Giiscca TECHNICAL PAPER Uli Zimmermann 11/96 SPRING RELAXATION What is spring relaxation? Spring relaxation is a metallurgical phenomenon which effects all commercial tempered spring steels. When a spring undergoes loading and unloading there is a certain amount of permanent deformation. The spring "shakes down" or "settles out". Why does this happen? The reason is that the limit of elasticity of the spring material is exceeded when the spring is. compressed to a certain extent. The stress along the spring surface is relaxed. Consequently, the spring does not return into its original shape which also means that the spring loses a certain amount of its supporting capacity. This loss of force compared to the initial value is the relaxation percentage; the measurement of relaxation. Relaxation depends on the following factors: - Temperature - Shear stress in the spring - Loading time UZ 01 shows the influence of temperature and shear stress on relaxation. It can be seen that the relaxation at 80° C is about twice as high as at 20° C. The reason is that the limit of elasticity of the spring surface is exceeded much faster by the influence of high temperatures. The influence of the shear stress is demonstrated, too. The higher the shear stress in the spring the higher the relaxation. Since the shear stress is proportional to the spring load one can say: “The higher the spring is loaded the higher the relaxation.” The third factor which influences the relaxation is the loading time, UZ 02 shows the relaxation and the relaxation rate of a compressed spring relative to the loading time, which is measured ‘over a period of 60 hours. In the first two hours the relaxation is increasing rapidly. After some 30 hours of loading time relaxation is getting weaker and approaches a limiting value after 48 hours. Correspondingly, the relaxation rate is extremely high in the first two hours and is 23.11.07 Page 1 of 3 Spring-RelaxationGUiiscca slowing down afterwards and again approaches its limiting value. To get this characteristic relaxation behaviour the spring is compressed to its limit over the entire period. Depending on before mentioned factors, springs installed in constant and variable hangers are fully relaxed after approx. 8 years time of operation in the plant. The reason is that the spring is normally not compressed to its limit. Consequently, the relaxation rate is extended accordingly. LISEGA supplies constant and variable hangers with warmset springs of remaining relaxation potential of less than 2 % once installed. Some of our competitors offer hangers with pre- relaxed springs, too. But their method of pre-relaxation is either by block height gagging which means leaving the springs fully compressed for a period of time to shake out the coiling stresses. Or by bouncing the spring for a prolonged period. Both techniques are carried out at room temperature and leave remaining relaxation potential of up to 12 % in the spring. How does this effect the piping systems? We have seen that the result of relaxation is a loss of force of the spring and consequently of the constant and variable hangers. That means, the pipe will no longer be kept in the position for which it was designed. There are two main consequences for the piping systems if no actions are taken to rectify the relaxed constant and variable hangers: a) The changes in elevation may cause reverse falls in pipe runs allowing condensate to collect. This is a major cause of water hammer and turbine blade damage. b) The primary stresses on the pipe wall (including welds) and external loadings on the connecting equipment (boilers, pumps, turbines, etc.) may be increased by load transfer. This has the effect of reduced life time of these components. To demonstrate the effects of incorrectly working hangers, UZ 03 shows the result of two stress calculations of a main steam pipe with a nominal diameter of 450 mm. The first calculation is based on the designed hanger loads. The second calculation is based on the assumption of 20% deviation of the hanger load caused by relaxed springs The sketch makes the changes in elevation obvious. The dotted line indicates the planned course of the pipe and in comparison the full line shows the deviated course. Speaking in figures, the diagram shows the vertical displacement of the single nodes. The highest deviation is nearly 100 mm at node 9. The table shows the ratio of forces and moments which have been calculated at node no. 1 and node no. 15 which are the connecting points of the pipe to boiler and turbine. There are forces at node 15 which are 37 times higher than calculated. Or, even more drastically, moments at node 1 which are 75 times higher than designed. 23.11.07 Page 2 of 3 Spring-RelaxationUiiscca It can be seen that stress levels are increased as a result of support faults particularly at the connecting points. Small deviations in many support points act cumulatively and can lead to a large increase in loads in end connections or other rigid supports. Iti this significant increase in load which causes damage to pipes and connecting equipment. The result of pipe support failure will be high maintenance and repair costs. This analysis points out the importance of our sales argument "piping can never be better than its support" What has LISEGA done to prevent such scenarios? Itis just a logical consequence of the characteristic relaxation behaviour that LISEGA pre-relax the spring before it is installed into the casing. Pre-relaxing is carried out by compressing the spring so that the stress structure along the surface of the spring gets its optimum. The success of that process depends on the right loading capacity and time but mainly on the temperature. ‘As we have seen in figure UZ 01 the relaxation increases rapidly at higher temperatures. Therefore, LISEGA springs are pre-relaxed at 150 - 250°C depending on the shear stress in the spring. With that method the period of pre-relaxing is minimized to only 3 seconds. This is absolutely acceptable for an economic fabrication process and places us in the position to offer the highest standard of pre-relaxed springs for a very competitive price One can see that the pre-relaxation process requires a lot of experience. The factors time, load, and temperature must be brought into harmony. LISEGA has gained these experiences over the years in close cooperation with the spring manufacturer. Therefore, LISEGA supplies constant and variable hangers which contain warmset springs that have a remaining relaxation potential of less than 2 % once installed. UZ 04 makes clear the difference in remaining relaxation potential between coldset springs and LISEGA warmset springs. We see that only the pre-relaxed LISEGA-springs installed in constant hangers provides real constancy. They extend the life time of the piping system and the connected equipment like boilers, pumps and turbines. The maintenance and repair costs of these components are reduced to a minimum, 23.11.07 Page 3 of 3 Spring-Relaxation