J Fail. Anal. and Preven.
(2022) 22:203–208
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11668-021-01271-y
CASE HISTORY—PEER-REVIEWED
Failure Analysis of Boiler Water Wall Tube: A Case Study
from Thermal Power Plant
Debashis Ghosh . Himadri Roy . Atanu Saha . Chidambaram Subramanian
Submitted: 2 July 2021 / in revised form: 11 October 2021 / Accepted: 15 October 2021 / Published online: 4 January 2022
Ó ASM International 2021
Abstract The boiler tube in power plant has been failed
after long term in service. With an aid of various charac-
terization techniques such as visual inspection, chemical
analysis, dimensional and hardness measurements, frac-
tography, and metallography, the probable cause of failure
has been identified. The analysis showed the failure has
been occurred due to vibrational fatigue, The dynamic
loading due to unstable fluid flow within water wall tube
caused hammering to induce vibration that led to alter-
nating stress. The presence of defect in the fillet weld joint
under continuous boiler operating condition has led to
fatigue failure. Some preventive measures are suggested to
avoid similar type of failures in near future.
Keywords Water wall tube
Fatigue failure

Failure analysis
Fillet weld
Introduction
The failure of boiler tube in power plant and chemical
process industries causes huge economic losses. The dif-
ferent reasons for boiler tube failure have already been
reported in the literatures [1–10]. The root causes of fail-
ures are incorporated during design stage with improved
materials and operational procedures [9]. For example, the
prevention of acid dew point corrosion in economizer tube
can be prevented by upgraded metallurgy as suggested by
many researchers [7]. Similarly, high temperature creep
failures and short-term overheating can also be reduced by
D. Ghosh (&)
H. Roy
A. Saha
C. Subramanian
Industrial Service and Research Group, Central Mechanical
Engineering Research Institute, CSIR, Durgapur 713209, India
e-mail: dbs1012000@gmail.com
modified microstructure and steam side chemical cleaning,
respectively [1, 11].
This case study reports probable root cause of the failure
in boiler furnace rear wall tubes in a thermal power plant
boiler. The failed tube is sent to laboratory for detailed
investigations. The technical specification related to failure
is shown in Table 1. It was in service for about 188340 hrs
and inspection history suggests no such failure previously
occurred. The fillet welding defect with poor workmanship
and unstable fluid flow caused hammering during actual
boiler service condition and lead to premature tube failure.
Recommendations are suggested to avoid similar failures
in thermal power plant.
Experimental Techniques and Results
Visual Inspection
The failed tube is visually inspected in as-received failed
condition at site and all the evidence is photo-documented.
The visual inspection suggested that failure is a wide
window type opening rupture (refer Fig. 1a) and failure is
initiated from the external fillet weld (refer Fig. 1b). No
evidence of corrosion sign is observed on failure zone and
nearby fillet weld. Bulging/ swelling sign is observed in
failure region (refer Fig. 1a). The fracture surface in failure
zone reveals typical weld defects, which might possibly
happen during fabrication of boiler tube (refer Fig. 1c). The
cross-section of the failed tube shows no reduction in wall
thickness, but it contains stress concentrated region at the
interface of tube and fillet weld throat (refer Fig. 1d).
Fracture surface shows the indication of typical fatigue
fracture that might be initiated from some weld defect
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located in fillet weld surface (refer Fig. 2). No thickness
reduction is also observed in and around the failure zone.
Dimensional measurement
The outer diameter of the failed tube is measured by ver-
nier caliper. Further tube wall thickness was measured by
ultrasonic thickness meter (Type: DM-3, Krautkramer,
Germany). Both failed and virgin tube wall thickness were
measured to compare its results (refer Fig. 3). The virgin
and failed tube thickness was shown in Table 2 and
Tables 3, 4, respectively. No significant reduction in wall
thickness and outer diameter was observed. The measured
outer diameter was reported in Table 5.
Chemical Analysis
The failed water wall tube is subjected to chemical analysis
by portable spectrometer (Model: Q4 TASMAN, Bruker,
Germany) and weight percentage of the constituent ele-
ments present in the failed tube sample are reported. The
chemical compositions are shown in Table 6 and failed
tube composition approximately matched with original
material specification.
Inner tube surface
Fague lines/
beach marks

Table 1 Failed boiler tube specification

Parameters of failed tube

Tube location Water wall tube (rear side)

Internal and external atmosphere Wet steam and flue gas
Material specification BS 3059part 2 1990 243 S2 Cat 2 Fig. 2 Fracture surface of the failed water wall tube
Dimensions (outer diameter 9 63.5 9 5.4
thickness), mm
Table 2 Thickness of Tube 1 in mm
Design and operating 386 and 300
temperature, °C Fail side 1 2 3
Design and operating pressure, 184 and 160 6.2 5.8 6.0
kg/cm2 Opposite to fail side 4 5 6
Service hours 188340 hrs 5.5 5.4 5.4

Fig. 1 (a) Failed tube window

type opening, (b) fillet weld, (c) (a) (b)
typical weld defects, and (d)
tube cross-sectional view
Fillet weld

(c) (d) Stress concentraon

Weld defect

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Table 3 Thickness of Tube 2 in mm

Fail Side 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
6.0 5.3 5.2 5.5 5.5 5.4 4.7 5.2 4.9 5.3 5.2
12 13 14 15 16 17 Opposite to fail side 18 19 20
5.4 5.4 5.3 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.2 5.2 5.4

cross-section (refer Fig. 4a). The location slightly away

Table 4 Thickness of Tube 3 in mm
from previous image also shows coarse beachmark features
Fail side 1 2 3 with evidence of brittle fracture (refer Fig. 4b). The failure
6.0 5.8 5.9 revealed that fatigue crack initiated from boiler tube
Opposite to fail side 4 5 6 external surface showing coarser beachmark features. The
5.2 5.4 5.3 edge near defect location also reveals fatigue benchmark
features consistent with fatigue crack propagation from
multiple initiation sites creating the stepped fracture plane
Table 5 Outer diameter of tube 1, tube 2 and tube 3 in mm as shown in Fig. 4c. The defect would be undercut at weld
Outer diameter 1 2 3 toe. from outer tube edge of the fracture surface (Figs. 4c
and d). The wet steam with higher velocity often leads to
Tube-1(XX) 63.97 64.08 63.79 unstable fluid flow and can possibly hammer the water wall
Tube-2(XX) 63.62 63.47 64.02 tube and further causes tube vibration [3, 12]. The vibration
Tube-3(XX) 64.73 63.87 64.02 of boiler tube because of unstable fluid flow will lead to
dynamic loading and finally lead to failure.

Metallography

The samples from fillet weld region and adjacent to fillet

Fig. 3 Dimensions measurement of water wall tube bank
Hardness Measurement
The hardness is measured on the failed water wall tube
using Vickers hardness testing machine at 10 kgf load.
Three indentations are performed, and its average value is
reported. The measured average hardness value on location
adjacent to failure edge, tube inner surface, tube cross-
section, and fillet weld are reported in Table 7. The hard-
ness results revealed that no significant deviations were
observed.
Fractography
The failed tube edge is carefully cleaned by ultrasonic
machine to remove dirt, grease, and external deposit.
Further, as received fracture sample is evaluated in Field
Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) of Carl
Zeiss make, Germany. The fatigue crack initiated from
external tube surface and crack propagated along the tube
weld are prepared for metallographic studies. Similarly, the
location away from failure region is also prepared by
standard metallographic technique and etched in 2% nital
solution. The weld defect was identified in fillet weld
region as shown in Fig. 5a. The defective fillet weld
appears to show undercut with porosities. Similarly, typical
lack of penetration in fillet weld root is also identified as
shown in Fig. 5b. The lack of penetration at the weld root
and other weld sub-surface flaws are not related to fatigue
crack initiations. The tube edge from inner surface revealed
significant plastic deformation as evidenced from Fig. 6a.
Both ferrite and pearlite phases are deformed during crack
propagation i.e., before failure. Away from failure location
reveals typical ferrite and pearlite microstructure (Fig. 6b).
Banded pearlite and ferrite are observed adjacent to the
failure region on the failed tube (Fig. 6a), while ferrite and
equiaxed pearlite are observed away from failure region
(Fig. 6b). The fillet weld on external tube surface at lower
magnification is visualized in Fig. 7a and weld metal at
higher magnification is shown in Fig. 7b. The weld metal
contains dendritic structure (Fig. 7b), while heat-affected
zone of the fillet weld constitutes unresolved pearlite and
bainite structure (Fig. 7c).

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206 J Fail. Anal. and Preven. (2022) 22:203–208

Table 6 Chemical analysis of the failed water wall tube

Tube identification C Si Mn S P Ni Mo Fe

Failed tube 0.168 0.217 0.51 0.007 0.014 0.102 0.258 Bal
BS 3059part 2 1990 243 S2 Cat 2 0.10–0.15 0.10–0.35 0.40–0.70 0.030 (max) 0.030 (max) 0.7–1.10 0.45–0.65 Bal.

Table 7 Micro-hardness value of the failed water wall tube

Location Micro hardness HV

Adjacent to failure edge 165

Inner surface of failed tube 151
Cross-section of failed tube 146
Fillet weld 172

Fig. 4 Fractographic image of

failed water wall tube (a) from (a) (b)
tube edge, (b) slightly away
from tube edge, (c), and (d)
undercut at weld toe (defect).

(c) (d)

Fracture
Edge near defect

Outer edge

Discussion location. However, lack of penetration at weld root or in

Visual examination revealed that the failure was wide
opening rupture typically window opening just beside the
fillet weld. No corrosion marks were evidenced on both
inner and outer surface of the failed tube. No reduction in
thickness was observed, while slight bulging and swelling
were noticed. Chemical analysis confirmed that failed tube
was as per design data and no deviation noticed. The
hardness survey shows no abnormality of the hardness at
the failure region and away from the failure region. The
welding defect was noticed in failure region and typically
showed lack of penetration (Fig. 5b) near investigated
sub-surface could not be cause of failure. The base material
revealed typical ferrite and banded pearlite microstructure.
An inner surface on edge of fracture showed significant
plastic deformation due to crack propagation. The welding
defect probably initiated fatigue crack on external surface
of the tube and failed by fatigue fracture as observed by
large number of fracture lines in the fracture surface. The
evidence near the failure region confirms that the failure of
the tube is due to the combined effect of welding defect
(undercut) and dynamic loading to result in fatigue
fracture.

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J Fail. Anal. and Preven. (2022) 22:203–208 207

Fig. 5 (a) Defective fillet weld

showing undercut with porosity (a) (b)
and (b) lack of penetration flaw
at the weld root. Both shown in Fillet crack
a polished state
Lack of penetraon

Fig. 6 (a) Failed tube edge and

(b) away from failure location. (a) (b)
2%Nital etched

Fig. 7 (a) Fillet weld location,

(b) magnified view of weld (a) (b)
metal, and (c) HAZ region.
2%Nital etched

(c)

HAZ

Base metal

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Fig. 8 shows evidence of secondary cracks exhibiting brittle fracture
shown by arrow
It is generally known that fillet weld in pressurized process
equipment cannot be volumetrically inspected and therefore,
visual inspection and liquid penetrant test should be per-
formed [13]. If any defects identified during boiler or
equipment commissioning stage, then repair welding should
be done [14]. The operating pressure and temperature were
160 kg/cm2 and 300 °C, respectively, and at very high pres-
sure the unstable fluid flow further increases the tube
vibration. Under such actual operating conditions, the pres-
ence of weld defects like undercut and porosities can induce
high-stress concentration at failure region. Further, fluctuating
stress cycles within boiler tube can lead to fatigue fracture.
The fractography confirmed fatigue beachmark features that
initiated from external tube surface (refer Fig. 4) and metal-
lography confirmed the presence of some defects (refer Figs. 5
and 7). Further, secondary cracks evidence brittle fracture
adjacent to failed region as shown in Fig. 8. The steam con-
densate in boiler feed water can be drained at appropriate
locations for uniform fluid flow. The frequency and amplitude
of vibration were critical factors and if vibration frequency
synchronous near to the natural frequency of water wall tube,
then likelihood of fatigue can possibly occur. This water wall
tube was not supported properly to arrest the induced vibra-
tions. The crack initiated at the tube edge can be high stressed
region due to presence of welding defect. If defect is not there,
then failure can rarely occur.
Conclusion and Recommendations
The tube was possibly failed due to combined effect of
welding defect and unstable fluid flow within water wall
tube. Unstable fluid flow is leading to hammering and
induced fluctuating stress in the weld defect to result in
fatigue fracture.
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J Fail. Anal. and Preven. (2022) 22:203–208
It is further recommended to produce sound fillet weld
joints on external surface of the water wall tube. The fillet
weld joint shall be liquid penetrant tested after fabrication
during boiler commissioning stage. Similar fillet weld
defects shall be avoided to reduce the risk of consequent
fatigue failure. Proper visual inspection shall be carried out
at fillet weld joints to assess the quality of welding. Proper
workmanship is required to produce sound-quality welds to
avoid similar failure.
Acknowledgment The authors would like to acknowledge Director,
CSIR-CMERI for his encouragement for publication.
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