Form No: CPRI/PM/R&D/RC/F - 3

Rev: 02

Dated: 04/02/2013

RESEARCH CONTINGENCY (RC)

PROJECT COMPLETION REPORT
1.

Project details
a. Title

2.

Assessment of Erosion resistance of coal burner tip materials and

Improvement of erosion life through CFD modelling

b. Project Leader

R. K. Kumar

c. Date of start

1 January 2012

d. Duration (Years)

2 Years and nine months

e. Date of close

Sept. 2014

f. Financial outlay

23.50 lakhs

Background

In a coal based thermal power plants, the pulverized coal from the mill is carried to the boiler by
pneumatic conveying using primary air maintained at 80 90 deg. C . In a tangentially fired PF
boiler, coal burner nozzles are provided in the burner zone at seven different elevations which
connects the PF pipe from the mill outlet to the boiler. The coal burner nozzles connected at the
end of each PF pipes injects the coal particles into the boiler combustion zone. Indian coals contain
nearly 45 to 50% ash. Also, the ash contains high amount of abrasive minerals such as quartz which
are responsible for erosion of coal handling components. The heat radiated in the combustion zone
increases the service temperature of the burner nozzles and the average operating temperature
increases to 600-700 C. At elevated temperatures, the mechanical properties of steel material
decreases drastically and subjected to accelerated erosion-corrosion. The high erosion propensity
of coal combined with elevated service temperatures causes the burner tip components severe
erosion and low service life.
Presently, the austenitic stainless steels of 310 grades are widely used as the burner tip materials
and the reported service life in a typical 210 MW is only 6-8 months. The erosion resistance
property of burner tip material is affected by the particle impact velocity and impact angle. In
general, ductile materials such as stainless steel show maximum erosion at 30 to 40 deg. impact
angles. The tilting of burner tip during the operation for controlling main steam temperature
causes coal particle impacting on splitter plates at the orientation angle.
Since there is no facility available in the country for high temperature erosion resistance
evaluation, the application of specific material is presently done based on the corrosion resistance
properties. Hence it becomes necessary for evaluation of the erosion resistance characteristics of
different base stainless steels and coating materials under accelerated test conditions in the
laboratory. The design of burner nozzle tip should be tailored to achieve lowest erosion and
optimization of profile through CFD is paramount important.
3.

Objectives

Design & Development of high temperature test rig comprising

Characterization of high temperature erosion resistance of candidate burner tip materials
under accelerated conditions
3D geometrical modeling of a coal burner nozzle and CFD analysis for prediction of erosion
intensities for different tilts
Optimization of burner geometry for achieving maximum service life.
Filed trial of nozzle tip in one of the unit of TPS (RTPS/NTPC Units)

4.

Description of investigation carried out

As there are no facility available for evaluation of high temperature erosion resistance ( HTE),
design and fabrication of indigenous test rig was primarily carried out. Characterization of
presently used SS310 material, CPRI prepared weld hardfacing material ( 5 types) and HVOF
based hard coatings in terms of mechanical and HTE were carried out. The structure-property
relationships in these materials were carried out. Based on the laboratory results, burner tip
splitter plates were made from the material which has shown optimum performance for field
trial studies in 210 MW boiler at RTPS, Raichur. CFD based burner tip modelling for the
prediction of critical erosion regions of 210 and 500 MW boiler has been studies in detail. The
salient aspects of the investigation carried out includes the following.
Design and fabrication of specialized high temperature erosion test rig involving air

and particle feeding system, nozzle and test chamber etc. (patentable)
o Standardization of test procedures for the HTE tests
o High velocity silt erosion test rig upto 35 m/s particle velocities
o Standardization of test methodologies for carrying out the pure cavitation and
combined silt and cavitation erosion test setup
Materials Studied : ( Base metal-1; 2 commercial grade alloys; 4 CPRI)
o Presently used burner tip materials ( SS310 ) and two types of commercial grade
hardfacing alloys
o High Velocity Oxy Fuel ( HVOF ) processed hard coatings viz. Chrome carbide and
NiCrBSi+WC coatings ( 500m thickness)
o Indigenous development of weld electrodes for high temperature erosion
applications Vanadium carbide & complex carbides (4 types)
o Direct Laser sintered HS20-SiC composite material
Evaluation of properties and characterization :
o
Chemical composition, hardness, rubber wheel abrasion resistance and
microstructure of commercial grade hardfacing alloys and coatings.
o
Solid particle erosion resistance of all hardfacings and WC coatings at room
temperature at three different particle velocities and five different impact angles
o
High temperature erosion performance evaluation of all hardfacing material for
five different impact angles at RT, 400 and 700 deg C
o
Microstructure for carbide morphological features including volume fraction and
SEM/EDAX studies of four different weld samples
o
Comparative analysis of room temperature and HTE resistance results.
o
Fabrication of burner nozzle splitter plates with CPRI material for use in RTPS (field
trials)
5.

Benefits visualized (indicating proposed results, achieved results, beneficiaries,

technology transfer, patents financial benefits)
New High temperature test rig has been developed for assessment of comparative erosion
resistance of different materials upto 700 deg.C
Erosion resistance performance data of burner tip materials viz. clad, hard facing material
and advanced coatings. The HTE of SS310 and all hardfacing materials have shown more
sensitive to temperature compared to ceramic material.
The erosion of critical splitter plates in burners is affected by the geometry of the tip and
varies with tilt angle. CFD based two phase flow analysis also indicated that the bottom
side of splitter plates are experiencing severe erosion than the top side of the plates. This
indicate that the requirement of hard coating/hardfacing can be done on the side where
erosion is maximum rather than on both sides of splitter plates.
The data on coal particle trajectory in burner tips of typical 210 and 500 MW boilers for
three different tilt angle give valuable information on geometrical modification required
to achieve maximum erosion life.
The CPRI made hardfacing material of proprietary composition has shown 1.8 times
improvement over SS310 base material

 CFD model output in terms of prediction of regions of max. erosion and performance in
terms of erosion life of both conventional and ceramic burner tips paves way for
geometrical modification so as to achieve glancing angle of impaction of particles on
splitter plates.
Two consultancy projects for studying erosion profile through combination of ingeniously
developed test facility and CFD analysis ( BHEL & ELKEM south Africa).
The presently used SS310 grade austenitic steels appears not suitable for high
temperature erosion conditions and possibly can be replaced by ceramic based tile ( 85
to 90% alumina) configurations to achieve minimum of one year erosion performance
against the present life of SS 310 to less than 4-5 months.
Filing of patent for the High temperature erosion test facility is being taken up.

Velocity measurement
setup

Nozzle-sample
arrangement

Erosion tested
samples

Indigenous designed high temperature test rig and accessories (patentable)

Particle
trajectory
in burner
nozzle
assemblie
s

Microstructure of hardfaced burner tip

material (hard M7C3 carbides)

Single ceramic splitter

plate erosion pattern

Three metallic splitter

plate erosion pattern

Fabricated splitter plate for field trial at RTPS

CFD analysis of low profiles and erosion prediction in coal
burners ( single and 3 splitter plate configurations)
6

Further work required

Improvement of cracking resistance of complex carbide based hard facings to improve the
toughness of the weld material need to be carried out. The modification of geometry of the
splitter plates in line with the CFD results need to be optimised for a given burner tip material.
Further improvements in CrC based thermal spray coatings are possible through optimization of