Boiler tube failure causes

and remedies
Shashi om katiyar
EX-AGM NTPC

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 Introduction to Boiler tube failures
Layout of the presentation
 Statistics of tube failures

 Cost of tube failures

 Types of tube failures and failure mechanisms

 Factors influencing tube failures

 Tube failure detection techniques

 Guide lines for the prevention and control of tube leaks

 Best practices to prevent tube leaks

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 One of the most complex, critical, and vulnerable systems in
Boiler Pressure Component failure
fossil power generation plants is the boiler pressure
components.
 Boiler pressure component failures have historically contributed
to the highest percentage of lost availability.
Failures have been related to
 Poor original design,
 Fabrication practices,
 Fuel changes,
 Operation, maintenance, and Cycle chemistry.

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Boiler tube failures continue to be the major cause of forced outages. Statistically
these are responsible for an overall availability loss of 6% of the units
Statistics [source
CEA]

9/4/2013 Steag O&M Company

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Boiler tube failures post overhaul

Source-internet

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Boiler tube failure zones

Source-internet

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 The cost of boiler tube failures is comprised of three main
Cost of boiler tube failures
components; the cost of the repair, the cost of start up oil to
return unit to service, and the cost of lost production.
 A rule of thumb for repair costs of 200000 per day out of service+
cost of material
 Average loss of availability of 1% translates to approximately 3.6
days out of service per leak.
 Start up oil costs 150KL @ 7500000/per startup.
Plus
 Loss of generation[depends on the size of the unit]
 Morale of the O&M staff
 Morale of the stake holders 7
Prominent reasons for
tube failures

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 Poor water quality. With increases in operating pressure, feedwater quality
becomes even more critical. Prominent reasons
 Coal quality. Using a different type of coal for emission or economic reasons has
adversely affected the capability, operability, and reliability of boiler and boiler
auxiliaries
 Cycling operation. Many base-load-designed boilers have been placed into cycling
duty, which has a major impact on the boiler reliability as indicated by occurrences
of serious corrosion fatigue in water-touched circuitries, economizer inlet header
shocking, thick-wall header damages, and others.
 NOx emission. Deep staging combustion for NOx reduction has produced serious
waterwall fire corrosion for high sulfur-coal firing, especially in supercritical units.
 Ageing. A large percentage of existing fossil-fired units are exceeding “design life”
without plans for retirement. These vintage units are carrying major loads in
power generation.
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 Economizer effects
 Finned economizer tube is such a
location due to the double difficulties
of poor/impossible access for
thickness measurement and shielding.

 Economizer tube bends close to

casing walls are another such
location.

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Typical Failure
mechanisms

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 Boiler Pressure
The boiler tubes areComponent
under high pressure and/or high-temperature conditions.
 Failure
They are Mechanisms
subject to potential degradation by a variety of mechanical and
thermal stresses and environmental attack on both the fluid and fireside.
 Mechanical components can fail due to creep, fatigue, erosion, and corrosion
 Creep
 Creep is a time-dependent deformation that takes place at elevated
temperature under mechanical stresses.
 such failure results in overheating or overstressing the tube material beyond
its capabilities for either a short- term or a long-term period.

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Temperatur
e

Free Capacity for Creep

Operating Point Scheduled

Plant Life

Pressure

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 Short-term Overheat Failure results in a ductile rupture of the tube
metal, Creep failures-Overheating
 It is characterized by “fish mouth” opening in the tube where the
fracture surface is a thin edge.
 Causes: Short-term overheat failures are most common during boiler
start up. Failures result when the tube metal temperature is
extremely elevated from a lack of cooling steam or water flow
 Long-term Overheat Tube metal often has heavy external scale
build-up and secondary cracking.
 Super heater and reheat heater tubes commonly fail after many
years of service, as a result of creep.
 During normal operation, alloy super heater tubes will experience
increasing temperature and strain over the life of the tube until the
creep life is expended.
 Furnace water wall tubes also can fail from long-term overheat.
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 Fatigue is a phenomenon of damage accumulation
caused by cyclic or fluctuating Fatigue
stresses, which are
SR1
caused by mechanical loads, flow- induced vibration.
 components are subjected to cyclic temperature and
flow fluctuations restrict thermal expansion.
Thermal fatigue is classified in two categories,
 Corrosion fatigue and thermal fatigue.
 Corrosion fatigue, ―the fluctuations in circulation of
water in the boiler tube
 Thermal fatigue: frequent starts and stops
 Typically occurs at areas such as header ligaments,
welded attachments , tube stub welds,
circumferential external surface cracking of water
wall tubes in supercritical units, and fabrication
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notches.
 Erosion is metal removal caused by particles striking the metal’s surface.
 Various mechanisms, such as fly ash erosion, soot blowing erosion, falling slag erosion,
Erosion and corrosion
and coal particle erosion can cause erosion on the boiler tubes.
 Fly ash erosion, is a significant boiler tube failure concern, occurs in the regions with high
local flue gas velocities, with high ash loading, and with abrasive particles such as quartz

 Corrosion: Deterioration and loss of material due to chemical attack. There are two basic
categories in boiler tubes:
 Internal corrosion: hydrogen damage, acid phosphate corrosion, caustic gouging, and
pitting
 External corrosion: water wall fireside corrosion, super heater (SH)/re heater (RH)
fireside corrosion, and ash dew point corrosion

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 Hydrogen damage is most commonly associated with excessive
deposition onInternal
ID tubeCorrosion-Hydrogen Damage
surfaces, coupled with a boiler water low pH
excursion.
 Water chemistry is upset, which can occur from condenser leaks,
particularly with saltwater cooling medium, and leads to acidic
(low pH) contaminants that can be concentrated in the deposit.
 Under-deposit releases atomic hydrogen which migrates into the
tube wall metal, reacts with carbon in the steel (decarburization)
and causes inter granular separation.

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 Causes: Corrosion occurs on external
Waterwall surfaces
Fireside of waterwall tubes when the
Corrosion
 Combustion process produces a reducing atmosphere (sub stoichiometric).
 This is common in the lower furnace of process recovery boilers in the pulp
and paper industry.
 For conventional fossil fuel boilers, corrosion in the burner zone usually is
associated with coal firing.
 Improper burners or operating with staged air zones to control combustion
are more susceptible to larger local regions possessing a reducing
atmosphere, resulting in increased corrosion rates.

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 Dissimilar Metal Weld (DMW) Failure
 Material fails at Dissimilar Metal
the ferritic side Weld
of the weld,(DMW) Failure
along the weld fusion line. A failure
tends to be catastrophic in that the entire tube will fail across the circumference
of the tube section.
 Causes: DMW describes the butt weld where an austenitic (stainless steel)
material joins a ferritic alloy, such as SA213 T22, material.
 These failures are attributed to several factors: high stresses at the austenitic to
ferritic interface due to differences in expansion properties of the two
materials, excessive external loading stresses and thermal cycling, and creep of
the ferritic material.

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 Causes: Tube damage occurs due to the combination of thermal fatigue
Waterside
and corrosion. Corrosion Corrosion
fatigue Fatigue
is influenced by boiler design, water
chemistry, boiler water oxygen content and boiler operation.
 Leads to the breakdown of the protective magnetite on the ID surface of
the boiler tube.
 The loss of this protective scale exposes tube to corrosion. The locations
of attachments and external weldments, such as buck stay attachments,
seal plates and scallop bars, are most susceptible.
 The problem is most likely to progress during boiler start- up cycles.

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Factors influencing Boiler
Tube failures

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Boiler Tube Failure
Influence Factors

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Steag O&M Company

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Material selection deficiencies in the design
Critical considerations
Material and fabrication flaws during design of Boiler

Welding flaws
The primary consideration in material choice is a function of expected
tube temperature of operation.
Economizers and waterwall sections are usually constructed with a mild
or medium carbon steel,
Low alloy ferritic steels are used for most superheater and reheater
sections, with austenitic stainless steels specified for the highest-
temperature circuits or corrosion performance.
Each manufacturer specifies a maximum operating temperature for each
material, based on laboratory oxidation experiments. The ASME code is
based on the mid-wall tube temperature.
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 Metal temperature limits

ASME – American society W&C- Webcock and wilcox 25

of mechanical engineers
 Material flaws include defects introduced into the tube during its manufacture,
fabrication, storage, Material and Fabrication Flaws
and/or installation
 Such defects might include:
 Forging laps
 Inclusions or laminations in the metal
 Lack of fusion of the welded seams
 Deep tool marks or scores from tube piercing, extrusion, or rolling operations
 Gouges, punctures, corrosion, impact dents
 Failures tend to be more predominant in high-temperature sections because of
the interaction of flaws with the higher stress in these locations
 Lap defects are crevices in steel that are closed but not metallurgically bonded.
They may occur in seamless tubes because of the presence of internal voids or
cracks in the ingot from which the tube was formed.
 Lap defects can also be caused by faulty methods of steel rolling in the steel mill.
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Control of Boiler tube leak during

Design, Erection, Commissioning, operation

and Maintenance stages

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 Adequate furnace sizes
Design stage
 Addressing Left-right unbalance in gas temperature

 Addressing Left-right unbalance in gas flow

 Material selection

 Gas velocity in horizontal and 2nd pass

 Lay out for maintenance approach

 Identification of tube/ assemblies experiencing high metal
temperature & installation of thermocouples in these tubes/
assemblies

 Selection of Boiler configuration to have uniform gas velocity

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 Prepare sound tube material procurement and technical specifications
 Clearly specify applicable
Engineering code and standards, QA/QC requirements, additional
and Erection
stage and fabrication requirements (NDE, heat treatment, and welding procedures)
material
 Conduct design reviews—including system analysis, thermal-hydraulics, and critical
mechanical detail design—and material selection to ensure that reliability is
considered.
 If a new material is to be used, use conservative procedures and processes in the
fabrication of components.
 Caution should also exercise when using any new fabrication or welding processes.
 Perform source inspection during fabrication and installation, including
NDE(nondestructive evaluation) of tube material and tubing stock and in-process
control of the fabrication processes.
 Document weld locations and locations with changed tube material and tube sizes.

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 Quality checks during manufacturing
Manufacturing and erection stage aspects
 Quality of shop weld joints

ERECTION STAGE
 Alignment of coils/ panels

 Uniform spacing between coils/ panels

 Uniform spacing between coil & wall at the front, rear,left and right

 Erection of clamps, attachments, supports and hangers

 Quality of site weld joints

 Trueness of coils & panels

 Completion of all attachment weldings before Hydrotest

 Removal of temporary supports/ structures

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 Operation stage
Commissioning stage
Temperature excursions
Removal of temporary supports/ structures
Drum level control
Hydro test of complete pressure parts Furnace pressure control

Quality of Alkali boil out Optimisation of soot blowing

Quality of Acid cleaning FG O2 at Eco. Outlet

Wind box pressure

Quality of Steam blowing
PF fineness
CAVT(cold air velocity test)
PF balancing
Repeat CAVT after correction
Air flow through mills

Furnace cooling

Dissolved O2 in feed water

Silica in Drum water & steam

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pH value of feedwater and steam 1
Techniques to detect boiler
tube leaks

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 D-metering: Conventional
NDT TECHNIQUES
 Extensive Dye penetrate test
 Liquid Dye Penetrate Test is the simplest NDT method to identify
flaws & cracks which are open to surface in boiler tubes and
attachments joints.
 Oxide scale measurement:
 Oxide scale formation inside the tubes of RH and final super heaters
where steam touches 540 deg. C is a temperature phenomenon.
 Liner relationship exists between the thickness of oxide scale and
temp & time. Thickness measurement reveals the temperature which
the tube had been exposed during the operation.
 knowing the temp, the remaining life of the tube using LMP (Larson
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Modern techniques for
flaw detection

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 Remote Field Electromagnetic Technique (RFET) can be used to detect, ID or OD flaws on
RFET
the hot side half of and water
the boiler LFET--MAGNETIC
wall tubes. TECHNIQUE
 No surface preparation is needed in this technique more than high pressure water
cleaning.
 It uses a low frequency signal which diffuses through the tube wall twice before being
detected by the receiver. Anomalies at any location along the energy transmission path
cause change to both the amplitude and phase of the signal, thereby enabling the
detection of defects

 Low Frequency Electromagnetic Technique (LFET) is used for tube scanning

 120 deg of tube circumference can be scanned and can be used for water wall tubes form
inside furnace. OD scanning of super header & Reheater and even economiser can also be
done using this technique.
 The technique operates by injecting a low frequency magnetic field into the plate and
using scanner-mounted pickup coils to detect the induced AC magnetic field in the plate
material. In the presence of wall loss and pitting, a measurable distortion is introduced to
the induced field that can be detected using the pickup coils on the scanner 35
 The TOFD (Time of Flight Diffraction)
technique is ultrasonicTime of Flight
inspection Diffraction
method
for detection of flaws in thick wall
components like headers & pipe joints.
 In TOFD technique transmitter & receiver
are placed on equal distances of weld joint
and are focused at the joint. The
transmitter sends compression waves into
the material towards receiver, where
thickness is more than 6mm & dia 80 mm. 36

 Verify the cracks & lack of fusion which are

not detectable with radiography.

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 CAVT TESTING.
CFD Modeling
 The purpose of CAVT and CAVT
(Cold Air Velocity testing
Test)
is to predict the flow profile of flue gas flow
by manually measuring the velocity of cold
air inside the boiler at pre defined locations
 CFD Modeling
 THERMOGRAPHY OF WATER WALL TUBES
 Water walls of furnace can be checked by
THERMOGRAPHY for any suspected
chocking/blockage of tube below the goose
neck area after overhauling of boiler.

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CFD Modeling

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 ROBOTIC INSPECTION USING MAGNETIC FLUX.
Advance Inspection techniques
 This technique can be used to find out thickness loss in water
wall tubing and other areas.
 BOROSCOPIC INSPECTION
 The internal surface of header which is inaccessible can be
inspected by Boroscope.
 This technique is called Fibroscopy. Headers exposed to
temperature cycling may experience internal cracking due to
thermal fatigue. Mostly this initiates and is most severe in the
ligaments between the adjacent tube stub bore holes.
 This technique is useful to examine the internal scaling.
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a. TEMPERATURE EXCURSION MONITORING.
Monitoring of temp excursion of PI SH & RH area and trending
Monitoring Techniques
•FIVE CORE CHEMICAL PARAMETERS (pH,Na,DO,NH3&PO4)
Operation Engineers & Chemists are required to monitor 5 core chemical parameters shift wise
daily. These are water & steam pH. Sodium in saturated Steam, Dissolved oxygen in dearator &
condenser, ammonia in water and phosphate in drum.
•DISSOLVED OXYGEN IN CONDENSER/DEARATOR.
Level of dissolved oxygen in dearator & condenser is to be regularly checked and actions are
to be taken to bring down within limits. Reducing Oxygen level in condensate water reduces
corrosive action. It has been experienced that attachment failures & weld joint defect failures
are reduced by maintaining low DO.
•ASLD INSTALLATION(Acoustic Steam Leak Detection )
In order to have early detection of BTL and stoppage of unit at early stage to reduce
secondary
damages particularly in RH, Pl SH & div SH area,
It has been experienced that in the units where ASLD is not installed secondary damages
causes heavy loss of generation due increased time of repair.
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 The lifetime module monitoring
calculates the remining life of
the components in the boiler.
 This depends upon how
stressful the life of equipment
has been so far in terms of
temperature and pressure
which effect fatigue and creep.

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Operation and Maintenance guidelines for
arresting Boiler Tube leaks

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 Actions
 During to be of
overhauling taken
Steamto prevent
Generator, & control
Internal WashingBoiler Tube
of 1st and Failures
2nd pass should be
carried out so that proper scanning of tubes can be carried out.
 Intensive 'D' metering of boiler tubes at pre-determined locations to be carried out &
comparison w.r.t. to last overhaul should be done, especially in wear prone areas.
 The limit of 20% reduction in thickness due to fly ash erosion must be adhered to, for
replacement of worn out portion of boiler tubes.
 DPT of attachment welds should be carried out, especially in Penthouse.
 100% radiography of weld its during overhaul & also during tube failure repair is to be
carried out.
 Platen S/H, R/H & Final super heater Coils must be checked for overheating during
overhauling. During operation of units, the metal temperature excursions in above
area should be avoided and monitored by Operation Department and should be
discussed in daily Planning meeting.
• For determining the fire side corrosion and internal corrosion of furnace tubes, samples
from each corner of furnace must be sent to R&D in each unit overhaul.
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 To avoid failures of DMW joints, DPT of all DMW joints must be carried
Guide lines to control tube
out in each overhaul. At random radiography (5%) of DMW joints should
leaks
be carried out.

 To reduce secondary damages due to tube failure, Operation staff is

required to check for any steam leak sound through peep holes at least
once in a shift. Also, in case of increase in DM make-up and furnace draft
fluctuation, boiler furnace / 2nd pass should be checked.

 Lowering of extreme LHS & RHS Eco. Coils in economizer hopper for
thorough inspection of coils, As erosion on RHS at NCPS (Th) is more than
LHS,3 pairs of extreme RHS coil and 2 pairs of LHS coils should be lowered
down & worn out tubes to be replaced.
 Inspection of Steam cooled side walls after lowering down of Eco. Coils
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 Inspection of LTSH coils by lifting up the extreme LHS/RHS coils and
Guide lines to
replacement control tube
of worn-out portion of tubes.
leaks
 Inspection of eco. hanger tubes for fly ash erosion and replacement of
worn-out portion of tubes

 Inspection of extended Steam Cooled Wall (LHS/RHS) in arch area for

fly ash erosion and replacement of worn out portion of tubes.

 Second pass manhole bends especially on RHS are usually found worn
out in various overhauls and should be replaced if required.
 Re-heater & Platen S/H Steam cooled spacer tube bends on both sides
are normally found eroded & should be replaced if required in each
overhaul..

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 Inspection of wall blower area of furnace for steam erosion and
Guide lines to control tube
leaks
replacement of worn out portion of tubes.
 Burner corner panel tubes are found eroded due to fly ash
carryover in secondary air. These tubes must be replaced in capital
overhaul.
 Intensive shielding should be done in following wear prone areas :
• Water wall screen tubes-2 rows on extreme ends.
• LTSH exit tube 900 bends
• LTSH terminal tubes near SHH-9
• Eco. Hanger tubes -5 rows extreme LHS & RHS.
• LTSH screen tubes -5 rows extreme LHS & RHS
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Best practices in coal fired
power stations to arrest
Boiler tube leaks

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1. Controlling the tube metal temps within design value by
Measures to control Boiler tube leaks
sacrificing the steam temperatures (process)

2. Ensuring the soot blower home position (process)

3. Maintaining WB(wind box) to furnace DP as per design

(process)
4. Periodic checking of SADC(secondary air damper control)
position, which is main constitute in metal excursions (process)

5. Periodic LRSB operation to avoiding over heating(process)

6. Wall blowers pressure setting once in every six months

(process)
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1. Formation of performance optimization group, which guides the
Measures to control Boiler tube leaks
measures to be taken to BTL. Group comprises of operation,
O&E, BMD, C&I, chemistry and CHP (O&E)

2. Providing protection shields over top banks of eco and LTSH

area, Vertical hanging tubes of rear walls (BMD)
3. Changing of coal burner in every overhaul, which plays key role
in combustion (BMD)

4. Max percentage tube thickness survey in every overhaul (BMD,

FQA)
5. Maintaining chemistry parameters of feed, condensate and
steam and very close monitoring of parameters to avoid water
corrosion (effect of sea water) (CHEM) 51
 Maintain C&I loops are very accurate, especially drum level controller and
Measures to control Boiler tube leaks
metal temp (C&I)

• Periodic checking of mill fineness to avoid secondary combustion (O&E)

• changing of high-grade metals in reheater zone with ss and t91 materials

(BMD)
• Maintaining bottom ash hopper level around 450mm down to normal value to
avoid splashing of sea water on bottom side of waterwalls (AHP, BMD)
• Controlling the excess air to avoid high velocity and high FG exit temp
(process)
• During commission state, flushing and chemical cleanings plays important role
to clear any blockages in the circuit. otherwise, these blockages will lead to
tube failure(overheating) (COMNG)

• Providing thermal drain in soot blower steam line (C&I)

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Approach methodology to
prevent Boiler Tube leaks

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Approach for the control of BTL because
of Fly ash erosion

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