MATERIALS AGEING AND COMPONENT LIFE EXTENSION METHODS OF RESIDUAL LIFE ASSESSMENT AND CREEP DAMAGE EVALUATION FOR HEAT-TRANSFER TUBES IN AGED POWER BOILER M. NAKASHIRO*, H. YOSHIZAWA™, K. MURAKAMI*, S. KIHARA, T. TANQUE**, and H. UMAK|** Three superheater tubes(2.25Cr1Mo), one of which leaked accident, have been assessed the residual life estimation by many methods. Creep rupture test can be evaluated the creep damage with accuracy with metallographic damage assessment, for which the TEM method, hardness test in view of changes in carbon content, and estimation of actual service temperature on metallography and scale formation. But, the consideration of over stress and over heat by forming steam and oxide scale is more important to assess the residual life time than cumulative creep damage INTRODUCTION ‘The methods for nondestructive testing to assess the service life remaining to actively operating power boilers have become the subject of urgent development, But, the assessment of residual lifetime for the small tubes is still being done on the basis of creep rupture test conducted for sampled tubes. On the other hand, the creep rupture tests can evaluate no more than the creep strength, but their estimations are inevitably unrealistic because the scale formed in high temperature oxidation and steam oxidation brings about local overheating and overstressing to beyond the design values, thereby shortening the service life(1),(2). The damage accumulates itself with increasing rate by damage simulation as shown in Figure |, so that the difference between the mean and the least in the estimates of residual life will become the larger, the longer the service time and the larger the cumulative damage, thereby rendering the estimate devoid of practical meaning. This fault can be corrected for by incorporating metallographic observations, and we intend to discuss the efficacies and limitations of those methods with long-term serviced superheater tube samples. * Department of Research Institute, Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industry Co. Ltd ** Department of Boiler Design Devision, Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industry Co. Ltd 1337MATERIALS AGEING AND COMPONENT LIFE EXTENSION SAMPLES AND TESTING METHODS The samples were the three 2.25Cr-IMo heat transfer tubes taken out of the supetheater of an operating power boiler. Sample A has developed hexagonal network of surface cracks in the outer oxide scale. Sample B has failed in-service causing leakage, for this reason, this tube has been regarded as fully expended its life. Sample C has been sampled out on regular outage after having served for 215,000h. Their service environments are shown in TABLE | together with specification of the boiler. Evaluation of the life and the creep damage has been done by, besides the conventional creep rupture test, dimensional inspection, metallography (optical and electron microscopes), scale thickness, hardness, and carbon analysis TABLE-I Boiler Specificvation and Sampling Tubes Service Condition Type [Single drum natural circulation J Sampling tub Superheater tube Design [Wax. allowable 13tkgt/em™ [ Size [ 50. 8x8. 01 | ASME P22, 2. 25¢riNo_| press. | Super T2tkgt/em™ | Sample [time [Wotai temp. 548°C Steen | Super 569. Te A| 221, 000h | Oxide scale crack Capacity | 230 ton/h Te 8 | 221, 000h| Thick scale, failed Fus! [Coal oi! single or mixed fire | Sample C| 215, 000h | Integrity Cunutated operation time 221, 000% -RESULTS AND DISCUSSION DIMENSIONAL INSPECTION Figure 2 presents the samples A and B by their outlook and enlarged view of damaged part. TABLE 2 summarizes the results of dimensional inspection conducted on the sample tubes. It will be noted that each tube has lost some wall thickness but no more than 1.3 mm if reckoned on the nominal value, so that the design allowance is maintained well enough except at the leakage part of Sample B. At the site of leakage, however, the tube diameter has been enlarged by about 8 %, apparently due to creep deformation leading to blowout, and there the loss in the wall thickness is correspondingly great. As the metal loss due to oxidation at other portions is larger than the swelling at the blowout, the accurate determination of swelling is impracticable Figure 3 shows the criteria for tube replacement on dimensional changes(3). It is indicate that the need of detecting the swelling in the order of 1 %, TABLE-2 Measurements of Tube Size Samp! Quter dippeger | 1 and"? [Homtnal $0°8an | Nowtoat ‘dan V4 Vertical [Woriz [Te To [ o [win ‘A poutlet | 50.75 [51.02 [43/662] 843] 8 25] 758 Elbow [50.47 [47.14 [865] 7.22] 7.53] 9.51] 6.82 ip outlet | $0.12 fas. a6 [8 07] o7[a ae] 8.55] 191 Elbou" [51.09 [53.98 5.14] 3.53] 6.92] 8. 18] 2.37 C [out lor [49.10 [50.05 6. 70] 8 05 [7.95 [1-60] 6-10 Fail position 1338MATERIALS AGEING AND COMPONENT LIFE EXTENSION HARDNESS. TABLE 3 shows the Vickers hardness measurements and carbon contents. CrMo steels usually tend to soften with elapse of service time because of microstructural changes, these samples not only exhibit no clear softening except at the failure part, but, on the contrary, show evidences of local hardening. CrMo steels are known to re- or de- carburize dependent on their service environment(4). As shown in TABLE 3, recarburization in both steels in the combustion gas atmosphere to beyond the standard carbon content. Therefore, for heat exchange tubes that work in combustion gas environments, life assessment on hardness must be done with sufficient care for changes in carbon content due to re- or de-carburization, lest it leads to an utterly wrong conclusion in the assessment of residual life. TABLE-3 Hardness Measurements and Carbon Content for Each Samples Hardness (Average, Hv10) Carbon content (wtX) Sample A [Sample B Sample A, Sample B Pat fo [u jo [vu |i [w]o |: [ufo Upper | 129 | 157 [132 | 147 [o.13[0. 13/0 17[ 0.18] 0.14] 0.13 tower [143 [ive [vas [ize fo vaforsfotefor[o te] 0.20 O:0ut let va nd I: Inner MeMiddle O:Outer Note; #:Fail position METALLOGRAPHY AND SCALE THICKNESS Structural changes that take place in CrMo steels at elevated temperatures are well documented, and a number of damage assessment methods have been proposed based on these observations(1)(5). Figure 4 shows a table of classifying the rate of carbide spheroidization into 7 states and a map of microstructural changes taking place in 2.25Cr1Mo steel as aging progresses(6). This figure was used to estimate the mean operation temperatures from the actual service time and the observed microstructure. We note the temperature is the highest at the blowout part, which corresponds to the area 4 in Figure 4, and quite high at where the scale was thick and extensively cracked, which falls in the area 5 Figure 5 presents a microstructure of the section through the blow hole including a suberack. Even though several cavities are seen ahead of the crack. These subcrack had been formed and grown by the swelling in the period of tertiary creep, which marks the terminal stage of the service life. That is to say, the damage occurring in a heat transfer tube is due to swelling, which gives rise to not much of deformation, for the case of long-term service just as in the case of short-term, overheated usage, rather than damage due to coalescence of cavities. If such a damage is to be assessed by deformation alone, then, it is imperative to detect and measure the small amounts of deformation of this sort. Figure 6 shows the structures of the steam-oxidized scale that were formed on inner wall. As often observed with CrMo steels, the scale is double-layered, made up of an outer layer of Fe rich scale and an inner layer of Cr rich one(7). The inner layer is so coherent with the matrix that it affords a means of assessing the average service temperature, The thickness of the inner scale can be linearly arranged as a function of 1339