Methodology to Estimate Remaining Service Life

of Piping Components Against Erosion Corrosion

H.N.Suresh A. Srividya
Department of Mechanical Engineering Department of Civil Engineering
Iawaharlal Nehru National College of Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Shimoga - 577 201, Karnataka, INDIA Mumbai - 400 076, Maharastra, INDIA
hnsiitb@gmail.com asvidya@civil.iitb.ac.in

Abstract away of the oxide films by turbulent water is followed by

Loss of material by erosion corrosion is one of the primary dissolution corrosion of the unprotected metal. Various factors
degradation mechanisms in feed water heater extraction pipes of
[7] affecting EC have been studied and the results are presented
PHWR Nuclear Power Plants. If the thickness of the piping
in Table I.
component is reduced below the critical leveI, it cannot sustain the
load and results in leakage or rupture. The paper includes the TABLE I. EFFECT OF VARIABLES ON EROSION CoRROSION

factors affecting Erosion Corrosion and prediction of Erosion

corrosion rate using Kastner's model. Using predicted erosion SL Erosion Corrosion Erosion Corrosion Increase if
corrosion rate, the remaining thickness and the remaining life of No. Variable variable is
piping component is estimated and prioritized which helps in
Fluid velocity Higher
proper scheduling of maintenance activities thus reducing the down
2 Fluid pH level Lower
time which otherwise could result in fatal accidents causing damage
to the plant and equipment and also to human beings. A case of 3 Fluid oxygen content Higher

Outlet Feeder Pipes (straight) which are susceptible for Erosion 4 Fluid temperature 120-200°C
Corrosion is presented. 5 Component geometry Such as to create more turbulence
6 Component chromium Lower
Keywords- Erosion Corrosion; Piping Components; Remaining Life; content
Feeder Pipes; Maintenance

I. INTRODUCTION By knowing the EC rate, we can derive valuable information like

• Pipe metal loss

Erosion corrosion (EC) also known as Flow Assisted corrosion • Percentage or allowable loss of minimum standards
(FAC) has been an operational and safety problem in nuclear and • Remaining pipe service life
fossil power plants. The tragic accident at SURREY-2 in 1986 • Pass or fail recommendation for acceptable condition
and Secondary Pipe Rupture at Miham in 2004 [1, 2] have made • Overall piping condition
researchers to conduct a thorough study on the various
degradation mechanisms, their effect on the system and to
A. Erosion Corrosion Rate
predict their behavior over time. Hence degradation due to EC is
The amount of metal loss or the rate of corrosion can be
considered. EC results in loss of metal resulting in reduction in
determined by Kastner's model which is found suitable for this as
thickness which when undetected results in failure of the piping
it takes care of almost all the parameters on which EC depends. A
system. In this study, effects of various factors affecting EC are
comparison of some of the models is made and is shown in Table II.
illustrated and the predicted EC rate is used to estimate
remaining life.
The EC rate by Kastner's model is determined by using the
Equation 1[1].
II. ABOUT EROSION CORROSION

I!.,pR =6.35xK C<B.e<N.W) x[1-O.175x(pH _7)2p.8.eO.118g +1)x f(t) (1)

Erosion Corrosion is a flow induced process [1] of material
degradation which can affect metallic materials which owe their B = -10.5../h-(9.375 *10-4T2)+ (0.79T) -132.5 (2)

corrosion resistance to the formation of oxide films. Wearing

978-1-4244-8343-3/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE 59

20l0:r International Conference on Reliability, Safety & Hazard (ICRESH-201O)

5 2 2
N = -O.0875h - (1.275 xlO- T ) + (1.078 x1O- T) - 2.15 (3) • Piping systems are originally defect free and remains defect

--4 2 1 2h free until its failure

N= (-1.29 xlO T + 0.109T - 22.07) x 0.154e- . (4)

The amount of metal lost at the end of time t is given by The remaining life is computed from the corrosion rate,
measured or estimated wall thickness and required minimum
w: A¢Rt thickness as given below
c
()
t - -- (5)
PSt
RL =
(tnom - tmin) (6)
TABLE II. CoMPARISON OF MODELS BASED ON 1lIE VARIABLES MODELED Wear Rate

Parameter Kastner Chexal Sanchez Bignold Ting

The minimum required thickness is found using either Chexal's
Caldera Ma
criteria or ASME standards [3, 4,]. Here in this work ASME
pH -.J -.J -.J -.J " standard is used which is given by the Eqn. (7).
Oxygen -.J -.J X X X
PD
Velocity -.J -.J -.J -.J " t . =
+A (7)
mm 2(�+Pxy)
Temperature -.J -.J -.J -.J "
Alloy Content -.J -.J X X X IV. CASE STUDY

Geometry -.J -.J -.J -.J "

To illustrate the feasibility of the model, a case study has been
Pipe Diameter X -.J -.J -.J " described in this section. The example case consists of PHWR
Time -.J X X X X outlet feeder which has 306 small diameter pipes ranging from
32mm to 70mm and length 2 meter to 22 meter that connects
outlet header to the steam generator. Feeder is of carbon steel
III. REMAINING LIFE
A106GrB. According to Ting and Ma [5], the susceptible piping
components in a nuclear power plant are 900 elbow, 450 elbow,
Computing estimates of remaining life requires a model of the
reducer, tee and straight pipes. A straight pipe is considered for
material damage mechanism. More accurate damage models and
the study. Other parameters of study for one such feeder [6, 7] is
knowledge of operating conditions will yield more accurate
shown in the Table III.
results of remaining life. For an in-service component, the
current condition of a component must be ascertained before
remaining life can be estimated. The current condition can be TABLE III. FAC PARAMETERS FOR 1lIE EXAMPLE CASE
determined by computing the current material condition using
damage accumulation models and past operating conditions or SLNo. Parameter Values
by means of nondestructive examination (NDE). Once the
Operational time (t) 40 years
current material condition is defined, remaining life is estimated
2 Piping Material (h) (Cr +Mo in %) 0.02
using damage accumulation models and forecasts of future
3 Piping geometry (elbow with RID of 0.5") 0.52
operating conditions. When the damage models are very
accurate and future operations are well defined, accurate 4 Piping geometry (straight) 0.16
estimates of remaining life can be obtained. As uncertainties 5 Fluid velocity (w) mlsec 7.26
about the material damage model and future operating
6 Dissolved oxygen concentration (g) IJgIk.g 10
conditions increase, conservatisms are employed to ensure that
7 Water chemistry (PH) 8.7
the calculations produce estimates of minimum remaining life.
8 Water temperature (lK) 449.7
The estimates of remaining life are used to make repair/replace
decisions and to set re-inspection intervals.

The main objective is to relate the life of piping system to its

thickness so that remaining life can be estimated by knowing the
thickness (measured or estimated) at any time.
Following assumptions are made in estimating the remaining life.

• Piping systems are subjected to a constant temperature and

pressure

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2010 r'International Conference on Reliability, Safety & Hazard (ICRESH-201O)

TABLE IV. RESULTS OF FAC AND REMAINING LIFE

V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Ll<l>R Wc(t) Wp(t) R. L From the comparative study, it is seen that Kastner's model fits in
£(t) Hrs J1g1ern2hr cm cm (Years)
best for our requirement as it takes care of almost all the factors
0.99 8760 142.53 0.16 1.11 10.0 affecting EC and also considers time of exposure which other
0.98 17520 140.51 0.31 0.96 9.2 models do not. EC is a function of time and it increases with the
0.96 26280 137.70 0.45 0.82 8.4 increase in Flow velocity, Oxygen content. Also it decreases
0.94 35040 134.31 0.59 0.68 7.7 with increase in chromium content and pH of the water flowing
0.91 43800 130.58 0.71 0.56 7.0 through the pipe. The wear rate or EC rate increases with
0.88 52560 126.72 0.83 0.44 6.4 exposure period as expected as shown in Fig. 1. The remaining
0.86 61320 122.97 0.94 0.33 5.8 life which is a function of EC rate also decreases with exposure
0.83 70080 119.53 1.05 0.22 5.2 period or increase in EC rate. T he remaining life and wear rate is
0.81 78840 116.63 1.15 0.12 4.5 used for planning and scheduling of maintenance activities to
0.80 87600 114.51 1.25 0.02 3.7 reduce downtime and the damages that may be caused due to
rupture when the thickness goes beyond the minimum level as

Thinning 'frend specified by the standards. From Fig. 2 it is seen that the feeder
1.4 D13 which has a higher wear rate and less RL has to be attended
1.2 first compared to other feeders.
-;::- I
: TABLE VI. FAC RATES AND REMAINING LIFE RESULTS OF OUTLET
i 08 FEEDERS (STRAIGHT)
U
';; 0.6

J
04
w
0.2
T Ll<l>Rm Wcm(t) Wp(t) RL
Feeder mlsec "K J1g1cm2hr ern ems Years
0
0 20000 40000 60000 80000 100000

Exposure Dme (Hrs) Jl8N 8.85 563.9 13.8081 0.0756 0.5994 3.93

H 15N 8.85 565.2 13.3152 0.0729 0.6021 4.26

Figure 1. Thinning trend of outlet feeder with different exposure period
H lO N 10.35 568.5 11.0306 0.0604 0.6146 6.18

T he results of remaining life estimation and the thinning are J07N 9.070 567.8 12.2130 0.0669 0.6081 5.09

shown in Table IV and Fig. 1 respectively. G09N 8.71 566.2 13.0793 0.0716 0.6034 4.43

F06N 8.05 566.0 13.7879 0.0755 0.5995 3.94

Seven such feeders are considered for calculating the wear rate
Dl3N 7.70 564.8 14.6218 0.0801 0.5949 3 43
and the remaining life and the results are shown in Table VI,
which can be used for prioritizing the feeders for maintenance
FAC susceptibility
activities. Based on remaining life and wear rate, the feeders are
16.0 10.0
classified [8] as shown in Table V and Fig. 2. Same parametric
140 - ;-
. - r-
r-
8.0
values as shown in Table III are used, with t 43800 Hrs (ie. at .!! ,",12.0 - r-
II

! ....
=

the end of 5th year) and f (t) = 0.9097. e .a 10.0 6.0 IOJ) C
,�'S 8.0 .10 Sl
TABLE V. PRIORITIZATION OF PIPING COMPONENT ACCORDING To FAC RATE AND �1\.
t: :: 6.0 40.10>
. i .....
8 ..... 40 .
II
REMAINING LIFE
2.0 �
2.0
SL. Description Risk 0.0 0.0
z z Z Z Z Z Z
No ..... 0
c::J 0
00 '" 0 0-. '0 '"

;:::; i i ..., CI � Ci
Short Remaining Life and High Wear Rate Most Severe Feeders
o Corrosion rate • Remaining Life
2 Short Remaining Life and Low Wear Rate Severe

Figure 2. FAC Susceptibility of outlet feeders

3 Long Remaining Life and High Wear Rate Moderate

4 Long Remaining Life and Low Wear Rate Mild

VI. CONCLUSIONS

It is concluded from the study that determining remaining life of

the piping system is very important as it helps in obtaining
information about the current condition of the system. Based on

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20l0:r International Conference on Reliability, Safety & Hazard (ICRESH-201O)

the predicted remaining service life, the components could be REFERENCES

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pH= pH of water flowing through the pipe
f(t) = Time correction factor
Wert) = Amount of material corroded at time t
Wp(t) = Remaining wall thickness at time t.
RL = Remaining Life in years
B andN= Factors determined depending on h and T
P = Design pressure in psi
D = Diameter of pipe
Ps = Allowable pressure depending on material in psi
Y= constant taken as 0.4
A= Additional thickness to be added for threading and bending
tmi• = Minimum required thickness
t.om = Nominal or initial thickness of pipe
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