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The purpose of this paper is to analyze the failure of the left waterwall tube of a boiler furnace in the steam power plant which led to cracks and rupture. Macro visual observation showed the rupture like a fish mouth with slag adhering at the outer surface of the tube. Magnetite as a protective layer was peeled off. Changes in the thickness were analyzed through dimensional measurement. In this research, an analysis to find the cause and determine the fracture mechanism is presented.

A physical analysis was performed through visual observation of changes in the thickness. Micro visual testing with a metallography test provided the data required to measure the change of grain size. The mechanical analysis used Von Mises criteria and API 530 standard and provided the pressure limits data.

The thickness of the tube decreased at the peak curvature of the tube. The smallest thickness at the peak curvature of the tube was 0.108 inches. The working pressure was 40.74 percent from permit limits with Von Mises calculations. The percentage of pressure calculated by the API standard was 48.42 percent from permit limits. Larger crystal grains occurred only in the nearby area of the oxide layer and at the end of the crack tip. It indicated that part of the inner surface had a relatively high temperature and plastic deformation occurred because of the pressure from inside the tube. Combining all these factors ruptured the tube at this location because the cross-section could not hold up the pressure.

The analysis of this discussion focuses on the combined effect of those factors causing the ability to decrease stress being received. It restricts the tube from holding up the stress and furthermore it will generate fractures.

The aim of this paper is to study the effect of the parametric sensitivity of all critical parameters of feed water and other operating variables on the corrosion rate and oxide scale deposition on economizer tubes of a typical coal-fired 250-MW boiler.

In this paper, a multilayer perceptron-based artificial neural network (ANN) model has been developed to envisage the corrosion rate and oxide scale deposition rate in economizer tubes of a coal-fired boiler. The neural network architecture has been optimized using an efficient gradient-based network optimization algorithm to minimize the training and testing errors rapidly during simulation runs.

The parametric sensitivity of all critical parameters of feed water and other operating variables on the corrosion rate and oxide scale deposition activities has been investigated. It has been observed that dissolved oxygen, dissolved copper content, residual hydrazine content and pH of the feed water have a relatively predominant influence on the corrosion rate, whereas dissolved iron content, silica content, pH and temperature of the feed water have a moderately major influence on oxide scale deposition phenomenon. There has been very good agreement between ANN model predictions and the measured values of corrosion rate and oxide scale deposition rate substantiated by the regression fit between these values.

This paper details the development of an alternative model to accurately predict corrosion rate and deposition rate on the inner surface of economizer tubes of a boiler over first principle-based kinetic model.

The design and retrofit of the heat exchangers in a boiler should take into account the processes occurring on the side of combustion and steam. For this reason, this study aims to couple a one-dimensional hydrodynamic model of steam with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of flue gas.

Radiant/semi-radiant platen heat exchangers are simplified as plane surfaces for CFD, while convective heat exchangers are introduced into the CFD simulation as energy/momentum absorption sources.

Numerical simulation is performed for a 1,000 MWe coal-fired ultra-supercritical boiler. The calculation results are validated by the thermodynamic design data. Tube outside surface temperature, as well as ash deposit temperature distributions, are obtained.

Complex tube arrangements can be completed with the aid of AutoCAD, and therefore, the simulation could offer detailed information of heat exchangers. In a word, a more reliable modeling of the whole steam generation process is achieved.

Four thermal spray coatings were subjected to high temperature corrosive environments of oil‐fired boiler conditions to compare their corrosion protection under simulated conditions. The coatings included FeCrAl, Tafaloy 45CT, which were arc‐sprayed, 50Ni‐50Cr and Cr₃C₂‐NiCr, which were coated by high velocity oxy fuel spray (HVOF) method.

The coating substrates used were SA213TP 347H, SA213 T11 and SA213 T22 alloys that are widely used as boiler tube materials. Specimens were covered with a synthetic ash mixture of 70 per cent V₂O₅‐20 per cent Na₂SO₄‐10 per cent NaCl and exposed to 550°C and 650^oC°for 192 h (6 cycles). After high temperature corrosion tests, weight change curves were obtained; specimens were examined by metallographical techniques, scanning electron microscopy and EDX analyses.

Salt deposits attacked steels and coatings during the exposure. The corrosion rates were strongly affected by the composition of the scale formed adjacent to the steels and coatings surfaces. Austenitic steel was only bare material that experienced uniform corrosion in the tests. Ferritic steels were primarily attacked by grain boundary corrosion. Thermally sprayed coatings were mainly attached through oxides and voids at splat boundaries. FeCrAl and 50Ni‐50Cr were prone to spalling. Tafaloy 45CT is also a promising method for producing homogenous coatings. Cr₃C₂‐NiCr 80/20 coating remained mostly intact.

This paper provides useful information about corrosion behaviours of four coatings used for common boiler tubes. It shows with a practical explanation how the bare material and coatings react in corrosion simulated environments.

Dutch power companies recently have become aware of a hazard due to the presence of radioactive ²¹⁰Pb in their boilers. In an investigation conducted by KEMA in The Netherlands it was discovered that ²¹⁰Pb isotope accumulates within fire‐side deposit layers that form on membrane waterwall tubes. Because the measured levels of total radioactivity exceeded the governmental regulation limit of 100 Bq/g, refurbishment activities in the boiler are subject to governmental authorization and must be conducted under the supervision of authorised radiation protection officers. The ²¹⁰Pb material originates from decay of ²³⁸U, which is present in small amounts in coal. During combustion of the coal, heavy metals such as Pb evaporate and are present in the flue gas in the form of Pb, PbCl, PbCl₂, PbS, PbS₂ or PbSO₄, dependent on the gas environment and temperature. These volatile products subsequently will condense at lower temperatures on the waterwall tubes in the boiler.

Eddy current testing (ECT) is widely used in the non-destructive evaluation of materials in different industries. In this paper, ECT has been used to detect the presence of cracks in boiler tubes. The most important feature in ECT is the way in which the eddy currents are induced and detected in the sample. The authors have tried to design a new sensor that is effective in detecting cracks in boiler tubes. The purpose of this paper is to study the response of this sensor to cracks of different depths and dimensions.

The designed eddy current sensor is equipped with an exciting and a sensing coil. An alternating current is passed through the exciting coil thus producing eddy currents. The sensing coil scans the outer surface of the boiler tube and looks for abrupt changes in output signals resulting from sharp discontinuities in structure.

The sensor designed can detect the position of the crack. The presence of crack is indicated by a reduction in the induced voltage in the sensing coil. The sensor is also used for characterisation of the cracks, and can distinguish between cracks of varying shape, size and depth. The sensitivity of the sensing coil to cracks is dependent on operating conditions, such as frequency and voltage of the excitation signal.

The new sensor designed is used to detect defects in boiler tubes in power plants. However, the operating conditions, such as excitation frequency and amplitude will vary with composition of the boiler tubes.

The new eddy current sensor designed for crack detection is an E-shaped core coil. The shape of the coil provides a high permeability path to the magnetic field lines, thus reducing the loss of the field produced. This helps in improving the sensitivity of the coil, and makes the detection system effective in detecting hairline cracks.

This paper is concerned with boilers and feed systems in power stations of relatively modern design—in general, those commissioned since 1945. The author considers a number of inter‐related factors, commonly accepted as being influential in corrosion, in relation to boiler‐water and feed‐water control. These factors are: boiler design, insoluble boiler deposits, chemical conditions of boiler water and feed water, low‐load and off‐load water conditions and hide‐out.

The heat transfer within a heat exchanger is highly influenced by geometry of the components especially those with hollow structures like tubes. This paper aims to intend toward the study of efficient and optimized heat transfer in the bends of superheater tubes, with different curvature ratio at constant Reynolds Number.

The effect of changing curvature ratio on enthalpy of the fluid passing through the superheater tubes for multi-pass system has been studied with the aid of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) using ANSYS 14.0. Initially a superheater tube with two pass system has been examined with different curvature ratios of 1.425, 1.56, 1.71, 1.85 and 1.99. An industry specified curvature ratio of 1.71 with two pass is investigated, and a comparative assessment has been carried out. This is intended toward obtaining an optimized radius of curvature of the bend for enhancement of heat transfer.

The results obtained from software simulation revealed that the curvature ratio of 1.85 provides maximum heat transfer to the fluid flowing through the tube with two pass. This result has been found to be consistent with higher number of passes as well. The effect of secondary flow in bends of curvature has also been illustrated in the present work.

The study of heat transfer in thermodynamic systems is a never-ending process and has to be continued for the upliftment of power plant performances. This study has been conducted on steady flow behavior of the fluid which may be upgraded by carrying out the same in transient mode. The impact of different curvature ratios on some important parameters such as heat transfer coefficients will certainly upgrade the value of research.

This computational study provided comprehensive information on fluid flow behavior and its effect on heat transfer in bends of curvature of superheater tubes inside the boiler. It also provides information on optimized bend of curvature for efficient heat transfer process.

Combustion modifications to minimize NO_X emissions have magnified the importance of waterwall corrosion in coal‐fired boilers. The physics and chemistry controlling corrosion processes can be highly non‐linear and are challenging to describe in terms of their likely overall combustion behavior. This paper describes the application of a multi‐point, real time corrosion surveillance system to a large boiler firing high sulfur coal. This technology, incorporating electrochemical sensing and wireless signal transmission, enables combustion engineers and plant operating personnel to make informed decisions regarding the quantitative relationships between operating conditions, NO_X emissions, and any resultant extent/magnitude of waterwall corrosion.

In Indian thermal power plants, the main cause of boiler tube failure is the presence of molten sulphates and vanadates, which deteriorate the tube material at high temperatures. To combat the hot corrosion failure of metals, thermal spray technology is adopted. This study aims to investigate and study the effect of hot corrosion behaviour of carbon nanotube (CNT)-reinforced ZrO₂-Y₂O₃ composite coatings on T-91 boiler tube steel in a molten salt environment at 900 °C for 50 cycles.

A plasma spray technique was used for development of the coatings. The samples were exposed to hot corrosion in a silicon tube furnace at 900 °C for 50 cycles. After testing, the test coupons were analysed by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive spectroscopy and cross-sectional analysis techniques to aid understanding the kinetics of the corrosion reaction.

CNT-based reinforced coatings showed lower weight gain along with the formation of protective oxide scales during the experimentation. Improvement in protection against hot corrosion was observed with increase in CNT content in the coating matrix.

It is pertinent to mention here that the high temperature behaviour of CNT-reinforced ZrO₂-Y₂O₃ composite on T-91 steel at 900°C temperature in molten salt environment has never been studied. Thus, the present research was conducted to provide useful results for the application of CNT-reinforced composite coatings at elevated temperature.