- still in use today. All of the problems they are capable of desuperheat-
tion was the perfect sequel to Rops. identified are solvable at reasonable ing under all predictable operating
It related in detail the collection and cost, they said. Value of the paper conditions without spraying too
analysis of field data from one HRSG is that it can help owner/operators close to the saturation tempera-
to identify potentially damaging make better decisions regarding ture and without allowing bulk
tube-temperature anomalies likely improvements that are worth design- steam outlet temperatures from
to impact the long-term reliability of ing into their next HRSG because of exceeding design limits.
pressure parts. The paper included the long-term financial benefits those n Use of an unvented, upper-return-
as part of the proceedings is a trea- enhancements offer. Three key points bend type of preheater/econo-
sure-trove of useful information for of the presentation: mizer allows many rows of the HP
plant managers. It is anything but n It is of crucial importance that economizer to remain air bound
casual reading: more than 100 pages high-pressure (HP) superheat- throughout every startup/operate/
long with more than 100 illustra- ers and reheaters be completely shutdown cycle. The tube-to-tube
tions. However, the presentation drained before steam flow is estab- temperature differences caused
should be of interest to many in the lished. Keep in mind that you cant by the failure to prime all tubes,
industry because the investigation fool the material. Damage caused say Pearson and Anderson, result
was conducted on a 7FA/horizontal by poor condensate management in structural load transfer from
HRSG arrangement common to more rarely is immediate and fatigue hot (non-flowing) tubes to colder
than 100 plants worldwide. failures may not occur until some (flowing) ones.
36 COMBINED CYCLE JOURNAL, First Quarter 2006
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Kennebunkport, Maine
June 20-21, 2006
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London was a detailed account of the of the joint led to a consideration of that a highly competitive global mar-
failure of a girth weld joining main- elastic follow-up as a contributor ket focused on cutting cost militates
steam piping to a main steam stop/ to the failure process, a possibility against it. The low-cost mentality of
control valve after less than 5000 that would require a more detailed owner/operators often dictates the
hours of total operation. The piping analysis. use of globally sourced contractors
had been fabricated from Grade 91 Consult Henrys 1Q/2005 article with less-than-satisfactory perfor-
material and the valve body was a referenced above for more detail on mance records and inadequate train-
1.25Cr-1Mo-0.25V alloy; the weld this incident (see passage beginning ing programs. This is conducive to an
had been made using a 2.25Cr-1Mo with subhead Proper joint design). abnormally high rate of weld defects.
filler metal. Metallurgical analysis With a high-capacity, triple-pressure
indicated that all processing asso- Inspection, maintenance, and HRSG requiring upwards of 19,000
ciated with the welding and subse- reliability of HRSGs manufac- tube welds, poor craftsmanship can
quent heat treatment of the joint tured in a decentralized global mean many leaks.
had been properly conducted. market, T Itay, E Rindenau, and Shibli and coauthors pointed out
A limited structural analysis D Laredo, Israel Electric Corp Ltd that the wall thickness of tubing
was performed to determine how (Israel) and D G Robertson and I A for many HRSGs is less than that
the joint was loaded during various Shibli, ETD (UK). for conventional fired boilers and
phases of operation, but it failed to ETDs Shibli, who was the con- that HRSG tubing is less tolerant
identify the source of the loading ference coordinator, presented on of fabrication defects and of loss of
responsible for premature joint fail- HRSG tube failures with three Israe- wall section through pitting attack
ure. However, it did indicate that li colleagues. The title of the paper or other corrosive loss. The most
neither the pressure loading nor does not do justice to the content. frequently encountered defects,
thermal transient loads could have It is a good overview of tube failure they said, are inadequate fit-up of
played any significant role in the experience based on work by the the tubes, lack of penetration, burn
onset of cracking. authors, the Electric Power Research through, irregular root, and exces-
Investigation indicated that axial Institute, the HRSG Users Group, sive penetration.
loads of significant magnitude could and others. Worthwhile reading for Say defect and one naturally
be generated at the failure location asset managers responsible for new thinks of nondestructive examina-
because of the mismatch in both construction and for plant managers tion techniques to identify problems
material properties and geometry, assigned commissioning duty who early and do necessary rework before
and a transition piece was designed may be feeling a bit paranoid about commissioning. However, Shibli
for installation between the pipe tube leaks. said that such irregularities cannot
and valve body to minimize the The authors began with the always be detected by radiographic
geometry effect. The importance of thought that maintenance-free or ultrasonic test methods.
axial loads to the premature failure equipment is an attractive idea, but An obviously painful experience
38 COMBINED CYCLE JOURNAL, First Quarter 2006
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