Int J Adv Manuf Technol
DOI 10.1007/s00170-008-1869-7
SPECIAL ISSUE - ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Damage assessment of boiler tubes subjected to erosion
and corrosion failures by non-invasive technique
K. Anbarasu & P. Sampathkumaran & M. Janardhana &
S. Yogesh & S. Seetharamu
Received: 5 March 2008 / Accepted: 16 September 2008
# Springer-Verlag London Limited 2009
Abstract Incompatible permanent strains in any engineer-
ing component are caused by the formation of residual
stresses due to mechanical loading or thermal effect. They
get generated or modified at every stage of the service life
of the component. The stresses tend to increase due to the
type of damage occurring in any engineering component
such as fatigue, corrosion, erosion, or a synergistic effect
under the influence of environmental conditions. The
present investigation highlights about the residual stresses
in a typical boiler tube component and the same is
characterized by nondestructive methods viz., Magnetic
Barkhausen Noise and X-ray Diffraction techniques to
identify the type of damage such as corrosion and erosion
have been discussed. The correlation of the stress data with
respect to the hardness and microstructure of the in-service
boiler tubes in comparison with an unused tube has been
attempted. The result reveals that there is a considerable
variation in the magnitude of the stress level as well as the
hardness value in the damaged region compared to the
unaffected location. Furthermore, it is seen that the micro-
structural features support the data. The damage assessment
methodology thus serves as a tool to quantify the type and
extent of damage of in-service tubes and forms a part of the
quality assurance practice.
K. Anbarasu
National Institute of Technology,
Trichirapalli 620015 Tamil Nadu, India
P. Sampathkumaran (*) : M. Janardhana : S. Yogesh :
S. Seetharamu
Material Technology Division, Central Power Research Institute,
Bangalore 560080 Karnataka, India
e-mail: psampathkumar29@yahoo.com
e-mail: sampath@cpri.in
Keywords Residual stress . Non-destructive testing .
Erosion . Corrosion . Magnetic Barkhausen Noise .
X-ray diffraction
1 Introduction
The permanent strains caused an account of plastic
deformation results in locking up of residual stresses in
any engineering components. These stresses are formed
during any engineering process such as fabrication/manu-
facturing, involving welding, casting, forging, rolling etc.
Generally, any in-service component will have higher level
of residual stresses due to the mechanical or thermal
influence. It is important to know the nature and magnitude
of stresses to enhance the service life. The compressive
stresses generally favors in service components increasing
the fatigue strength, whereas presence of tensile stresses
beyond the acceptable limit may result in failure of a
component.
This work presents the case study on corrosion and
erosion problem affecting the stress levels in piping systems
especially in boiler tubes. For residual stress measurements
both X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Magnetic Barkhausen
Noise (MBN) methods have been employed and the data
have been generated while analyzing the data the corrosion
and erosion damages have been identified based on the
stress pattern. The stress data has been correlated with
hardness values in respect of in-service tube in comparison
with that of new or virgin tube. Furthermore, the metallur-
gical features using optical microscope reveal that the
microstructure of in-service tube is different from that of
the virgin tube.

2 Effect of residual stress in water wall tubes
Corrosion attack either due to pitting or caustic effect occurs
either at the water side or fire side which is prevalent in most
of the coal-fired thermal power plants. The type of corrosion
Robert et al. [1] generally takes place are flow-accelerated
corrosion, oxygen pitting, cohelant corrosion, caustic corro-
sion, acid corrosion, organic corrosion, phosphate corrosion,
hydrogen damage, and corrosion-assisted cracking. Toribio
[2] has studied the effect of induced stresses due to stress
corrosion cracking in high strength steel to understand the
role of residual stress on the material behavior. In the case of
erosion, the tubes experience metal loss on the OD side,
which might occur due to the impact of solid particles
involving soot blower erosion. The ultimate failure results in
rupture due to increase strain as the tube material erodes
away. The type of damage that happens in such tubes may
give rise to lower compressive stresses, which may be
ascertained by experimental means. It is reported in the
literature of Capriotti et al. [3] that decrease in level of
compressive stress would reduce the mechanical properties
due to the hydrogen embrittlement type of damage.
Furthermore, the type of damage would result in either
reduction in compressive stresses or presence of tensile
stress. The trend in the stress level may tend to increase
towards tensile side beyond the acceptable limit due to the
service condition prevalent in such tubes/materials and
finally end up in window type of opening failure. Investiga-
tion on the influence of induced stresses in corrosion/erosion
affected water wall tubes could not be cited in the literature
and hence this particular work addresses this issue.
3 Methods of measurements
The residual stress measurements are done either by
destructive or non-destructive methods Chandra et al. [4].
Among them, nondestructive testing (NDT) is preferred. In
nondestructive testing method, Magnetic Barkhausen Noise
and X-ray Diffraction techniques are widely used for
measuring the residual stress.
3.1 Magnetic Barkhausen Noise measurement
MBN is based on Barkhausen effect Baldev et al. [5] and
applicable to ferromagnetic materials. The effect takes place
when a magnetic field is swept in the material along a
hysterisis loop. Magnetic Barkhausen noise is due to
irreversible change in the magnetic wall domain move-
ments during the hysterisis. The MBN signals can be
acquired by a sensor coil or hall type of probe and the
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
signals generated during magneto elastic interaction (flux
density changes) is dependent on the characteristics of the
stress prevailed in a material. These signals are strong
functions of stress condition and hence the stress levels can
be assessed. The measurements are possible on complicated
geometries, coarse grained, and texture materials, etc.
Furthermore, the stresses measurements up to a depth of 1.5
mm can be done. The MBN signals are quite sensitive to
microstructural variations in the material. The MBN mea-
surement is independent of magnetic permeability variations.
3.2 X-ray Diffraction measurement
In the XRD method, the scattered X-rays of a chromium
target from the irradiated atoms/crystals are reinforced in a
specific direction of an extremely narrow range and
propagated. The phenomenon is known as diffraction. The
condition of diffraction is met using Bragg’s law nλ=2d
Sin θ. Where d is the inter atomic spacing, θ is the Bragg
angle and λ is the wave length of characteristics of X-ray
radiation. The diffraction pattern so obtained is measured
for various = angles (angle between plane and surface
normal) in terms of a shift in 2θ, which accounts for the
change in inter planar spacing (d). The stress Withers [6]
value is determined from the slope of the plot of 2θ vs. sin2
= using the following equation.
ð$2qÞ
sf ¼ K

@ sin2 y
K
¼ 1=2½E=ð1 þ uÞ cot qðp=180Þ
Where K is the stress constant factor, E is the young’s
modulus and υ=poission’s ratio of the material.
4 Experiments
The cut tubes are thoroughly cleaned by acetone prior to the
measurements. In the corroded tube, the sensor is made to
scan the entire length of the tube to record the MBN
parameter by positioning it at different locations (i.e.
corroded, uncorroded). At these specific locations, the
XRD measurements are done to know the magnitude and
the nature of stress levels. The same procedure was
repeated for the virgin tube, which is taken for comparison
purposes. Both the damaged and virgin tubes are examined
for microstructure and as well as for hardness profile
measurements. The photographs of typical ID corrosion and
external erosion attacks are shown in Figs. 1 and 2,
respectively.
Int J Adv Manuf Technol

Table 1 MBN and XRD parameters of in-service and virgin water

wall tubes

S. Sample Type of MBN XRD (stress)

No designation tube (mp) (MPa)

1 WWT 1 Corroded tube 180 to 190 −30 to −50

Eroded tube 160 to 175 −80 to −110
2 WWT 2 Virgin tube 110 to 140 −250 to −280

It is noticed from the Table 2 that the tubes at the

damaged locations (corrosion/erosion) show lower hardness
compared to the virgin tube. Furthermore, the stress
measurements done at these locations also give good
indications of damage affected areas (refer Table 1),
Fig. 1 Corrosion at the ID of the tube wherein the corroded, eroded, and the virgin tubes show
compressive stresses in the range 30 to 50, 80 to 110, and
250 to 280 MPa, respectively. Here also, it is noticed that
5 Results and discussion
the stress values of the new tube is much higher compared
to the damaged tubes. Also the nature of stress prevailed is
The chemical composition of the water wall tube under
compressive type.
investigation is conforming to the medium carbon steel
In the work investigated Toribio et al. [2] on the hy-
grade SA 209 T1. The data in respect of MBN and XRD
drogen embrittlement detection on high strength steel by
parameters pertaining to the damaged (corrosion and
means of XRD residual stress technique, it is reported that
erosion affected) water wall tubes (WWT1) are shown in
the hydrogen embitter zones show lower compressive stress
Table 1. The same data for the virgin i.e., new tube
compared to the unaffected area. The reason for this is
(WWT2) is also provided in the same table (Table 1). The
attributed to the service condition prevailing over there
microstructure of the corroded and the virgin tubes are
resulting in the formation of nascent hydrogen reacting with
displayed in Figs. 3 and 4, respectively.
carbon to form methane and act as crack growth initiation
It is observed from the table (Table 1) that the MBN
at that point of time. Finally, the tube opens up due to
signals show high readings at the affected regions (both
hydrogen embrittlement. It is noticed from the table (Table
corroded and eroded regions) compared to the virgin tube.
2) that the MBN and XRD parameters does seem to depend
In fact, the readings are much higher in corrosion-affected
on the severity of the damage that has occurred. Thus, the
area compared to eroded zone. The hardness profile
present finding of lower compressive stresses and higher
measurements (Table 2) and the microstructural features
MBN readings in the damaged areas of in-service tubes
shown in Fig. 3 (compared with Fig. 4) of the affected
compared to new tubes is in line with the reported findings.
region supports the MBN data. Microstructurally, the virgin
In summary, it may be inferred from this work that the
tube displays ferrite with pearlite with equi-axial grains,
MBN and XRD method of measurements serve as a good
whereas the affected region reveals elongated ferrite grains
with pearlite.

Fig. 2 Tube depicting external erosion Fig. 3 Microstructure of corrosion affected tube (WWT1)

Fig. 4 Microstructure of virgin tube (WWT2)
tool to characterize the damaged and undamaged tubes
effectively.
6 Conclusion
Based on the above study, the following conclusions may
be drawn.
& The XRD and MBN parameters measured are quite
sensitive to the type of damage occurred and the
characterization has effectively been done to assess the
corrosion and erosion damage of water wall tubes.
& Stress levels measured by XRD method tend to
decrease with increase in exposure of tubes to corrosion
or erosion.
& MBN parameters, on the other hand, shows high
readings for the in-service tubes compared to virgin
tubes.
& Hardness profile measurements and microstructural
features give good support the XRD and MBN data.
Int J Adv Manuf Technol
Table 2 Hardness data of in-service and virgin water wall tubes
S. No Type of tubes Hardness value (HB)
1 Corroded/eroded 125–133
2 Virgin 147–156
& The methods used serve as a quality assurance tool to
predict the type of damage that has occurred in the
tubes.
Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank the CPRI manage-
ment for having accorded permission to publish this paper. The
authors wish to acknowledge the assistance rendered by Shri.
Balakrishna Sake, Mr. S. Ezhilarasu and Mr. M. Biru Anand Prakash
in conducting the experiments.
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