Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
High-Temperature Failure of a
Cast Soot Blower Lance Tube Nozzle
T.N. Ackerson
(Submitted January 28, 2005; in revised form February 2, 2005)
A cast stainless steel lance tube nozzle failed prematurely in a brittle manner after one to two years
of service. Metallographic examination of the nozzle revealed a Widmanstätten structure, likely
resulting from the precipitation of sigma phase. The presence of this structure suggests that the
component was exposed to temperatures beyond the specified operating range.
Keywords: brittle fracture, CK-20 stainless steel, high-tempersture failure, sigma phase
Visual Examination
The failed CK-20 austenitic stainless steel lance
tube nozzle (Fig. 1) had been in service approx-
imately one to two years when cracking was ob-
served along its tip, as shown in Fig. 2.
T.N. Ackerson, Materials & Metallurgy Group, Southern Research Automotive Division, Southern Research Institute, 757 Tom
Martin Drive, Birmingham, AL 35211. Contact e-mail: ackerson@sri.org.
and polishing system. Once polished, the specimens suspected to be a polishing artifact. However, this
were electrolytically etched with a 10% chromic condition was reproducible after several polish/etch
acid solution to reveal the microstructure.
The specimen prepared from the fractured nozzle
tip is shown at relatively low magnification in Fig.
4. The general microstructure consisted of austenite
(light) with ferrite islands (dark). Two parallel
primary cracks were observed, which contained
additional secondary cracks. The crack tips con-
tained an oxide layer with oxide pegs (Fig. 5). This
oxidation pattern is indicative of high-temperature
exposure in conjunction with thermal fatigue or
corrosion fatigue.[1] Higher magnification examina-
tion of the sample revealed a crosshatched con-
dition. This feature appeared to be oriented parallel
to many of the observed cracks. The crosshatched Fig. 5 Oxide needles emanating from a nozzle crack, indicative
condition, shown in Fig. 6 and 7, was originally of high-temperature exposure and thermal fatigue.
Originally 200×
Fig. 3 Fractured tip of the nozzle after initial sectioning. Fig. 6 Another region of the failed nozzle tip. Originally 100×
Originally 20×