Engineering Failure Analysis 17 (2010) 14901494

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Engineering Failure Analysis

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/engfailanal

Short communication

Root cause failure analysis of a division wall superheater tube

of a coal-red power station
M.M. Rahman a,*, J. Purbolaksono a, J. Ahmad b
a
b

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Km 7 Jalan Kajang-Puchong, Kajang 43009, Selangor, Malaysia
Kapar Energy Ventures Sdn Bhd, Jalan Tok Muda, Kapar 42200, Malaysia

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 27 January 2010
Received in revised form 3 May 2010
Accepted 23 May 2010
Available online 26 May 2010
Keywords:
Superheater tube
Coal-red boiler
Localized overheating
Visual inspection
Metallurgical analysis

1. Introduction
Coal-red boiler tubes are generally exposed to high internal pressure and high temperature of steam and ue gas. The
common cause of any metallurgical failure of a superheater tube is due to the tube metal temperature higher than that as
originally specied [1]. Tube metal temperature may increase gradually over many years due to the growing oxide scales
inside tube or elevate rapidly caused by loss of internal steam or water-coolant ow. Internal pressurized tubes are critical
components in water-tube boiler and steam superheater elements. Tubes in such application are vulnerable to high temperature upset condition, undergoing severe creep deformation or even nal rupture. Therefore, boiler tubes in power plants
have nite life because of prolonged exposure to high temperature, stress, aggressive environment, corrosive degradation,
etc. However, uses of suitable boiler tube material in thermal power plants are required to ensure that the materials are
safely used under higher temperatures and pressures for a long period of operation [2]. Many works concerning the failure
problems in water-tube boiler have been reported.
The North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) reported that the coal-red boilers are among the highest economic risk components in any other power plant. By far, the greatest number of forced outages in all types of boiler is caused
by failures [3]. Elimination of boiler tube failure could save the electric power industry about $5 billion a year [4]. Metallurgists from French, Inc. [1] published data of the top 10 causes of failures where creep (long-term overheating) is 23.4%, followed by fatigue (13.9%) (thermal 8.6%, corrosion 5.3%), ash corrosion (12.0%), hydrogen damage (10.6%), weld failures
(9.0%), high temperature (short-term overheating) (8.8%), erosion (6.5%), oxygen pitting (5.6%), caustic attack (3.5%) and
stress corrosion cracking (2.6%). In general, 30% of all tube failures in boilers and reformers are caused by creep [57].

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +60 3 89217269; fax: +60 3 89212116.

E-mail address: mujibur@uniten.edu.my (M.M. Rahman).
1350-6307/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.engfailanal.2010.05.005

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Ray et al. [8] conducted assessment of service exposed to boiler tube of the superheater and reheater made of 2.25 Cr-1 Mo
steels in a 120 MW boiler of a thermal power plant. The results showed that although there was degradation of ultimate tensile
strength (UTS) and stress rupture of the boiler tubes due to increasing temperature and prolonged service exposure. But at the
operating condition of 540 C and 40 MPa in pressure, all these service exposed tubes have a remaining life of more than
100,000 h, provided that there are no defects in the materials due to long-term service exposure. Husain and Habib [9] investigated the steel tubes failure in a superheater boiler at one of the Kuwait Electrical and Power plants which suffered localized
overheating. The tube was made of low alloy steel, SA 213-T 12 and it has been in operation for 109,415 h before failed. The
investigation indicated that the failure was attributed to the formation of thick scale of magnetite at the inner surface of the
tube wall. This phenomenon prevented the accessibility of heat to the tube materials and consequently localized and prolonged
overheating took place, in which the temperature raised up to 700 C in a frequent manner for long period of time. The properties of the tube materials changed from its original design values due to the effect of the localized and prolonged overheating.
Baoyou et al. [10], analyzed a boiler tube rupture through chemical analysis, scanning electron microscope, and energy
dispersion spectroscopy. The results showed that the tube burst due to overheating and excess temperature caused by
obstruction of steam ow associated with the bubble clusters on the surface of local regions. Khajavi et al. [11] conducted
investigation through visual examination, optical microscope, scanning electron microscope (SEM), and X-ray diffraction
(XRD), to reveal the root causes of the boiler tube failure due to water-side corrosion problems. The results showed that corrosion failures are caused by a combination of ineffective control of water chemistry, deciencies in design and material
selection and operational problems such as inadequate water-side circulation which led to the formation of deposits in localized zones along a water line.
Srikanth et al. [12] conducted failure analysis of several evaporator tubes during commissioning and trial run of a waste
heat recovery boiler using visual inspection, chemical analysis, X-ray radiography, fractography, microscopic examination at
various locations, mechanical properties measurement and analysis using SEM. The results showed that the failure of the
evaporator tubes at the bent tubes have been initiated by lamellar tearing because of inherent defects in the material, improper design of welding, and the absence of stress relieving treatment after the cold bending and welding operations.
Chattoraj et al. [13] have investigated the corrosive degradation and failures of vertical furnace wall tubes of a co-generation boiler. The investigations included chemical analysis of the corrosion deposit and microstructure observations. The results showed that the most probable degradation mechanism is acid corrosion and under deposit corrosion due to the
presence of deposits, leading to localized heating (due to scale formation), and eventual rupture assisted by overheating
and decarburization.
Recently, several works on the failure analysis of boiler tubes that included superheater tube, reheater tube as well as
water wall tube have been reported [1421]. The reported works are conducted either through experimentation or numerical simulation. Most of the boiler tubes reported in the previous works failed after thousands of hours in operation.
This work presents failure investigation on a division wall superheater tube of Boiler Unit 4 at Sultan Shalahuddin Abdul Aziz
Shah Power Station by visual inspections, metallurgical examination and temperature estimation using the empirical formula.
The ndings obtained from the investigation are discussed to deduce the failure mechanisms and the root cause of the failure.

2. Boiler operational backgrounds

Boiler unit number 4 at Sultan Shalahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Power Station was noticed to have operated normally until
ring of Bontang coal. It is a medium standard coal that was imported from East Kalimantan, Indonesia. The coal started to be

Fig. 1. Massive clinkers covering superheater region.

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Fig. 2. The as-received failed tube: (a and b) longitudinal view and (c and d) cross sectional view.

used on June 2007, and few weeks later a tube rupture was occurred at a division wall superheater region. It was reported
that the failed tube had only operated at around 394 h with the average steam pressure of 122.5 bar (12.25 MPa). The failed
superheater tube material is Chrome Molybdenum alloy steel (SA213-T 22). Based on site condition of the failure, Bontang
coal had signicantly caused formation of heavy slag and clinker as for example depicted in Fig. 1.
3. Visual inspections
Generally, Bontang clinkers have covered the empty spaces in the division wall superheater area. However, there were
sporadic spots which were not covered or lightly covered by clinker in the division wall superheater region. The failed tube
was taken from the plant for further inspection. The as-received failed tube with a total length of 190 mm as shown in Fig. 2
was inspected visually and dimensions of the cross section were measured by verniar caliper. The measurements showed
that outer diameter and thickness of the failed tube were 45 mm and 6.2 mm, respectively. Measurement of the scale thickness inside tube was carried out through a metallographic sectioning and observed by an illuminated microscope. It was
found that the thickness was about 0.197 mm (7.74  103 in.).
Evidence of localized coal-ash corrosion was seen at the rupture region of the failed tube sample (Fig. 2a and b). The cross
section of the sample was found in proper round shape (Fig. 2c and d) indicating that there were no deformations that transformed the tube metal to oval shape.

Fig. 3. Metal structure of SA213-T 22 showing complete stage of spheroidization.

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Table 1
The maximum allowable stress for different operating temperature of seamless tube SA213-T 22 [23].
Temperature (C)

Max. allowable stress (MPa)

537.78
565.56
593.33
621.11
648.89

55.16
39.30
26.20
16.55
9.65

4. Metallurgical examination
The metal structures at the rupture region of the as-received tube were examined by the metallurgical microscope for
micro-structural assessment. It can be seen from Fig. 3 that the metal structure was found to have signicant evidences
of the complete stage of spheroidization where the carbide particles have dispersed uniformly throughout the microstructure. It indicates the expected changes in morphology from a normalized structure of ferrite and pearlite as normally exhibited by the virgin tube metal.
5. Operating temperature and hoop stress
An empirical formula correlating scale thickness and Larson-Miller parameter as reported by Rehn et al. [22] is utilized to
estimate the operating temperature as:


log


X
0:00022 P  7:25
0:0254

where X is scale thickness in mm and P is the Larson-Miller parameter. In the Larson-Miller method, time and temperature
are related by the following equation:



9
T 492 C log t
5

where T is the temperature in degree Celsius; t is the service time in h; C is a constant equal to 20.
Based on the measured scale thickness of 0.197 mm and the tube operating hours of 394 h, thus the operating temperature at the time of failure may be estimated at around 636 C. It is clear that the operating temperature is higher than the
design operating temperature of 540 C.
The estimated hoop stress developed in the tube may be determined as:

rh p

r 2h
h

where p is operational internal pressure; r and h are inner radius and wall thickness of the tube, respectively. Based on the
average operating steam pressure of 12.25 MPa and the geometry of the tube, hence the operating hoop stress can be calculated equal to 38.33 MPa. According to Section 2, Part D of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code [23], the maximum
allowable stress for different operating temperature of seamless tube SA213-T 22 may be tabulated as shown in Table 1. It
can be referred to Table 1 that the operating hoop stress with regard to the operating temperature at the time of failure is
much higher than that as specied in ASME Code [23].
6. Discussion
Based on the information for the boiler operational backgrounds and on site inspection, it is obvious that the ring of Bontang coal which had low ash fusion temperature had caused massive heavy clinker formation, leading to obstruction of the
ue gas ow path in superheater tube bank. The small remaining portion of areas not covered by clinker around the failed
superheater tube was then exposed to higher ue gas temperature, causing the higher operating metal temperature. In this
severe condition, coal-ash corrosion is expected to occur on metals whose surface temperatures are in the range of
566732 C [24]. When fuel supply or fuel type is changed, it will result in production of an aggressive ash. As consequence,
the molten ash would be carried over from the furnace to the tube superheater bank, and the high velocity gas ow would
result in a higher metal temperature above the safe operating limit and subsequently caused the tube to fail by overheating.
Recently, the phenomenon of a boiler tube exposed to higher temperature and higher velocity of ue gas was also described
numerically by Purbolaksono et al. [25,26].
Higher temperature operation is also conrmed by the nding from the metallurgical examination on the failed tube,
showing a complete spheroidization. If the pearlite has spheroidized, then the rupture has almost certainly occurred at higher temperature operation above 600 C [6]. Spheroidization in ferritic tube structures would usually commence as the carbon

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tube metal temperature is around 600 C. The estimated operating temperature based on the measured scale thickness utilizing the empirical formula [22] also showed a higher temperature operation. At this particular temperature, the operating
hoop stress becomes much higher than that as specied in ASME Code [23].
7. Conclusions
Failure analysis on the failed division wall superheater tube of a boiler unit through visual inspections, metallurgical
examinations and estimation of the operating temperature utilizing an empirical formula were presented. It was found that
the failed SA213-T 22 tube was caused by localized overheating due to the formation of clinker because of the burning of low
quality coal. In addition, the molten ash had worsened the situation by synergically causing coal-ash corrosion.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express the best gratitude to Kapar Energy Ventures Sdn Bhd Malaysia for permission of utilizing all the facilities and resources during this study.
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