Development of A New Class of Fe-3Cr-W(V)Ferritic Steels for Industrial Process Applications
- Nooter Corp.
The project, 'Development of a New Class of Fe-Cr-W(V) Ferritic Steels for Industrial Process Applications', was a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Nooter Corporation. This project dealt with improving the materials performance and fabrication for the hydrotreating reactor vessels, heat recovery systems, and other components for the petroleum and chemical industries. The petroleum and chemical industries use reactor vessels that can approach the ship weights of approximately 300 tons with vessel wall thicknesses of 3 to 8 in. These vessels are typically fabricated from Fe-Cr-Mo steels with chromium ranging from 1.25 to 12% and molybdenum from 1 to 2%. Steels in this composition have great advantages of high thermal conductivity, low thermal expansion, low cost, and properties obtainable by heat treatment. With all of the advantages of Fe-Cr-Mo steels, several issues are faced in design and fabrication of vessels and related components. These issues include the following: (1) low strength properties of current alloys require thicker sections; (2) increased thickness causes heat-treatment issues related to nonuniformity across the thickness and thus not achieving the optimum properties; (3) fracture toughness (ductile-to-brittle transition ) is a critical safety issue for these vessels, and it is affected in thick sections due to nonuniformity of microstructure; (4) PWHT needed after welding and makes fabrication more time-consuming with increased cost; and (5) PWHT needed after welding also limits any modifications of the large vessels in service. The goal of this project was to reduce the weight of large-pressure vessel components (ranging from 100 to 300 tons) by approximately 25% and reduce fabrication cost and improve in-service modification feasibility through development of Fe-3Cr-W(V) steels with combination of nearly a 50% higher strength, a lower DBTT and a higher upper-shelf energy, ease of heat treating, and a strong potential for not requiring PWHT.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC); USDOE Office of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (AB)
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 939630
- Report Number(s):
- ORNL02-0630; TRN: US200823%%467
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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