Transactions of The Indian Institute of Metals

        

Failure investigation of platen superheater tube in a 210 MW

thermal power plant boiler
D. Ghosh, H. Roy, T. K. Sahoo and A.K. Shukla
Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, Mahatma Gandhi Avenue, Durgapur -713209, West Bengal, India
E-mail : dghosh@cmeri.res.in
Received 4 July 2008
Revised 4 July 2009
Accepted 4 July 2009
Online at www.springerlink.com
2010 TIIM, India

Keywords:
super heater; creep; boiler

Abstract
Failure of tubes in boiler of the power plants may occur due to various reasons. These include failures due to creep, corrosion, erosion,
overheating and a host of other reasons. This paper deals with the probable cause(s) of failure and also suggest remedial action to prevent
similar repetitive failure in future. Visual examination, dimensional measurement, chemical analysis, oxide scale thickness measurement,
microstructural examination, Energy Dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) were carried to ascertain the probable cause(s) of failure of inner leg of
platen super heater tube. It was observed that the inner surface of the failed portion of the tube was covered with a white deposit. The elemental
composition of inner surface containing adherent deposits reveals Al, Si, Mg, Fe etc. This is possibly due to the presence of aluminium silicate,
magnesium silicate, calcium silicate in inner surface of the tube, which results in poor conductivity. Insulating affect of this poor conductive
deposit on the inner surface caused localized overheating of tube metal leading to accelerated creep damage and premature failure of the tube.
Inferior quality of de-superheater spray water used to control the steam temperature was identified as the source of white deposit.

1. Introduction
The function of the boiler is to convert water into
superheated steam, which is then delivered to turbine to
generate electricity. Pulverized coal is the common fuel used
in boiler along with preheated air. The boiler consists of
different critical components like economizer, water wall, super
heater and reheater tubes. Platen superheater is one of the
critical components of drum type utility boiler and located in
the furnace zone as pendent coil. These coils are directly
exposed to radiant flux zone for superheating the steam for
desired temperature and pressure [1]
Thermal power plant boiler is one of the critical equipment
for the power generation industries. In the present situation
of power generation, pulverized coal fired power stations are
the backbones of industrial development in the country, thus
necessitating their maximum availability in terms of plant
load factor (PLF). At the same time reliability and safety
aspect is also to be considered. The major percentage of the
forced shutdown of the power stations is from boiler side. So
it is necessary to predict the probable root cause/ causes of
the forced outages and also the remedial action to prevent
the recurrence of similar failure in future. A drum type utility
boiler for thermal power generation typically consists of
different pressure parts tubes like water wall, economizer,
superheater and reheater [2]. Different damage mechanism
like creep, fatigue, erosion and corrosion are responsible of
the different pressure parts tube failure [3]. This paper
documents one such failure investigation to identify the
probable cause/ causes of frequent failure of platen
superheater tube of 210 MW boiler used for power
generation.

The material specification, design and operating

Parameters of the tube as obtained from the plant along with
failed platen superheater are as follows.
z
z
z
z
z
z

Failure location: Platen superheater inlet leg tube.

Tube material specification: SA-213 T22 (2.25Cr-1.0 Mo)
Working temperature of the tube: 540C
Working pressure of the tube: 184kg/cm2
Running hours: 70,000 hrs (approx)
Nominal dimension of the tube: 38mm OD X 8mm Wall
thickness.

The tube samples selected for the investigation are a

piece of failed tube from platen inlet region, an unfailed
service exposed tube adjacent to the failed tube. The failure
location is shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1 : Location of Failure

 


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2. Methodology for failure investigation

The following tests were carried out to identify the
probable cause/causes of failure.
z
z
z

z
z

Visual examination
Dimensional measurement
Oxide scale thickness measurement by optical
microscope
Microstructural examination
Energy Dispersive spectroscopy (EDS)

2.1 Visual examinations

The visual examination of the failed tubes reveals that
the failure is thick lip wide-open burst (Fig. 2). The outside
diameter surface is covered with adherent scale and a uniform
thin adherent white deposit is found on the inner side.(Fig. 3)

Considerable swelling and reduction in wall thickness of the

tube are observed in the area of the burst. The unfailed
service exposed tube adjacent to the failed tube reveals
considerable bulging and thick outside scale with
longitudinal scale cracking at the outer surface (Fig. 4). No
thin adherent white deposit was found inside in the serviceexposed tube.
2.2 Dimensional measurement
The outer diameter at the zone of the failure of the failed
tube is found 46.0 mm against the original diameter 38.0 mm.
The gross circumferential expansion of the failed tube is
about 21 %. The wall thickness found at the region of failure
is 5.4mm against the nominal wall thickness 8.0mm.
2.3 Chemical analysis
Drilled chips from the failed tubes are subjected to
analyze chemically by spectrometer, and the estimated
chemical composition conforms the specification ASME SA213 T-22 (2.25 Cr-1.0 Mo Steel).
2.4 Oxide scale thickness measurement
Small specimens were cut from the failure zone of the
failed tube and adjacent service exposed tube, polished up
to 1000 grade emery paper followed by cloth polishing for
oxide scale thickness measurement from ID side. The cross
sectional sample adjacent to failure depicted adherent white
deposits at the innermost layer and oxide scale at the
outermost layer of the inner surface (Fig. 5). The mean oxide
scale at the location of failure containing white deposits is
found 0.20 mm while mean oxide scale of the service exposed
tube ontaining no deposit is 0.22 mm.

Fig. 2 : Thick lip failure

2.5 Microstructural examination

Fig. 3 : Adherent white deposits at the inner surface of the tube

Fig. 4 : Unfailed service exposed tube.

Metallographic specimens from the failed, adjacent

unfailed service exposed tube samples are sectioned,
polished and etched (2% Nital) for microstructural analysis
in optical microscope (MEF-3, Make Reichert-Jung) as well
as scanning electron Microscope (S-3000N, Hitachi Ltd,
Japan). The microstructure at the fracture tip of the failed
tube shows numerous oriented creep cavities at the grain
boundaries (Fig 6). The microstructure of the adjacent service
exposed tube shows few isolated creep cavities at the grain
boundaries (Fig. 7).

Fig. 5 : Cross sectional view of the unetched sample showing

white deposits and oxide scale at inner surface.

 


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Table 1: Elemental composition of inner surface

Element

Fig. 6 : Microstructure at the failure zone showing oriented creep

cavities.

Element percent

Atomic percent

Mg

1.57

2.24

Al

20.54

26.47

Si

31.77

39.33

2.33

2.61

1.58

1.71

2.89

2.57

Ca

1.97

1.71

Ti

3.13

2.27

Fe

31.91

19.87

Zn

2.31

1.23

3. Results and discussion

Visual examination reveals that the failure is Thick Lip
wide-open burst. The outside diameter (OD) is covered
with adherent scale and thin white layer of deposit on
inner surface of the tube. Considerable swelling of the
tube in the area of the burst is also observed. The gross
circumferential expansion of the failed tube is upto about
21 %. Subsequently reduction of wall thickness is found
at the region of failure.
z
The chemical composition of tube material conforms to
ASME SA 213 T-22 (2.25 Cr- 0.5 Mo Steel)
z
EDS analysis on the inner surface of the tube confirms
the presence of Mg, Al, Si, Ca etc. This may be possibly
due to the presence of hard constituent like magnesium
silicate, aluminium silicate and calcium silicate of raw
water used in attemperation of platen super heater inlet
leg.
z
The microstructure around the zone of failure shows
numerous oriented creep cavities at the grain boundaries
which accounts for the severe creep damage at the
failure area. The microstructure of adjacent service
exposed unfailed tube reveals ferrite and alloy carbides
in association with few isolated creep cavities at the
grain boundaries. The creep damage is lesser in service
exposed tube compared to failed zone containing
deposits.
z
The estimation of metal temperature from the ID side
oxide scale thickness is calculated by the following
formula.
Log x = -6.8398 +2.83 10-4T (13.62+logt) [4]
where x is in mils (oxide scale thickness) and T is in Rankine
(mean tube metal temperature)
z

Fig. 7 : Microstructure of the service exposed tube showing

isolated creep cavities.

2.6 Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS)

The white deposit in the inner surface of the tube sample
at the failure zone is analyzed by Energy Dispersive
Spectroscopy (EDS) [Make- Thermo Noran, USA]. The
results of the analysis are shown in Fig. 8 & Table 1.

When

X= 0.22mm, t = 70,000 hours

T2 = 554C

When

X = 0.20mm, t = 70,000 hours

T1 = 549C
T = (T1+T2)/2 = 551.5C

So the mean tube metal temperature at the time of

deposit formation = 551.5C
Now
Fig. 8 : EDS analysis of the inner surface containing white
deposits.

log x = -6.8398 +2.83 10-4T (13.62+logt)

X = 0.20mm = 8mil
T = 551.5C = 1484.7R
t = 64,720 hours.

 


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So, initial deposit formation took place (70,000-64,720)

i.e. 5,280 hours before failure.
From the Stress LMP curve for 21/4Cr 1 Mo steel,
the value of LMP (P) corresponding to the stress 3.597 ksi
is 40.2 [5].
Now LMP consumed before formation of white deposit
is P = 1484.7 (20+log 64.720) x10-3 = 36.84
Now, LMP consumed by the formation of white deposit
is found by the difference between the two LMP.
Thus (40.2-36.84) X 103 = T [20+log (70000)] 1484.7
[20+log (6470)]
Or, T = 657C
So the tube metal temperature after formation of white
deposit at the tube of failure is found 657C. This temperature
is well above of permitted tube metal temperature of 2.25Cr0.5 Mo Steel. This higher temperature is due to the formation
of poor conductive white deposits at the inner surface of the
tube.

steam parameters at the platen superheater region facilitate

precipitation of dissolved solutes in the steam on the inner
surface of the tube. The presence of hard constituents like
aluminium silicate, magnesium silicate etc of water, used for
attemperation in platen superheater region are responsible
for the deposition at inner surface at high temperature.
It is recommended the feed water used for attemperation
in the platen superheater of the boiler are properly subjected
chemical treatment to avoid such undesired white deposits,
which is responsible for increase of tube metal temperature
and subsequent failure of the tube.

Reference
1.
2.

3.

4.

4. Conclusions
Poor thermal conductivity of the deposit found on the
inner surface of the tube adversely affects the heat transfer
and led to higher tube metal temperature causing premature
failure of the tube. The undesirable steam quality and specific

5.

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Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, CA Apr 1985.
Paterson S R and Rettig T W, Remaining Life Estimation of
Boiler pressure parts-2.25 Cr- 1Mo superheater and Reheater
tubes, project RP2253-5, final report, Electric Power Research
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