Creep Rupture Life Assessment Of Superheater Tube With Oxide Formation In Power Plant

This paper proposes a method for predicting the creep rupture life of superheater tubes, considering the continuous increasing metal temperature and stress as a result of oxide formation. The steam-side oxide growth was assessed by the parabolic oxidation rate law, and the temperature profiles of superheater tubes was calculated combining the 3D computational fluid dynamics simulation and the 1D analytical models. Based on the estimated temperature and maximum elastic hoop stress, the parametric extrapolation technique was utilized to assess the creep rupture life. The validity of this method was confirmed by measuring the oxide thickness and the steam temperature in the field. The results found that T91 alloy in the steam outlet region and T23 alloy at the connection point was susceptible to creep rupture failure, which had the greatest cumulative damage and thickest oxide scale. The cumulative damage of superheater tubes varied significantly with tube count. Results suggested that replacement of the particular T91 alloy tubing section having the minimum creep rupture life with a better heat-resistant steel would avoid mechanical failure by creep for the subject boiler system.