CREEP RUPTURE IN A WATER TUBE

BOILER
DESCRIPTION OF THE BOILER
In the boiler there were twelve banks of hot
tubes(Risers) and twelve banks of cool tubes
(Down comers)
Ninety tubes were included to an each bank
The total number of tubes in the boiler was 2160
Diameter of the drums was 1.7m and the drums
were 17m in length
 TECHNICAL DATA
BOILER OPERATING PARAMETERS
Max. evaporation rate -500 tonnes/hour
Max. heat flux through riser walls-20 kW/m²
Gas temperature at inlet -940C
Gas temperature at mid-space -650C
Gas temperature at outlet -490C
Operating pressure -4.8MPa(Gauge)
Normal operating temperature -264C
 WATER-TUBE SPECIFICATIONS
Internal diameter -80mm
External diameter -90mm
Wall thickness -5mm
Operating hoop stress -38MPa
Material -Carbon Steel
Single longitudinal diffusion weld fabrication

SERVICE HISTORY
Approximately 1 year of operation at 85 to 95%
of full load
Ruptured water tube
 DESCRIPTION OF FAILURE
The outside diameter of the tube had
increased to 103mm from 90mm of original
value
A bulge had formed on one side of the tube
and the centre of the bulge had thinned
down to 3.2mm
Chisel-edged creep rapture had occurred
giving fracture surface 0.35 to 0.8 mm wide
and 370mm long
The burst tube was in the 6th bank of riser tubes
counting in from the inlet side of the boiler
Under normal conditions the temperature of the
tube would have been 795C
90 neighbouring tubes were bent due to the
force of explosion and diameter of another 50
tubes were enlarged
Worst affected had swollen over a length of 1m
Even the tubes were normal in outside they were
coated with a layer of hard-water deposite
0.25mm thick
 FAILURE ANALYSIS
CAUSES OF OVERHEATING,
 Water tubes were to operate under the
highest possible heat transfer
 Disastrously effective thermal barriers can be
provided due to deposites of hard-water
scale, layers of corrosion product and
delaminations
 Thermal barriers interferes the cooling action
of the boiler and will lead to overheating
Water tube boilers are also subjected to steam
blanketing where a stable layer of steam forms
between the water and the inner surface of the
tube
This helps to insulate tubes from circulating
water and which results in warming up the tubes
 The situation can become unstable and the
steam blanket tends to grow up and the whole
tube can boil dry
When this happens there is nothing to prevent
the tubes heating up to the temperature of
surrounding gasses(940C)
CACULATION OF THE TEMPERATURE DROP
ACROSS THE LAYER OF HARD-WATER
DEPOSITE,
From heat conduction equation,
(dQ/dt)=kA(dT/dx)
Term (1/A)(dQ/dt) is the heat flux and equal
to 20kW/m²
Rough estimation for K is 0.5Wm¯¹C¯¹
dx=0.25mm and when this is worked out,
dT=10C
 DECISION MADE FROM THE RESULTS,
It is unlikely that this small thermal resistance
allowed the tubes to heat up much
More likely explanation is that a major
disruption in the circulation and boiler
behavior affecting a large number of the riser
tubes
REFERENCE
Engineering Materials- case studies on failure
analysis by D.R.H. Johns