Failure investigation into the boiler tubes of power plant

Badaruddin Soomro *, Muhammad Irfan, Bilal Waseem, Sumaira Nosheen, Abdul Karim Aziz and Hamza Butt

Pakistan Institute of Technology for Minerals and Advanced Engineering Materials (PITMAEM), PCSIR Laboratories Complex, Ferozepur Road, Lahore-Pakistan.
 
Research Article
International Journal of Science and Research Archive, 2021, 02(02), 028–036.
Article DOI: 10.30574/ijsra.2021.2.2.0048
Publication history: 
Received on 01 March 2021; revised on 06 April 2021; accepted on 08 April 2021
 
Abstract: 
Failure of tubes is a very critical problem in boilers. The current study describes the detailed investigation for failure of boiler tubes in the power plants. Different characterization techniques like; metallography/microscopy, hardness, chemical analysis, SEM/EDS were utilized to find out the actual cause of failure. The tubes were failed within one year of its service. It was concluded that the brittle fracture (rupture) of tubes was occurred due to over-heating caused the formation of thermally insulating thick iron oxide scale on the inner surface of the boiler tube. Evidence of hydrogen embrittlement of the boiler tube in the rupture region was also found. Insights of this investigation might be helpful for the prevention of this type of failures in future.
 
Keywords: 
Boiler tubes; Power plant; Fractography; SEM/EDS analysis; Metallography
 
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