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Fuel 87 (2008) 3353–3361

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Fuel
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/fuel

Development of fireside waterwall corrosion correlations using pilot-scale

test furnace
Hong-Shig Shim a,*, James R. Valentine a, Kevin Davis a, Sang-Il Seo b, Tae-Hyung Kim b
a
Reaction Engineering International, 77 West 200 South, Suite 210, Salt Lake City, UT 84101, USA
b
Korea Electric Power Research Institute, 103-16 Munji-Dong, Yuseong-Gu, Daejeon 305-380, Republic of Korea

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Fireside waterwall wastage in a pulverized coal-fired boiler was investigated and the relevant rate cor-
Received 26 October 2007 relations were developed for three corrosion mechanisms: gas-phase attack by reduced sulfur species,
Received in revised form 16 May 2008 chlorine-based attack, and unoxidized fuel deposition. Rate correlations were based on the published
Accepted 21 May 2008
data and the experiments at a pilot-scale test furnace. The parameters of the correlations include local
Available online 16 June 2008
flue gas composition, flue gas temperature, metal surface temperature, deposition, deposit characteris-
tics, and heat flux. Validation work performed using the same furnace and the different operating condi-
Keywords:
tions provided good agreement between predictions and measurements. The correlations in conjunction
Waterwall wastage
Fireside corrosion
with computational fluid dynamics simulation are expected to provide a predictive tool that can optimize
Coal combustion the furnace operating conditions to reduce fireside waterwall wastage.
Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Current corrosion monitoring technologies such as ultrasonic

One of the main mechanisms leading to tube failure in the
steam generating power plant is fireside corrosion at various heat
transfer surfaces: waterwall, superheater, reheater, and econo-
mizer. Our focus in this study is furnace fireside waterwall wast-
age. With the imposition of increasingly stringent NOx emission
limits during recent years, combustion modifications such as the
use of low-NOx burners (LNBs) and over-fire air (OFA) have be-
come commonly used strategies for achieving NOx emission reduc-
tions in large utility coal furnaces. A fuel-rich environment formed
by delayed air mixing can have some adverse impacts, notably in-
creases in furnace fireside waterwall wastage. Some furnaces have
experienced local tube metal loss rates in the order of 2.5 mm/yr
(100 mil/yr) [1]. EPRI has estimated that fireside corrosion costs
the US electric power industry up to $590 million per year and is
responsible for approximately half of unscheduled outages in
steam generation units [2]. A recent survey by EUCG (formerly
the Electric Utility Cost Group) shows that tube failure is still one
of the significant issues at the electric power plants [3]. However,
not all units experience waterwall corrosion under low-NOx firing
conditions; the susceptibility of a particular unit is dependent on
fuel composition, furnace design, and furnace operation. Limited
fuel availability is often a contributory factor as Korea needs to im-
port coals from various sources that may result in difficulty in
maintaining design fuel specification of a given boiler.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 801 364 6925x25; fax: +1 801 364 6977.
E-mail address: shim@reaction-eng.com (H.-S. Shim).
tube thickness measurement and corrosion coupon weight mea-
surement not only need extensive time to obtain meaningful corro-
sion data, but also measure corrosion that has already occurred.
Therefore, these technologies are not useful for preventing corro-
sion. In order to manage overall waterwall loss and secure equip-
ment availability, it becomes important to have tools that can
predict corrosion, monitor corrosion as it occurs [4], and provide
guidance to boiler operators. This study is a part of a corrosion
management program, whose goal it is to develop waterwall corro-
sion correlations to predict tube loss rates based on local environ-
ments governed by fuel properties and firing conditions. This tool
can be used in conjunction with computational fluid dynamics
(CFD) for assessment of boiler waterwall corrosion potential. A pre-
dictive tool capable of assessing corrosion potential and aiding in
the design of problem solutions could help alleviate unit down-
times and costs associated with waterwall wastage. The tool would
be used for prevention of waterwall wastage through evaluation of
planned operational or physical furnace modifications or by aiding
in troubleshooting current wastage problems.
The complexity and often the uncertainty of actual furnace wall
conditions make the development of correlations from fundamen-
tal principles impractical. Here the development of fireside water-
wall corrosion correlations were based on previous experience and
literature data. Correlations were subsequently refined via testing
at a pilot-scale test furnace as its results may be most applicable
to actual furnace conditions due to difficulties in duplicating fur-
nace heat fluxes, temperature gradients, and flue gas and ash de-
posit conditions in the laboratory. Corrosion rates were measured

0016-2361/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2008.05.016
 Author's personal copy
3354 H.-S. Shim et al. / Fuel 87 (2008) 3353–3361
using an electrochemical noise-based on-line corrosion monitoring
system [4]. The system has been applied to full-scale boilers to pro-
vide measurements in real-time and more importantly in short
time periods. The refined corrosion correlations developed by in
situ measurements at the pilot-scale test furnace were validated
through additional experiments using a measurement technique
that involves coupon probe and advanced surface profilometry.
2. Waterwall corrosion correlations and GLACIER
Waterwall corrosion has been linked to fuel composition, pri-
marily the fuels sulfur and chlorine content, and to local combus-
tion conditions such as near-wall flue gas composition and
stoichiometry, tube metal temperature, wall deposit characteris-
tics, wall heat flux, and wall flame impingement. Although the de-
tails of the actual mechanisms involved in the corrosion are not
completely understood and are actively researched, recent work
has identified three mechanisms for waterwall wastage in coal-
fired utility boilers [5,6]
(1) Gas-phase attack by reduced sulfur species such as H2S
formed under the fuel-rich conditions of low-NOx firing
systems;
(2) chlorine-based attack under local high heat flux reducing
conditions;
(3) deposition of unoxidized fuel and impurities on furnace
waterwalls, leading to near-tube sulfidizing conditions.
In the case of gas-phase H2S attack, the locally reducing envi-
ronment near the waterwall prevents the formation of uniform
oxide scale on the tube metal surface. Then, the reduced sulfur spe-
cies such as H2S diffuse to and react with the bare tube metal form-
ing FeS. The sulfide scale does not provide protection against
corrosion. This H2S attack is the best understood and can be esti-
mated with an empirical correlation for carbon and low-alloy
steels with 0 6 Cr wt% 6 10 developed by Kung [7]
 
15; 818
CRH2 S ¼ 3:2  105 exp   ½H2 S0:57
1:987T
1
  2:2
ðCr% þ 10:5Þ1:23
For high alloy steels with Cr wt% > 16%
 
19; 230
CRH2 S 7
¼ 1:0  10 exp   ½H2 S0:29
1:987T
1 [12,13] and the current study. This expression has been used to
  1:2
ðCr% þ 1:4Þ1:37
where CRH2 S is the corrosion rate due to H2S in mil/yr (1 mil/
yr = 0.0254 mm/yr), T is the metal temperature in Kelvin, H2S is
the flue gas concentration of H2S in mg/kg, and Cr% is the % of chro-
mium content in the alloy by weight. However, corrosion rates de-
scribed by these correlations are much lower than the overall
maximum rates observed in actual boilers, indicating that other
mechanisms are involved [8].
Chlorine based corrosion has been a problem in Great Britain for
a number of years and has more recently been observed in some US
boilers. Limited formation of the oxide scale on the tube surface in
the reducing environment provides easy access for chlorine con-
taining gas species such as HCl or Cl2 to the metal surface. These
gases form metal chloride on the tube surface. Then, the metal
chloride evaporates under high heat flux resulting in high corro-
sion rates [9]. A chlorine based correlation to describe corrosion
rate under reducing conditions (O2 < 0.5% and CO > 2%) was devel-
oped based on literature [10,11] and current study
   
Q
CRCl ¼ A  %LBCl  ðHFÞm  exp  Cl þ C ð3Þ
RT
where CRCl is the corrosion rate due to Cl in mm/yr; A, B, m, QCl, and
C are constants; R is the gas constant; %LCl is the wt% local chlorine
content; T is the metal surface temperature; and HF is the wall heat
flux. QCl and m were evaluated from published data [10,11] and A, B,
and C from the current study.
Deposition of unoxidized material can cause high corrosion
rates due to a locally reducing environment formed under the
deposition. High heat flux can accelerate the evolution of sulfur
and then corrosion due to sulfidization [9]. Corrosion resulting
from waterwall deposition of unoxidized material has been inves-
tigated by Bakker et al. [8,12,13]. Studies have focused primarily on
deposition of unoxidized FeS which results from the decomposi-
tion of pyrite (FeS2) existing as an impurity in the coal. Studies
have indicated that:
1) Metal coated with an FeS layer and placed in a flue gas like
environment may experience corrosion rates much higher
than those due to gas-phase H2S, and the corrosion rate
appears to be independent of FeS content of the coating.
The presence of carbon in the coating may increase corrosion
rates.
2) Corrosion rates resulting from an FeS coating are highest
under local gas-phase oxidizing conditions.
3) Alternating oxidizing/reducing conditions occurring from
normal load and operational cycling in the furnace may
result in high wastage due to removal of protective tube
metal oxide scales that are built up under oxidizing
conditions.
The following expression was used for correlating corrosion
from the deposition of unoxidized material:
 
Q
CRDep ¼ D  ðHFÞE  f ðSRÞ  exp  ð4Þ
RT
where CRDep is the corrosion rate due to deposition in mm/yr; D, E,
and Q are constants; SR is the local stoichiometric ratio,
ð1Þ f ðSRÞ ¼ F  ð1  SRÞf þ R for SR < 1; and
f ðSRÞ ¼ G  ðSR  1Þg þ R for SR P 1
where F, G, R, f, and g are constants. Local CO and O2 concentrations
are approximated from the stoichiometric ratio and constants D, E,
F, G, R, f, g, and Q are evaluated from published empirical data plots
ð2Þ evaluate corrosion potential in regions where deposition of unoxi-
dized material is predicted.
A predictive tool for assessing waterwall corrosion has been
developed through incorporation of correlations describing water-
wall corrosion into Reaction Engineering International’s in house
reacting, two-phase computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code GLA-
CIER [14–17]. GLACIER has been used extensively in the modeling
of physical and chemical processes occurring in industrial furnaces,
particularly coal-fired utility boilers. The governing gas-phase
equations for fluid motion and reaction are solved in an Eulerian
framework with turbulence accounted for using a k–e model. Reac-
tion rates are assumed to be mixing limited. Transport equations
are solved for mean values of mixture fraction values and variances
about the mean. Convolution of probability density functions
(pdf’s) is used to obtain local chemical composition, temperature,
and other properties [14]. Particle mechanics are included in GLA-
CIER through tracking of the mean path and dispersion of ensem-
bles or ‘‘clouds” of particles [16]. Dispersion is determined with
input from the local gas-phase turbulent flow field. Particle reac-
 Author's personal copy

H.-S. Shim et al. / Fuel 87 (2008) 3353–3361 3355

tions include liquid evaporation, devolatilization, and heteroge-

neous oxidation. Particle mass, momentum, and energy source
coupling with the gas-phase is achieved by employing a particle-
source-in-cell technique [18]. Particle wall deposition is included
through the evaluation of particle wall interactions. Transport of
thermal radiation and surface heat fluxes are calculated using a
discrete ordinates method, including the effects of variable surface
properties and participating media (gas, soot and particles) [17].
The predicted local gas-phase combustion field and waterwall con-
ditions have been used to evaluate waterwall corrosion of the full-
scale boilers using corrosion correlations [19].

3. Experimental

3.1. Pilot-scale test furnace and operating conditions

In this study, the pilot-scale test furnace was used to generate

the combustion environment that simulates a full-scale boiler.
The KEPRI pilot-scale test furnace is designed for up to five
MMBtu/h firing on natural gas or coal. The schematic of the pi-
lot-scale test furnace is shown in Fig. 1 along with the burner col-
umn made of two secondary air inlets and one primary air/coal
inlet in the middle. The furnace with a dimension of 1.6  1.9 
7.1 m (depth x width x height, inside) has ash hopper, firebox,
two radiant, and nose sections and a refractory lining cast on the
fireside of each section. On the fireside of the first radiant section,
cooling tubes are installed at front and rear walls. The rectangular
furnace section exits to the convective pass in the nose section. The
exit of the section is a 0.711  1.86 m rectangular duct with a hor-
izontal run through heat exchanger tubes. The furnace has various
sampling ports within each section for measurements as shown in
Fig. 2. The Figure also shows the location of OFA ports used in the
operation to maintain the counterclockwise fireball rotation
formed upstream through burner column arrangements.
Operating conditions used during the corrosion rates measure-
ments are summarized in Table 1. Air temperatures, primary air/
fuel ratio, overall stoichiometry, and the coal fineness were kept
the same in all experiments, while fuels sulfur and chlorine con-
tent, firing rates, and burner stoichiometries were varied. Coal
properties are summarized in Table 2. Among the three coals
shown in Table 2, Shenhua and Indominco coals were used during
the corrosion rate measurements and C&A coal was used in the val-
idation experiment. Sulfur content in the Shenhua was slightly
higher than that in the Indominco, but both coals had less than
1% of sulfur content. Chlorine contents in the raw coals were
Fig. 2. Sampling port locations available at the KEPRI pilot-scale test furnace.
low, so that magnesium chloride hydrate (MgCl2(H2O)6) was added
to reach 0.2 and 0.4 wt% of chlorine in each coal. All together, six
different coals based on sulfur and chlorine contents were used
in the experiments to understand their impacts on corrosion.
Two different firing rates were used in the testing: FHigh and FLow.
Various burner stoichiometries from 0.8, 1.0, and 1.2 were utilized
while the overall stoichiometry was fixed at 1.2. The corrosion cor-
relations developed and refined from the literature data and the
current experiments were validated through additional pilot-scale
experiment using the operating conditions: OP1 and OP2, shown in
Table 3. They are the same except that OP1 used both levels (level
A & C in Fig. 1) of the secondary air inlets, while OP2 used only the
Level C inlet for secondary air injection to promote a more poten-
tially corrosive environment near the burner belt.
3.2. Corrosion monitoring system
Monitoring high temperature corrosion in a reliable, effective,
and timely manner is a challenging task. Corrosion coupons have
been effective and can be used to evaluate corrosion rates during
a given exposure time, and additional analyses may provide some
understanding of a particular mechanism involved. However,

Upper
Secondary Air
70 mm (Level C)
Nose
50 mm

Section
115 mm 115 mm
500 mm

1st & 2nd Radiant Primary

Section Air
(Level B)
Firebox Section
Lower
Secondary Air
Hopper (Level A)
Section

Fig. 1. KEPRI pilot-scale test furnace and burner column lay out for corner firing mode. Burner columns are located at the four corners of the furnace’s firebox section.
 Author's personal copy

3356 H.-S. Shim et al. / Fuel 87 (2008) 3353–3361

Table 1 ature controlled electrochemical sensor, signal conditioning and

Furnace operating conditions used in the corrosion rate measurements data acquisition modules, a temperature controller, cooling air
Varied parameters supply and a computer for data processing. Once installed, the data
Fuel Shenhua and Indominco coal chlorine addition: 0.2 can also be viewed from a remote location, which permits the engi-
and 0.4 wt% neers at REI to monitor the progress of the experimentation with-
Firing rate Two levels of firing rate: 1,136,364 kcal/h (FLow) and
1,247,036 kcal/h (FHigh)
out traveling to Korea.
Burner stoichiometry Three levels of staging: 0.8, 1.0, and 1.2
Fixed parameters 3.3. Coupon probe and surface profilometry
Air temperature 66/300 °C
(primary/secondary)
Techniques for quantitative measurement of material loss are
Primary air/fuel ratio 2.1
Excess air 20% available in the form of corrosion coupons. However, as discussed
Coal fineness 80% through 200 mesh previously, this technique typically requires time periods ranging
from weeks to months. In order to provide a direct measurement
for comparison/validation of the corrosion correlation developed
during this study, a new approach to corrosion coupons was re-
Table 2 quired. The goal was to perform tests over short periods of time
Properties of coal used in the experiments at the KEPRI pilot-scale test facility during which the conditions and resulting corrosion rates varied
Shenhua Indominco C&A little. This made it possible to evaluate the accuracy of the correla-
tions. The technique developed involved the use of specially pre-
Ultimate analysis (wt%)
C 75.9 65.4 69.6 pared tube material, which includes a corrosion resistant border
H 4.5 4.8 4.8 to identify the uncorroded surface plane. The sensor elements were
O 6.1 8.5 5.7 installed into the temperature controlled probe and exposed to
N 1.0 1.3 1.5
combustion environment with a set of predetermined durations
S 0.4 0.9 0.6
Ash 5.7 6.4 13.4 under a given operating condition. The sensor was then disassem-
H2O 6.5 12.6 4.3 bled and cleaned with a soft brush to remove loose solids from the
Cl 0.025 0.003 0.035 surface and was then immersed in Clarke’s solution, according to
Proximate analysis (wt%) ASTM G1-81 7.7.2 to remove residual corrosion products. After
Fixed carbon 55.5 41.0 53.0 the cleaning, the plates were characterized using Zygo’s NewView
Volatile 32.3 40.0 29.2 5000 available at the University of Utah. An example of surface
Ash 5.7 6.5 13.4
profile after exposure to the combustion environment is shown
Moisture 6.5 12.6 4.3
in Fig. 3. The corrosion rates were estimated based on the known
Heating value (kcal/kg)
exposure time and by measuring the average elevation difference
LHV 6822 5900 6618
HHV 7102 6235 6930 between the non-corroded part (reference) and the corroded part
(tube metal).

4. CFD modeling
Table 3
Operating conditions used in the validation experiments The pilot-scale test furnace was modeled using GLACIER, which
OP1 & OP2 had been tailored for application in reacting, two-phase flow sys-
Coal C&A
tems. The approach to modeling the fate of fuel/ash particles pro-
Coal feeding rate 180 kg/h vided a convenient basis for obtaining descriptions of localized
Coal fineness 70% through 200 mesh phenomena such as deposition. A representative CFD model of
Burner stoichiometry 0.9 the KEPRI pilot-scale test furnace was first developed through
Excess air 20%
baseline simulation and comparison with the measured furnace
Primary air/fuel 1.9
Air Temperature (primary/secondary) 58/272 °C data. Then, parametric simulations were performed using the same
Secondary air inlet* Level A & C in OP1 operating conditions used in the experiments to obtain the envi-
Level C only in OP2
*
See Fig.1 for secondary air inlet location

accurate control of the operating temperature of such coupons is

difficult, resulting in unreliable corrosion rate data and lengthy Reference
measurement times. To overcome these difficulties in the current Tube metal
study, an electrochemical noise (ECN)-based real-time corrosion
monitoring system was used to measure corrosion rates occurring
at various locations of the furnace under a given operating condi-
tion. The principal of operation of the instrument is that spontane-
ous fluctuations in the electrical potential and current signals
measured occur during corrosion. The fluctuations are converted
to digital signals and supplied to a computerized data acquisition
unit for an estimation of corrosion rate [20]. The ECN-based corro-
sion monitoring technique has been successfully applied in indus-
tries and in low temperature applications [21–24] and exploited
recently in high temperature regions of utility boilers ranging from Fig. 3. Surface profile of a corroded tube material showing the inert reference
600 to 1,300 MWe [4,25–27]. The system is comprised of a temper- border at the left hand side edge.
 Author's personal copy

H.-S. Shim et al. / Fuel 87 (2008) 3353–3361 3357

ronmental parameters required in the corrosion correlations. Some
of the CFD simulation results are discussed here but the detailed
procedures and results will be published in a separate paper [28].
5. Results and discussion
5.1. Impacts of the operating condition change
Corrosion rates were measured at various locations under the
operating conditions discussed in Table 1. Two probes were used
to obtain the corrosion rate data from both sides of the furnace un-
der the same operating condition. Each corrosion probe’s sensor
element temperature was maintained at a typical waterwall tem-
perature of 426 °C by adjusting cooling air circulation based on
the measured metal temperature. The probes were moved to vari-
ous sampling ports during the furnace operation at a given operat-
ing condition. The corrosion monitoring system measures the
corrosion rates in real-time and the time to take the measurement
is limited by the time the furnace is stabilized for proper corrosion
rate measurement. In order to determine the corrosion rate at a
specific location under specific operating conditions, averages of
the measured corrosion rates were used after the furnace could
be considered as stable based on the measured temperature and
rate data. Once the furnace was heated up for coal combustion,
the stabilization time was from 30 min to hours depending on
the degree of operating condition change. Overall measured corro-
sion rates were relatively low as expected from the low sulfur con-
tent in the coal used in the experiments.
Fig. 2 shows the sampling locations available at the KEPRI pilot-
scale test furnace along with the port labels. Fig. 4 shows corrosion
rates as a function of burner stoichiometry at various sampling
locations when Indominco coal with 0.4 wt% Cl was fired at a high
firing rate (top figure) and Shenhua coal with 0.2 wt% Cl at a low
firing rate (bottom figure). As the burner is staged deeper, there
is high potential to form a fuel-rich environment near the wall
resulting in a high corrosion rate. Indeed, some sampling locations
such as L11, R11, R21, and R24 at a high firing rate with Indominco
coal (top figure) showed increasing corrosion rates with decreasing
burner stoichiometry. However, the other locations showed
decreasing corrosion rates with decreasing stoichiometry or had
the highest corrosion rate under stoichiometric burner operation
(burner stoichiometry = 1). When the firing rate was lowered with
Shenhua coal, the rates changed in a more complex pattern as a
function of the burner stoichiometry. Also the same port did not
necessarily show the same trend found in the high firing rate with
Indominco coal. These characteristics were observed in the other
experiments as well. The complex and rather surprising corrosion
patterns resulted from variations of the local environment deter-
mined by the current test furnace setup and operating conditions.
The current test furnace was found to be very sensitive to burner
column operating conditions and did not necessarily show a linear
or expected relationship between the overall operating conditions
and the local environment, especially near the wall. The current
single burner elevation setup did not provide a dampening effect
from burner to burner interaction normally found in a full-scale
boiler’s multi burner setup and local conditions can be drastically
changed based on the actual coal/air mass flow rates. On the other
hand, the results emphasize the importance of understanding the
local environment in estimating corrosion behavior as the near-
wall local conditions may not follow bulk condition changes, which
can change from furnace to furnace.
Fig. 5 shows the measured corrosion rates as a function of load-
ing change at various sampling locations when Indominco coal
with 0.2 wt% Cl was fired with the burner stoichiometry of 1.2

0.016
Corrosion rates (mm/yr)

BSR=1.2 0.025
0.014
Corrosion rates (mm/yr)

BSR=1.0 FHigh
0.012
0.020 FLow
0.010 BSR=0.8
0.008 0.015
0.006
0.010
0.004
0.002 0.005
0.000
L11 L14 L21 L24 R11 R14 R21 R24 0.000
Sampling port location L11 L14 L21 L24 R11 R14 R21 R24
Sampling port location
0.020
BSR=1.2
Corrosion rates (mm/yr)

0.018
Corrosion rates (mm/yr)

BSR=1.0 0.016 FHigh

0.015
0.014 FLow
BSR=0.8
0.012
0.010 0.010
0.008
0.005 0.006
0.004
0.002
0.000
0.000
L11 L14 L21 L24 R11 R14 R21 R24 L11 L14 L21 L24 R11 R14 R21 R24
Sampling port location Sampling port location
Fig. 4. Impacts of burner stoichiometry on the corrosion rates: Indominco 0.4 wt% Fig. 5. Impacts of loading change on the corrosion rates: Indominco 0.2 wt% Cl with
Cl at FHigh (top) and Shenhua 0.2 wt% Cl at FLow (bottom). Error bar represents burner stoichiometry of 1.2 (top) and Shenhua 0.2 wt% Cl with burner stoichiom-
standard deviation. etry of 0.8 (bottom). Error bar represents standard deviation.

3358
(top figure) and Shenhua coal with 0.2 wt% Cl with the burner stoi-
chiometry of 0.8 (bottom figure). At most sampling locations, the
corrosion rates increased as the loading increased. One of the obvi-
ous changes in local environment due to load increase is the in-
crease in heat flux. As the local heat flux variation is relatively
small, most sampling locations showed similar behavior. This illus-
trates that heat flux is an important parameter in determining the
corrosion rates. However, the heat flux is just one of the parame-
ters that affect the corrosion rates and depending on the local envi-
ronment, some sampling locations showed increased corrosion
rates with decreasing loading.
The impact of the fuel chlorine content on the corrosion rates is
reported to become significant at fuel chlorine contents higher
than 0.3 wt% [29]. However, the current study did not find the cor-
rosion rate increased when the fuel chlorine content increased.
This implies that the major corrosion mechanisms occurring at
the sampling locations under the current operating conditions
are not chlorine-based corrosion. CFD simulations also showed
that the local chlorine concentration near the wall was only 0.1%
or less of the bulk chlorine concentration in most cases. This also
emphasizes the importance of linking local conditions to corrosion
behavior of a given coal, as the local chlorine content can be low
even though the coal may have a high bulk chlorine content.
Fig. 6 shows the measured corrosion rates as a function of coal
sulfur content at various sampling locations. A high firing rate was
used with the burner stoichiometry of 1.2 (top figure) and low fir-
ing rate with the burner stoichiometry of 0.8 (bottom figure). At
most sampling locations, Indominco with the higher sulfur content
had higher corrosion rates than Shenhua. This illustrates that ma-
jor corrosion mechanisms occurring at the measured locations may
be related to sulfur. However, at some sampling locations, the low-
er fuel sulfur content resulted in higher corrosion rates.
Measuring high temperature corrosion rates under harsh envi-
ronment such as pulverized coal-fired furnace is a challenging task.
However, the current study showed that the waterwall wastage
0.025
Corrosion rates (mm/yr)
Indominco
0.020
Shenhua
0.015
0.010
0.005
0.000
L11 L14 L21 L24 R11
Sampling port location
0.018
Corrosion rates (mm/yr)
0.016 Indominco
Shenhua
0.014
0.012
0.010
0.008
0.006
0.004
0.002
0.000
L11 L14 L21 L24 R11
Sampling port location
Fig. 6. Impacts of coal sulfur content change on the corrosion rates: FHigh with
burner stoichiometry of 1.2 (top) and FLow with burner stoichiometry of 0.8
(bottom). Error bar represents standard deviation.
Author's personal copy
H.-S. Shim et al. / Fuel 87 (2008) 3353–3361
under various operating conditions could be measured and com-
pared to understand the impacts of the main parameter changes.
Fireside corrosion rates are governed by the local environments
resulting from the operating conditions as well as furnace charac-
teristics. The pilot-scale test furnace used in the current study had
only one burner elevation sandwiched by two levels of secondary
air inlets. This single burner elevation removed the burner to bur-
ner interaction normally observed in a multi-level burner layout
found in a full-scale boiler. These interactions strongly influence
furnace flow patterns. Near-wall flow patterns and resulting flue
gas compositions were affected and varied significantly with bur-
ner stoichiometry and fuel selections. This led to unexpected corro-
sion behavior. This was also shown in the CFD simulations [28]. A
burner stoichiometry decrease caused a corrosion rate increase at
some locations, while showing a decrease at the other locations.
These trends at given locations also changed when firing rate
was changed. This behavior cannot be applied to other furnaces,
as this local corrosion variation was affected by the furnace charac-
teristics. Every furnace has different characteristics that need to be
understood first. For this purpose, CFD simulation can be very use-
ful. Boiler loading changes led to expected corrosion behavior, as
local condition change such as heat flux due to loading change is
less variable. This means that at similar local conditions, the in-
crease in loading can increase corrosion rates. However, the in-
crease in corrosion rate upon firing rate increase does not mean
the other corrosion related conditions are identical. The relation-
ship between fuel chlorine content and corrosion rates could not
be established in this study because the governing corrosion mech-
anisms were not chlorine-based at most measured locations. In
most cases, corrosion rates were higher when higher sulfur con-
taining fuels were used. This implies that governing corrosion
mechanisms would be sulfur related ones, such as H2S based
and/or unoxidized material deposition.
5.2. CFD simulation
When the burner was staged, the simulation results showed a
typical result: decreasing NOx but increasing CO (see Fig. 7).
Indominco cases showed much higher CO at the lower burner stoi-
chiometries than Shenhua coal cases. The simulation results
showed that slightly higher CO generation in Shenhua case at bur-
ner elevation, but the downstream mixing was more effective than
that of Indominco case [28]. More effective CO oxidation in Shen-
hua case was due to different mixing pattern established by differ-
ent coal and air mass flow rates used to keep the same firing rates
and excess air percentages in both cases. An optimized OFA port
layout is expected to reduce CO emission. The local flow pattern
and resulting local flue gas composition, however, varied signifi-
R14 R21 R24
cantly from one case to another. As an example, Fig. 8 shows the
mass weighted average oxygen concentrations as a function of fur-
nace height when Indominco and Shenhua coals were fired at the
firing rate of 1.45 MWth. As the heating values of the two coals
were different, the actual coal and air mass flow rates were differ-
ent from each other. Indominco coal cases showed that the oxygen
concentration below the burner elevation follows the order of the
burner stoichiometry: Unstaged case (BSR = 1.2) showed the high-
est oxygen concentration followed by the BSR = 1.0 and the
BSR = 0.8 cases. When Shenhua coal was fired, the BSR = 1.2 case
showed the lowest oxygen concentration below the burner eleva-
tion. The inlet mass flow difference with a given furnace dimension
may cause this difference in oxygen level in the lower furnace. The
R14 R21 R24 oxygen concentration decreased steeply at the burner centerline
due to oxygen consumption by combustion. The BSR = 1.0 case
showed a significant dip before additional air injection at elevation
4.5 meter, while the BSR = 0.8 case showed a relatively small dip.
This was observed in both coals. A combination of single burner
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H.-S. Shim et al. / Fuel 87 (2008) 3353–3361 3359

350 300
Indominco Indominco
300 250
Shenhua Shenhua
250
NOx (ppm)

CO (ppm)
200
200
150
150
100
100
50 50

0 0
0.7 0.9 1.1 1.3 0.7 0.9 1.1 1.3
Burner stoichiometry Burner stoichiometry

Fig. 7. Average CO and NOx concentration at the model exit as a function of burner stoichiometry when Shenhua and Indominco coals were fired at 1.45 MWth.

16 BSR=1.2 16 BSR=1.2
Burner BSR=1.0 Burner BSR=1.0
14 Centerline 14 Centerline
BSR=0.8 BSR=0.8
12 12
10 10
O2 (%)

O2 (%)

8 8
6 6
4 4
2 2
Indominco Shenhua
0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Furnace height (m) Furnace height (m)
Fig. 8. Mass weighted average oxygen concentrations as a function of furnace height when Shenhua and Indominco coals were fired at 1.45 MWth under various burner
stoichiometries. BSR denotes Burner stoichiometric ratio.

elevation, operating conditions, and pilot-scale furnace geometry
may cause this rather unusual behavior. The full-scale furnaces
with multiple burner elevations are not expected to show this
behavior. However, this result illustrates the importance of under-
standing local environments in estimating local processes such as
waterwall corrosion. Overall conditions may not show the details
of local changes and local conditions may behave differently due
to differences in operating conditions and furnace geometry.
5.3. Corrosion rate comparison
The parameters in the corrosion correlations for the three
mechanisms discussed previously were determined by using the
measured corrosion rates and the literature data. The detailed
information on the local environment near the measured surface
is required to correlate the measured corrosion rate to a specific
corrosion mechanism and includes flue gas temperature, surface
temperature, flue gas composition, deposition, deposit characteris-
tics, and heat flux. In this study, CFD simulation was utilized to ob-
tain the required local information as it is difficult to obtain the
details by measurements at all locations.
The corrosion at a given location was assumed to be governed
by one of the three mechanisms. After the governing mechanism
was decided, the corrosion correlations were adjusted by compar-
ing the measured and the predicted corrosion rates and minimiz-
ing the difference using MicrosoftÒ Excel Solver. In reality,
various corrosion mechanisms can occur at the same time.
Thus, the sum of the predicted corrosion rates developed in this
way may be higher than real corrosion rates, as the measurements
may have resulted from all three mechanisms including any poten-
tial synergistic effect among the mechanisms. The current method
provides a convenient but conservative approach considering the
potential cost with the prediction of lower than actual corrosion
rates. However, it should be noted that potential synergistic effect
may have not been tested enough in this program and further
study is required to assess the interaction between the three mech-
anisms. The governing corrosion mechanism at a specific location
was determined by considering the following: (1) whether or not
deposition occurs, (2) if local conditions are fuel-rich (stoichiome-
tric ratio < 1) or – lean (stoichiometric ratio > 1), (3) local H2S con-
centration, and (4) local chlorine concentration. Based on these
considerations, about 56% of the measurements belong to deposit
based corrosion, about 39% to the gas-phase attack by the reduced
sulfur specie H2S, and only 5% to chlorine based corrosion. A high
percentage of sulfur related mechanisms at over 90% agrees well
with the observations discussed previously.
Fig. 9 shows the comparison of the predictions based on the
equations given earlier and actual electrochemical measurements
based on three mechanisms. Kung’s correlation used for H2S based
corrosion has shown relatively good agreement with the measure-
ments as shown in Fig. 9A. When the bulk chlorine concentration
was used, the predicted corrosion rates from chlorine based mech-
anism were too high. Therefore, in the current study, the local chlo-
rine concentration was used and the results are shown in Fig. 9 (B).
Current deposit-based corrosion correlations included heat flux
information, as well and the related parameters were adjusted to
match the measurements. The scattered data points in Fig. 9 imply
the real corrosion mechanisms occurring at a given location can be
more complex than expected from the current study’s assumption,
however overall agreement was good.
 Author's personal copy

3360 H.-S. Shim et al. / Fuel 87 (2008) 3353–3361

A 0.20 OP1-R15
Predicted corrosion rates

OP1-L22
0.85 OP2-R15

Corrosion rate (mm/yr)

0.15 OP2-L22
0.75

0.10
0.65

0.05 0.55

0.45
0.00
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20
Measured corrosion rates 0.35
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
B Exposure time (hours)
0.05
Predicted corrosion rates

Fig. 10. Corrosion rates as a function of exposure time under OP1 and OP2
operating conditions.
0.04

0.03

0.02 1.0
Predicted corrosion rates

0.8
0.01

0.6
0.00
0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05
0.4
Measured corrosion rates
0.2
C 1.0
Predicted corrosion rates

0.0
0.8 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Measured corrosion rates
0.6 Fig. 11. Comparison of the predicted and the measured corrosion rates (mm/yr)
from the validation experiments.
0.4

0.2
0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6
Measured corrosion rates
Fig. 9. Comparison of the measured and predicted corrosion rates (mm/yr): (A) H2S
corrosion, (B) chlorine-based corrosion, and (C) deposition based corrosion.
5.4. Validation experiment and comparison
Validation experiments for the corrosion correlation were per-
formed using the same furnace, but the corrosion rates were mea-
sured by a corrosion coupon probe and surface profilometry that
allow for corrosion rate measurement over a short period of time.
Surface profilometry was performed on the corrosion coupons to
obtain the average elevation differences between the corroded part
and the uncorroded part. Then, the corrosion rates were calculated
based on the exposure time. The two operating conditions (OP1
and OP2 as shown in Table 3) were used and the two coupon
probes were installed on each side wall (R15 and L22 on the right
and the left side wall, respectively). Each coupon probe was
equipped with multiple coupons that were taken out after 7, 14,
35, and 49 h of exposure to the combustion environment. Fig. 10
shows the measured corrosion rates as a function of exposure time
under two operating conditions. The corrosion rates did not change
0.8 1.0
much with the exposure time under the current operating condi-
tions. Under a given operating condition, the right side sampling
locations (R15) resulted in higher corrosion rates than in the left
side (L22). This may change with different sampling locations. In
addition, when the corrosion rates were compared at the same
location, OP2 conditions were more corrosive than OP1. In OP2,
only upper secondary air inlet (level C in Fig. 1) was utilized, which
formed substoichiometric conditions and increased deposition flux
near the sampling areas. The corrosion rates were predicted based
on the correlations developed in this study and the local conditions
from the CFD simulations. Fig. 11 shows the comparison between
the predictions and measurements. The data that can be compared
under the current study for validation was limited; however the
predictions were in good agreement with the measurements.
6. Conclusions
The waterwall corrosion correlations were developed based on
the literature data and the pilot-scale experiments with respect to
the following corrosion mechanisms:
 Author's personal copy
H.-S. Shim et al. / Fuel 87 (2008) 3353–3361
(1) Gas-phase attack by reduced sulfur species;
(2) chlorine-based attack;
(3) deposition of unoxidized fuel.
The work utilized the combination of CFD simulation, in-situ
corrosion rate measurement based on electrochemical noise, and
corrosion coupons with advanced surface profilometry. The corro-
sion correlation developed from this study provided good agree-
ment with the measurements even thought data available for
validation were limited. Current study also emphasized the impor-
tance of understanding local environments in assessing corrosion
potential as the overall operating conditions may not represent
the local conditions relevant to corrosion. A predictive tool com-
bining the corrosion correlations and CFD is expected to help alle-
viate unit downtimes and costs associated with waterwall
wastage. This approach is expected to prevent waterwall wastage
through evaluation of planned operational or physical furnace
modifications or by aiding in troubleshooting current wastage
problems.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of
Korean Electric Power Industry Technology Evaluation & Planning
(Project R-2004-0-018-0-00). Thanks are also due to Messrs. Green
and Swensen, and Drs. Fry and Cox for the profilometry works and
the corrosion monitoring system support.
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