BOILER TUBE LEAKAGE

Failure data
Tube failures occur in all parts of the boiler including economisers, waterwalls, re-heaters and super-heaters.
A distribution (in %) of tube failure in the different boiler parts is given
below:
Waterwall tubing:
40%
Superheater tubing
30%
Reheater tubing:
15%
Economiser tubing:
10%
Cyclone burner tubing:
5%
There are twenty two (22) reasons for tube failures in the boiler.
Knowledge, Inspection, monitoring and good operating and maintenance
practice may reduce tube failures and increase the service life. There are
six major groups into which all tube failures can be categories and these
six groups further divided in to primary types. All high pressure boilers
commissioned and put into operation go through a stabilisation period,
during which some serious problems occur, including tube failures.
Classification of tube failures

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4
5
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7
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Tube failures are classified as in-service failures in boilers. The six major
causes are:
Stress rupture
Fatigue
Water side corrosion
Erosion
Fire side corrosion (Called also as High temperature Corrosion)
Lack of quality control.
These lead to twenty-two primary causes that can cause a tube failure in a
high pressure boiler:
Short term overheating failure
Long term overheating failure (called also as creep failures)
Dissimilar metal weld failure
Fatigue caused by vibration
Thermal fatigue due to temperature fluctuation
Corrosion fatigue failures
Caustic corrosion inside the tube
Hydrogen damage in water wall internal surface
Tube internal pitting
Fly ash erosion
Falling slag erosion
Soot blower erosion
Coal particle erosion
Low temperature flue gas corrosion
Fire side water wall corrosion
Coal ash corrosion
Oil ash corrosion
Damage during maintenance cleaning

26 Chemical excursion damage

27 Material defect and weld defects
28
29 Typical Problems/Damages, Inspection Technique and Recommended
Actions
1. Corrosion
Corrosion in liquid metals is applicable to metals and alloys processing,
metals production, liquid metal coolants in nuclear and solar power
generation, other nuclear breeding applications, heat sinks in automotive
and aircraft valves, and brazing operations. Corrosion damage to
containment materials is usually the concern. Again, practical design and
performance data are extremely limited. In materials selection several
possible corrosion mechanisms need to be considered.
Corrosion reactions can occur by a simple dissolution mechanism, whereby
the containment material dissolves in the melt without any impurity
effects. Material dissolved in a hot zone may be re-deposited in a colder
area, possibly compounding the corrosion problem by additional plugging
and blockages where deposition has taken place.
2. Flow Assisted Corrosion (FAC) or Erosion-Corrosion
Flow-assisted corrosion is oxide layer on a metal surface dissolves in fast
flowing fluid. Underlying metal get corrodes to re-create the oxide, and
thus the metal loss continuously.
Erosion corrosion is the cumulative damage induced by electrochemical
corrosion reactions and mechanical effects from relative motion between
the electrolyte and the corroding surface.
Erosion corrosion is defined as accelerated degradation in the presence of
this relative motion. The motion is usually one of high velocity, with
mechanical wear and abrasion effects. Grooves, gullies, rounded edges,
and waves on the surface usually indicating directionality characterize this
form of damage. Erosion corrosion is found in systems such as piping
(especially bends, elbows, and joints), valves, pumps, nozzles, heat
exchangers, turbine blades, baffles, and mills. Impingement and cavitation
are special forms of erosion corrosion.
30 2.1
Inspection techniques / guidelines
1. For FAC, internal visual inspection mostly we using bore scope or video
probe
2. For quantification of FAC using UT thickness measurements, especially
on bends.
2.2

Remedial Actions

Materials selection plays an important role in minimizing erosion corrosion

damage. Caution is in order when predicting erosion corrosion behavior on
the basis of hardness. High hardness in a material does not necessarily
guarantee a high degree of resistance to erosion corrosion.

Design features are also particularly important. It is generally desirable to

reduce the fluid velocity and promote laminar flow; increased pipe
diameters are useful in this context. Rough surfaces are generally
undesirable. Designs creating turbulence, flow restrictions, and
obstructions are undesirable. Abrupt changes in flow direction should be
avoided. Tank inlet pipes should be directed away from the tank walls and
toward the center. Welded and flanged pipe sections should always be
carefully aligned. Impingement plates of baffles designed to bear the brunt
of the damage should be easily replaceable.
The thickness of vulnerable areas should be increased. Replaceable
ferrules, with a tapered end, can be inserted into the inlet side of heat
exchanger tubes to prevent damage to the actual tubes.
Cathodic protection and the application of protective coatings may also
reduce the rate of attack.
3. Acid dew point corrosion
The acid dew point of a flue gas is the temperature at a given pressure at
which any gaseous acid in the flue gas will initiate to concentrate into
liquid acid.
In many industrial combustion processes, the flue gas is cooled by the
recovery of heat from the hot flue gases before they are produce to the
environment from the last stage flue has stack. It is very important not to
cool the flue gas below its acid dew point because the resulting liquid acid
strong from the flue gas can cause Corrosion problems for the equipment
used in caring, cooling and emitting the flue gas.
3.1

Inspection techniques / guidelines

1. External visual inspection to detect sulphuric acid attack.

2. Annual visual inspection of finned tubes for deposits and fouling.
Ultrasonic thickness measurements may be used (after removal of fins on
straights) to determine the extent of tube thinning due to acid dew point
corrosion.
3.2
Remedial Actions
1. To prevent acid dew point corrosion, make sure that the operating
temperature of the tubes is higher than the dew point. Upgrading to a
higher alloyed material should be considered for both the fins and tube,
using a stainless steel if required.
2. To reduce the possibility of acid dew point corrosion, switch to a fuel
with lesser sulphur content.
31 4. Pitting
Pitting corrosion is a localized form of corrosion by which cavities, or
holes, are produced in the material. Pitting is considered to be more
dangerous than uniform corrosion damage because it is more difficult to
detect, predict, and design against. Corrosion products often cover the
pits. A small, narrow pit with minimal overall metal loss can lead to the
failure of an entire engineering system. Pitting corrosion, which, for
example, is almost a common denominator of all types of localized

corrosion attack, may assume different shapes, as illustrated in Fig. 2.

Pitting corrosion can produce pits with their mouth open (uncovered) or
covered with a semi permeable membrane of corrosion products. Pits can
be either hemispherical or cup-shaped.
4.1

Inspection techniques / guidelines

1. Internal visual inspection using bore scope/video probe for pitting.

2. It is also possible to use Eddy Current Testing for detecting thinned
areas due to pitting.
4.2
Remedial Actions
Material selection plays an important role in minimizing the risk of pitting
corrosion. Generally speaking, the risk of pitting corrosion is increased
under stagnant conditions, where corrosive microenvironments are
established on the surface. Drying and ventilation can prevent this
accumulation of stagnant electrolyte at the bottom of pipes, tubes, tanks,
and so forth. Agitation can also prevent the buildup of local highly
corrosive conditions. The use of cathodic protection can be considered for
pitting corrosion, but anodic protection is generally unsuitable.
5

Overheating Damage (Creep)

It is the type of creep, but at temperatures above the design temperature

and because of this, the damage is often referred to as overheating. It is
either long-term or short-term.
5.1
Long-term overheating:
Long-term overheating due to operation for long time periods at slightly
elevated temperature from design temperature.
5.2
Short-term overheating:
It is due to high heat flux during low flow at start-up or due to operation of
duct burners.
5.3

Inspection techniques / guidelines

1. To know overheating damage first we carry out visual inspection and

Ultrasonic Testing thickness check.
2. With finned tubing, the swelling or bulging associated with short-term
overheating may not be visible due to the presence of the fins. Review
damage by tube sampling.
3. Thicker oxide and wall thinning are related with long-term overheating.
Detection of damage normally requires the local removal of fins to allow
access to the tube surface, which allows ultrasonic inspection for wall
thinning and internal tube oxide measurement. Alternatively,
measurements may be made on the bare tubes close to headers.
4. Replication procedure can also be used to check for micro-structural
degradation of the material.
5. Internal blockage of tubes can be found via using video-probes, endoscopes and bore-scopes.
5.4
Remedial Action
1. It is important to recognize the causes of overheating and to introduce

modifications to the plant or its operation in order to prevent further

damage.
2. For fired HRSGs, determine if heavy duct firing has contributed to high
local temperature.
3. Any flame impingement on tubes should be reduced as much as
achievable.
4. Determine if flow blockage or flow mal-distribution has occurred by
installing temporary thermocouples at strategic points.
6. Steamside oxidation damage
Growth of thick steam side oxide layers due to long-term overheating, or
simply due to high application temperature in the case of T91. Spallation
of oxide could create a problem.
6.1
Inspection techniques / guidelines
1. To monitor the integrity of steam side oxide usually we are using borescope or video probe.
2. An indication of an oxidation problem will be noted when scale collected
in bottom headers.
6.2
Remedial Actions
The on-set of oxide exfoliation is a root for increased maintenance
consideration to tubes and other components where reliable operation
could be influenced by the build-up of spalled oxide.
7. External corrosion
It is an oxidation reaction between oxygen and the iron in the steel of high
temperature tubes. This is an important problem in units where duct firing
is used.
7.1. Inspection techniques / guidelines
1. To avoid external corrosion, visual inspection is very reliable technique.
This inspection should be carry out once in a week to minimise the
external corrosion.
2. Ultrasonic thickness measurements can also be used to monitor loss of
the weight.
7.2
Remedial Actions
To reduce external corrosion, add more corrosion-resistant materials such
as a stainless steel.
Both the high-density polyethylene and polypropylene three-layer coating
systems have low water permeation characteristics for better isolation
from the adjoining sea water.
8. Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC)
It is the cracking induced from the combined influence of tensile stress
and a corrosive medium. The impact of SCC on a material seems to fall
between dry cracking and the fatigue threshold of that material. The
required tensile stresses may be in the form of directly applied stresses or
residual stresses. Cold deformation and forming, welding, heat treatment,
machining, and grinding can introduce residual stresses.
The magnitude and importance of such stresses is often underestimated.

The residual stresses set up as a result of welding operations tend to

approach the yield strength.
Usually, most of the surface remains un-attacked, but with fine cracks
penetrating into the material. In the microstructure, these cracks can have
an inter-granular or a trans-granular morphology.
Macroscopically, SCC fractures have a brittle appearance. SCC is classified
as a catastrophic form of corrosion because the detection of such fine
cracks can be very difficult and the damage not easily predicted.
Hydrogen embrittlement is sometimes classified separately from SCC. It
refers to the embrittlement and resulting increased cracking risk due to
uptake of hydrogen into the materials structure.
8.1
Inspection techniques / guidelines
32 To confirm the general condition, Bore scope/ video probe inspection will
be good procedure.
33 Ultrasonic testing is the most reliable test in some aspects but if crack is
very tight it may not be a good and reliable method.
34 To detect micro crack, Acoustic emission monitoring is very important
technique.
35 Magnetic particle inspection or Eddy Current probes if cracks are relatively
large and extended through-wall.
36 Metallurgical analysis will look for secondary un-corroded cracks attached
to the first corroded crack and also corrosion products on the cracks
surface.
37 8.2
Remedial Actions
38 The use of materials exhibiting a high degree of resistance to SCC is a
fundamental measure. Modification of the environment (removal of the
critical species, corrosion inhibitor additions) is a further important means
of control. In principle, reduced tensile stress levels are a means of
controlling SCC.
In the boiler water, control the level of chlorides and analyse the material
potential for chemical contamination.
In order to reduce residual stresses, develop proper specifications for
manufacturing processes of bending, welding and heat treatment.
Control of environment and stress is also important to avoid SCC.
9
Caustic Gouging (Caustic Attack)
It is waterside corrosion that results from the build-up of interior deposits
and the local concentration of NaOH to high pH levels, results in a caustic
conditions which corrosively attack and breakdown the protective
magnetite- layer to a localised wall loss on the surface and hence an
increase of the stress and strain through the tube wall.
9.1
Inspection techniques / guidelines
Visual Inspection for internal part of the tube while using video probes,
bore scopes and radiography techniques.
39 9.2
Remedial Actions

40 Removal & replacement of high flux areas where tube damage was
recognized
41 Minimise entrance of corrosion deposits in the materials
42 Regular boiler cleaning using effective chemicals for removal of heavy
deposits
43 Control water chemistry
44 Eliminate weld backing ring inside the tube
45 10
Corrosion Fatigue
Corrosion fatigue is fatigue in a corrosive environment. It is the mechanical
degradation of a metal under the action of corrosion and mechanical or
thermal stresses. Most of the engineering structures experience some type
of alternating stress and are exposed to harmful environments during the
service.
The environment plays an important role in the fatigue of high strength
structural materials like steels, aluminum alloys and titanium alloys.
10.1 Inspection techniques / guidelines
For good operations visual inspection technique using video probes, bore
scopes or using angle beam ultrasonic testing with custom transducer for
the location of interest of tube.
Detailed inspection using video borescopes, angle probe UT and
destructive testing revealed that corrosion fatigue cracking.
46 Externally Radiographic testing and UT shear wave inspection can also be
used to find out the corrosion fatigue surface and subsurface cracking.
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50

10.2 Remedial Actions

To avoid corrosion fatigue, examination and inspection which checks for
fatigue and corrosion fatigue of tubes.
Corrosive environment and water chemistry requires to control
Monitoring of temperature and strain is also an important factor.
11
Off-Load Corrosion
Corrosion with visible rust on tube layer due to off-load wet form and
accelerated by hygroscopic deposition. It happens when the temperature
is below the dew point, especially when the tube surface has some fouling.
Off-Load Corrosion mostly depends on the environment. High humidity
environment mostly has such issues.
11.1 Inspection techniques / guidelines
Visual Inspection play an important rule to find out the outside surface rust
visible corrosion and Off-load corrosion is measured by ultrasonic
thickness measurement technique.
11.2 Remedial Actions
Enclosure should keep dry when off load. Clean and dry the tube layer if
deposition is severe
12
Fireside corrosion
A high-temperature phenomenon in coal and oil-fired boilers, that
manifests as external tube wall loss leading to thinning and ultimately
failure by overload. While increasing steam temperatures can greatly
increase the cycle efficiency of power plants, such increases in
temperature can adversely affect fireside corrosion. In coal-fired boilers,

severe fireside wastage is typically caused by a deposit-induced liquid

phase corrosion mechanism referred to as coal ash corrosion. Corrosion
rates generally increase very rapidly with temperature up to about 735C
(1350F), after which the wastage rates tend to drop-off, thereby
producing a bell-shaped curve.
At temperatures expected for advanced steam cycles, aggressive fireside
deposits containing moderate to high concentrations of alkali sulfates and
alkali chlorides, are expected to cause rapid metal wastage, especially in
units burning high sulfur coal. Thus, coal ash corrosion is a widespread
problem for super heater and re-heater tubes, especially where high
sulfur, high alkali, and high chlorine coals are used, and is a critical
problem that needs to be resolved before advanced ultra-supercritical
boilers can be deployed.
Coal ash corrosion is caused by the formation of molten alkali iron
trisulfates on super heater and re-heater tube surfaces
12.1 Inspection techniques / guidelines
No steel is protected, however, the higher the chromium content of the
alloy, generally the more resistant to attack. For Fireside corrosion
inspection visual examination is carried out to find out the defect. For wall
thickness measurement, UT probes are used for stainless steels or areas
where erosion has removed surface oxide. When fireside corrosion pitting
is pronounced, grinding of the tube wall to almost bottom the worst pit
may be necessary prior to the wall thickness measurements.
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12.2 Remedial Actions

For avoid fireside corrosion, adjust the burner alignment.
If this problems occurs continuously that change operating conditions of
the tube.
Corrosion resistant coating is use to minimise this defect.
Additives such as calcium oxide and magnesium oxide are added in the
fuel to raise the melting temperature of the ash.
Frequent cleaning of the tubes by soot blowers
13
Graphitisation
This mostly affects carbon and carbon-molybdenum steels, in which the
carbide phase is transformed into graphite after long-service exposure to a
temperature range of 420-700oC. Chrome-Molybdenum steels containing
1/2% or more chromium are normally considered to be resistant to
graphitisation.
13.1 Inspection techniques / guidelines
For graphitisation hardness testing and replication process are sued for
suspected areas
13.2 Remedial Actions
Minor graphitisation may be cured by solution heat treatment. Otherwise,
tube replacement after assessment of the damage extent would be
necessary.
Replacement of Carbon-Molybdenum steel with Chrome- Molybdenum
steel will eliminate this issue.

57 14
Dissimilar Metal Weld (DMW) Failures
A cracking that takes place at weld fusion line or nearer in butt welds
where austenitic stainless steel material joins in a ferritic alloy. It is caused
by high stresses at the austenitic to ferritic interface caused by the
differences in expansion properties. Also carbon migration occurs from the
lower alloy to the higher alloy resulting in a low strength area adjacent to
the weld fusion boundary
14.1 Inspection techniques / guidelines
Two inspection techniques are performed for detecting dissimilar metal
weld cracking defect. These are Liquid Penetrant testing (PT) and
Radiographic testing (RT).
14.2 Remedial Actions
58 For good operation, control applied stress and temperature in weld areas.
59 Relocate weld to lower temperature/stress areas to reduce/eliminate
future damages.
60 Use alternative filler metal such as nickel filler metal for
repair/replacement to improve good performance.
61 Use alternative weld preparation/geometries that improve weld life.
62 Maintain hangars, supports and spacing.
63 15
Hydrogen damage
Hydrogen damage is caused by a corrosive reaction between the steam of
the boiler and steel, and its reaction is given below:
64 Fe + HO = FeO + H
65 In other words, Hydrogen damage is a general term which refers to
mechanical damage of a metal caused by the presence of hydrogen.
Hydrogen damage is classified into four distinct types;
66 Hydrogen blistering
67 Hydrogen embrittlement
68 Decarburisation
69 Hydrogen attack
70 Hydrogen reacts with carbon in steels that is called decarburisation and
also bonding combines to form hydrogen molecules resulting in brittleness
of the material and loss of its strength and thus brittle failure occurs. Low
pH of water chemistry, improper chemical cleaning and concentration of
corrosive contaminants are the main causes.

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15.1 Inspection techniques / guidelines

Several techniques are used to find out the damage mechanism, to find
out the micro structural state and mechanical characteristics of the
metallic material.
Inner side tube visual inspection examination is carried out while using
video probes technique, borescopes technique and Internal Rotational
Inspection Systems (IRIS) technique.
External examination is also required and mostly used radiography
technique.
Wall thicknesses measured are important technique and this measurement
is carried out at several locations along the length of the tube.
Chemical analysis of tube material is also checked by flame spectroscopy.
Mechanical test like tensile test is also carried out at room temperature on
the samples get from the tube fireside in the area of fracture.
Microscopy technique is used to investigate the Metallographic condition
of the damaged zones.

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15.2 Remedial Actions

Using clean steel like killed steel.
Use effective chemicals to clean the boiler for removal of heavy deposits.
Maintain the correct water chemistry with good pH.
Look for condenser leakage to minimise the damage.