PREDICTION OF OXIDE SCALE EXFOLIATION IN STEAM TUBES
- ORNL
Numerical simulation results are presented for the prediction of the likelihood of oxide scale exfoliation from superheater tubes. The scenarios considered involved alloys T22, TP347H, and TP347HFG subjected to a simplified operating cycle in a power plant generating supercritical steam. The states of stress and strain of the oxides grown in steam were based solely on modeling the various phenomena experienced by superheater tubes during boiler operation, current understanding of the oxidation behavior of each alloy in steam, and consideration of operating parameters such as heat flux, tube dimensions, and boiler duty cycle. Interpretation of the evolution of strain in these scales, and the approach to conditions where scale failure (hence exfoliation) is expected, makes use of the type of Exfoliation Diagrams that incorporate various cracking and exfoliation criteria appropriate for the system considered. In these diagrams, the strain accumulation with time in an oxide is represented by a strain trajectory derived from the net strain resulting from oxide growth, differences in coefficients of thermal expansion among the components, and relaxation due to creep. It was found that an oxide growing on a tube subjected to routine boiler load cycling conditions attained relatively low values of net strain, indicating that oxide failure would not be expected to occur during normal boiler operation. However, during a boiler shut-down event, strains sufficient to exceed the scale failure criteria were developed after times reasonably in accord with plant experience, with the scales on the ferritic steel failing in tension, and those on the austenitic steels in compression. The results presented illustrate that using this approach to track the state of strain in the oxide scale through all phases of boiler operation, including transitions from full-to-low load and shut-down events, offers the possibility of identifying the phase(s) of boiler operation during which oxide failure is most likely to occur.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Work for Others (WFO)
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 983828
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Boiler Tube and HRSG Tube Failures and Inspections International Conference, Baltimore, MD, USA, 20100419, 20100419
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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