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Remaining life assessment of boiler components

Article  in  International Journal of Applied Engineering Research · January 2015

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International Journal of Applied Engineering Research
ISSN 0973-4562 Volume 10, Number 9 (2015) pp. 23755-23767
© Research India Publications
http://www.ripublication.com

Remaining Life Assessment of Boiler Components

[1]
Raghuram P, [2]Hemanath S, [3]Hiran S.H, [4]Vignesh M, [5]Ranjith S
[1][2][3][4][5]
Amrita School of Engineering,
Amritanagar P.O., Coimbatore – 641112, Ph: 0422 2685000, Fax: 0422 2656274
[1]
p_raghuram@cb.amrita.edu, [2] vardan6@gmail.com, [3] hiranak47@gmail.com,
[4]
vignesh8.vm@gmail.com [5] ranjith.s.2011@gmail.com

Abstract

Super heater and re-heater coil failures occur very often and thus the boiler have to
be shut down affecting power generation. Pre-assessment of the component helps
to plan procurement and replacement activities in advance and also improves the
reliability and availability of the plant by reducing unplanned forced outages. This
paper analyses the cause for such failures, the details of pattern of failure, material
specification, operating parameters and the mechanisms involved for the
degradation. It looks at using the degradation in mechanical properties and the
microstructure of the component as the guiding tools for predicting the health and
the remaining life of the component. This paper paves way to assess the condition
of any component of any industry. In this paper two different samples at different
exposure limits have been considered and analyzed extensively.

Index Terms: Super heater, re-heater, failure, material properties,

microstructure, remaining life.

Introduction
Thermal power plants form the major portion of the installed capacity for power
generation in our country and there always existed a wide gap between the supply and
demand of energy. To cope up with the existing scenario, steps are taken to install new
power plants with better technology that could help us meet the demands. This is a huge
financial investment and requires a long gestation period. Focusing on extending the
useful life of these ageing power plants helps meet the rising demands and also allows us
to establish a proper maintenance schedule. Rehabilitation of the ageing steam generators
through life extension methods is the most cost effective mean to achieve the extended
useful life. All over the world people started adopting the concept of Renovation and
Modernization through life extension program. This idea is gaining popularity in India as
well in recent times to meet the increase in power demand.
23756 Raghuram P

In India, most of the power plant and their units are nearing the stage of useful design
life. Hence it is important to make the most out of them by adopting new techniques which
could help us meet the demand for a shorter period. Remaining Life Assessment (RLA),
a life extension program, helps us identify the components that can used for further
continued operation, the components that require examination after specific intervals, and
those which should be replaced. This helps us make life extension program to serve the
purpose in a programmed manner.
The critical components of a usual power plant are subjected to high pressure and high
temperature conditions during their operating conditions. Their economical design life
time is around 20-30 years. Due to many damaging effects like corrosion, fatigue, creep,
erosion, stress they undergo material degradation.
RLA plays a vital role in ensuring that the components of the thermal power plant are
used to the fullest extent i.e. fit for operation beyond the desired useful life. Degree of
damage in the components and rate of damage accumulations at the present scenario can
be calculated using RLA.
Besides this study there is a fair bit of research work in the field of life prediction [1]
[2]. Even though the research offers various techniques there is a need for quick and
inexpensive methodology for the estimation of life of a component [3].
Generally RLA is based on the results given by various Non-Destructive Experiments
(NDE) and Destructive Experiments on the boiler pipe work. Based on the data collected
RLA can be used to schedule inspections and maintenances. This methodology helps
continue operation without shutting down the power plant. Remaining Life predictions
should provide as a guideline to help establish trends to detect failure, replacement time,
exact life calculations.
The focus of our RLA study is on the super heaters and Re-heaters of the boiler
components. These are the components that are prone to frequent failures as they are
operating in high temperature and high pressure conditions [4]. Super heater plays a vital
role in increasing the temperature of the steam above its saturation temperature. This is
done by passing the steam over small tubes that have hot gas passing inside them. Super
heater helps us reduce specific steam consumption, condensation losses in the pipes and
erosion in turbine blades; thus improving the power plant efficiency. Re-heater plays an
important role in reheating cycle, where the steam is extracted from the turbine at a
suitable point and reheated with the help of flue gases from the furnace. They improve the
dryness fraction of the steam. They also reduce the specific steam consumption of the
plant and thus reduce the feed pump power input and hence improve the efficiency of the
power plant.
The advantages of RLA are well understood by the results in long-term benefits in
terms of plant availability, reduced forced outages, increased utilization of regenerative
systems, restoration capacity and increased operational safety. Cost savings accrue from
avoidance of unnecessary, premature inspection, or by avoiding component failure due to
delayed commencement of inspection.
Remaining Life Assessment of Boiler Components 23757

Case Study
The present study is conducted in a power plant in South India. The boiler components
which are analyzed for the current research are super-heater and re-heater. The
specifications of the respective components are provided in Table 1. The composition of
the material under consideration for the present study is given in Table 2.

Table 1: Composition of Material

Element Composition
C 0.15 %
Cr 0.9 %
Mo 0.25 %
V 0.3 %
Fe 98 %

Table 2: Specifications of Components Under Study

Components Outer Thickness

Diameter
Super-heater 63.5 mm 8 mm
Re-heater 38 mm 5.6 mm

RLA Techniques
Non Destructive Experiments (NDE) and Metallurgical Analysis are the major two
classification of methods used for RLA. NDE techniques are used to compare the current
condition of the material of a given component in comparison with its original condition of
the material to define the amount of deterioration. The location of the component,
materials used, the mode of damage, the damage area is the parameters needed to choose
the correct method of evaluation for selecting the NDE technique. The commonly used
methods for NDE are the visual inspection, Liquid penetrate testing (LPT), hardness
measurement, magnetic particle testing (MPT) [5], dimensional measurements, oxidation
thickness measurements, ultrasonic testing[6]. Other techniques include Z-parameter
approach and Larson-Miller relationship [7], creep life [3], creep cavitation model [8][9].
The hardness measurement technique is feasible for the problem under study and the
position of damage, place or location. This method is more feasible due to its simple
technique and cost effectiveness. This procedure can be carried out any instance of time
unlike the other techniques which may require special attention and may a time require
shutting down of the plant.
23758 Raghuram P

Procedure
Table 3: Yield Strength At Different Life Times

S.No LIFE TIME (hours) ACTUAL YEILD STRENGTH (N/mm 2)

1 10000 42.33
2 20000 45
3 30000 46.33
4 40000 49
5 50000 51
6 60000 54
7 70000 56.33
8 80000 60
9 90000 63.33

Hardness Experimentation
The hardness of the material can be equated to the amount of resistance to the penetration
or indentation. The Rockwell hardness B scale is taken as the scale for measurement .The
test consists of applying load on an indenter of standard type usual made of diamond into
the test piece. The unit of measurement is “e’ is 0.002 mm to determine the Rockwell
hardness. The procedure includes calculating the Rockwell hardness and Oxide Scale
thickness.
The hardness and oxide scale experiments are carried out on super heater and
re-heater taken for study at various lifetimes. The sample were collected at various
intervals of time at every 10000 hours of operation from the beginning of the
operation .The super heater tube under study has a working life of 80000 hours and the
re-heater has a working life of 60000 hours. Experiments were conducted during normal
shutdown period for the currently working tubes. Also two failed tubes at 90000 hours for
super heater and 70000 hours for re-heater were collected. These were inspected visually
at first and then the Rockwell hardness of the material and scale thickness was determined.
Further calculations were made to find out the actual and maximum yield strength of the
material.
Remaining Life Assessment of Boiler Components 23759

Table 4: Hardness Measurements By Experimentation

S. Life Time Rockwell Hardness (HRB) Conversion To Brinell

No (Hours) By Experiment Hardness (BHN)
1 10000 71 127
2 20000 74 135
3 30000 76 139
4 40000 79 147
5 50000 82 153
6 60000 84 162
7 70000 86 169
8 80000 89 180
9 90000 91 190

Yield Strength
Yield strength is the stress at which a specific amount of plastic deformation is produced.
Yield strength is calculated in terms of Hardness measurements [10]. Yield strength is
calculated using Equation 1 and tabulated in Table 4. The graphs are plotted and shown in
figure 1.
Brinell Hardness = 3 * (Yield Strength) (1)

Figure 1: Yield Strength Vs Life Time of Super-Heater

Oxide Scale Thickness

Formation of oxide scale is due to the exposure of the metal at higher temperature in the
boiler tubes. The oxide scale thickness is measured at specific life times. Table 5 shows
the measurements of the oxide scale formation at different life times.
23760 Raghuram P

Table 5: Oxide Scale Thickness At Different Life Times

S. No LIFE TIME (hours) OXIDE SCALE THICKNESS(mm)

1 10000 0.103
2 20000 0.197
3 30000 0.283
4 40000 0.486
5 50000 0.672
6 60000 1.012
7 70000 1.428
8 80000 1.632
9 90000 1.8

Conductive Resistance
The overall conductive resistance is obtained by taking into account both the layers of
oxide scale and the material. The conductive resistance is calculated for the material and
the oxide layer using the formula shown in equation (2). They are added to give the total
conductive resistance.
RTotal R1 R2 (1)

ln(r 3 / r 2) ln( r 2 / r1)

RTotal (2)
2 lk1 2 lk 2

Figure 3: Maximum Yield Strength vs Life Time for Super Heater

The thermal conductivity of the material (k1) is 44.5 W/mK and that of the oxide layer
(k2) is 15 W/mK. The notation r1 denotes the radius of the inner tube after oxide
formation, r2 denotes the radius of the inner tube and r3 is the radius of the outer tube.
Remaining Life Assessment of Boiler Components 23761

Temperature Distribution
The boiler tubes operate at extreme conditions and it is necessary to know the temperature
distribution at various stages of its cycle. The temperature distribution on the inner
surface of the tubes can be related to the thermal conductivities as shown in equation (3).
T1 T 3 T 2 T3
(3)
R1 R 2 R2

Figure 2: Inner Surface Temperature Vs Life Time For Super Heater

Maximum Yield Strength

A. Thermal Stress
Due to the high temperature of the boiler tubes, thermal stresses are developed and it is
related to the temperature distribution as shown in equation (4).
t t (4)
Thermal stress, σt is calculated using E, which is the Modulus of rigidity (N/mm2), ∝
which is the coefficient of thermal expansion (K-1), and ∆t is the temperature difference
(K). The maximum yield strength at different life times is calculated with the temperature
difference at their respective life times.

B. Thermal Strain
The presence of thermal stresses in the tube leads to a certain amount of deformation.
Hence the thermal strain is calculated from the stress developed using equation (5).
t t /E (5)

C. Lateral Strain
Lateral strain is also developed due to the thermal stresses and is calculated using the
formula given in equation (6).

x v t (6)
23762 Raghuram P

The Poison’s ratio (ν) is taken as 0.25.

D. Thermal Axial Stress

The thermal axial stresses developed in the tubes is found using formula (7).
x E / (1 v2 ) ( x v t) (7)

E. Von Mises Theory

The maximum yield strength of material is finally calculated using Von Mises Criterion.
Equations (8) and (9) illustrate Von Mises Theory.
( 1 2 )2 ( 2 )2 ( 1 )2 2 y
2
(8)

x 1 ; t 1 2
(9)
The maximum yield strength of the super heater is calculated for different life times
and the corresponding values are plotted in the graph shown in Figure 3.
Similar procedure is conducted with the re-heater and graphs are plotted which are
shown in figures 4, 5 and 6.

Figure 2: Yield Strength vs Life Time for Re-heater

Remaining Life Assessment of Boiler Components 23763

Figure 3: Inner Surface Temperature for Re-heater

Figure 1: Maximum Yield Strength vs Life Time for Re-heater

Metallograpic Study
Metallography studies of the super heater and the re-heater tube were conducted. The
materials used in both the super heater and the re-heater are the same which is 12Cr1 Mo
V. The samples were taken from both the super heater and the re-heater with their present
life of 60000 hours. Due to high temperature and pressure the materials undergo
degradation and the microstructure changes. Grinding process helps us clean the scale
formation and also the rust formed which is then polished using abrasive powder with girt
sizes of 120,200,400,600 in proper order one after the other. Subsequently, by applying
aluminium powder and diamond paste the polished region is ground again to a fine level.
An etchant of 3 % nitral is applied over the polished region. The resulting specimen’s
microstructure is studied under different magnifications and the results are stored.
The microstructure of the specimens of super heater and re-heater were studied using
an Inline microscope with 250X magnification. The figures 7, 8, 9 and 10 show their
respective microstructures.
23764 Raghuram P

Figure 5: Microstructure of new Super heater tube. The microstructure shows the fine
separation of pearlite and ferrite

Figure 6: Microstructure of current Super heater tube. In this microstructure it show the
development of the creep pores into a micro crack

Figure 2: Microstructure of new Re-heater tube. The microstructure shows the fine
separation of pearlite and ferrite similar to the super heater
Remaining Life Assessment of Boiler Components 23765

Figure 8: Microstructure of Current Re-Heater Tube. The Microstructure Reveals The

Development of Creep Pores. The Fine Pores Are Called Isolated Creep Pores

The metallography study gives us the following stages of microstructure observations

at different lifetimes.
Level 1 – Pearlite breakdown
Level 2 – Higher degree of perlite breakdown
Level 3 – Appreciable pearlite breakdown
Level 4 - Spheroidization
Level 5 – Isolated creep pores
Level 6 – Micro crack
Level 7 – Major crack

A. Pearlite breakdown
The pearlite break down takes place at three different levels with various degree of
microstructural change. The white part of the microstructure is ferrite and the black part is
pearlite. Pearlite breakdown is the initial and first observable material degradation
occurring due to long term exposure of the tube to a high temperature environment. The
super heater is exposed to a flue gas temperature of 910 ºC and inner stream whose flow
temperature is 540°C. The pearlite breakdown leads to the accumulation of pearlite
around the ferrite. This accumulation progresses with time and is an indication of pearlite
breakdown. The pearlite breaks down completely at one point and this is the initiation of
next level of degradation namely called the Spheroidization.

B. Spheroidization
The spheroidization leads to the precipitation of carbide. The hardness of the tube
increases due to spheroidization. This occurs when the mixture of two compounds is
continuously exposed to high temperature and thus the precipitation of one occurs over
the other.
23766 Raghuram P

C. Isolated creep pores

Creep is a slowly progressing, permanent deformation that results from steady force
acting on a material. Materials that are subjected to high temperature are especially
susceptible to deformation. Isolated creep pore is the next level of degradation after
spheroidization. They initially form as micro cracks and develop to form major cracks.
The crack on the long run leads to failure of the material.

Discussion
Remaining life prediction should help serve as a guideline to establish trends relative to
failure and time of inspection or replacement and should not be used as an exact life
calculation.

Results
We infer from the graphs shown in figures 3 and 6 that, as the lifetime of the super heater
tube increases the actual yield strength exceeds the maximum value just above 80,000
hours of operation and for the re-heater tubes the actual yield strength exceeds the
maximum value at above 60,000 to 70,000 hours of operation. Thus the super heater
tubes operating at 80,000 hours and above and the re-heater operating above 60,000
hours are prone to failure and have to be replaced immediately. Thus by knowing the
oxide scale thickness, the remaining life of the tubes can be found.
The methodology adopted provides a very simple and easy estimation of the current
condition of the tubes. The value of the remaining life is obtained from the graph at the
point where the actual yield strength value exceeds the maximum yield strength value.
The tubes, when they exceed this value, are prone to failure. The remaining life or the next
inspection schedule of the tubes can thus be estimated. Knowing the oxide scale thickness
and the hardness of the tube, the actual and maximum yield strength values can be
calculated and the remaining life prediction can be carried out.

Conclusion
This paper proposes a simple and cost effective approach for the estimation of Remaining
Life. The components of the boiler under study are super heater and re-heater tubes and
the material for testing and analysis is 12Cr1MoV. The approach included a sequential
procedure starting with the measurement of hardness at various life times and finally
calculating the yield strength along with its variation at different life times. The results
show the maximum yield strength of both super heater and re-heater. The overlap of the
variation of yield strength and the maximum yield strength curves provide the points at
which failure is prone to occur which correlates to the remaining life of the component. To
analyze the changes in the component a metallographic study was conducted and
observed under an Inline microscope. The results show the occurrence of minor cracks
and creep pores for the samples tested from super heater and re-heater tubes.
Remaining Life Assessment of Boiler Components 23767

References

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 23768 Raghuram P

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