IJETST- Vol.

||03||Issue||05||Pages 455-460||May||ISSN 2348-9480 2016

International Journal of Emerging Trends in Science and Technology

Failure Analysis And Optimization Of Reheater And Super Heater

Tubes
P.Praveen1, A.Suresh2, M.Vimal3 and R.Vignesh4

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kongu Engineering College,

Perundurai, Erode, Tamil Nadu praveen.mech@kongu.edu
2 UG Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kongu Engineering College, Perundurai,
Erode, Tamil Nadu asuresh578@gmail.com
3 UG Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kongu Engineering College, Perundurai,
Erode, Tamil Nadu vimal.mut93@yahoo.com
4 UG Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kongu Engineering College, Perundurai,
Erode, Tamil Nadu vigneshr226@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
Power generation plays an important role in the development of the nation. In India the difference
between power demand and power supply is always increasing. The total installed capacity of existing
power sources are from renewable and non renewable energy resources such as wind mills, thermal power
plants, nuclear plants, etc. were more, But still the demand could not be met out due to various factors such
as power loss during transmission, poor maintenance, inefficient planning, etc.
In India major source of power is generated from thermal power stations. Hence the thermal power
stations should function effectively and efficiently for meeting out the demand
The detailed study on the performance of boiler mountings and accessories should be carried out and
optimized for the efficient and effective operations of the unit. The failure of Re-heater and Super heater
tubes are the major problem caused in the thermal power stations. Hence an analysis on the re-heater and
super heater tube failures and optimization of Boiler tubes were carried out in ordered to reduce the
failures caused in thermal power plant and to keep continuous running of units. All the above factors made
us to conduct a computational fluid dynamics analysis on the boiler re-heater and super heater tubes and its
optimization in 210MW Boiler unit at mettur thermal power station.
Key Words: performance of boiler, Re-heater and Super heater tubes, computational fluid dynamics
analysis.

superheated steam then flows through the main

1. INTRODUCTION
Boiler plays a major role in the electricity
generation in a thermal power plant. In normal
cases to increase the production of power
generation coal fuelled power stations are used
normally. Reheaters and super heaters are a set of
tubes located in the boiler. Super heater tubes
directly passes the steam produced in the high
pressure turbine.Steam from the water wall passes
to the super heaters where it is heated above its
saturation temperature until the maximum
required operating temperature is achieved..Super
heater increases the efficiency of the boiler. The
P.Praveen www.ijetst.in
steam piping to the high-pressure turbine. Exhaust
steam from the high-pressure turbine is guided to
the boiler through reheater tubes for reheating and
from there to the intermediate and low-pressure
turbines [7]. High reheating temperatures
increases the output and improves the overall
efficiency of a power plant.
Internal pressurized tubes are critical
components in water-tube boiler and steam
reheater elements. Tubes in such application are
vulnerable to high temperature, undergoes severe
creep deformation or even final rupture [7]. In a
coal fired thermal power station, the reheater and
Page 455
 IJETST- Vol.||03||Issue||05||Pages 455-460||May||ISSN 2348-9480
super heater tubes are heated with temperature of
about 530-1000˚C. Exposure of tubes to
temperatures at the outer surface due to flue gases,
high pressure inside the tubes because of the
steam flow, and flame contaminated with
corrosive residues for a long period of time
usually causes reheater and super heater tube
failures.
The boiler tubes in thermal power plant are
exposed to high internal pressure and high
temperature of steam and flue gas. Failure of
reheater tubes in some coal-fired boilers are
encountered very frequently. The main cause for
any metallurgical failure of a reheater tube is due
to the tube metal temperature higher than that as
originally specified. Tube metal temperature may
increase gradually over many years due to the
growing oxide scales inside tube or elevate rapidly
caused by loss of internal steam or water-coolant
flow. Therefore, boiler tubes in power plants have
finite life because of long exposure to high
temperature, stress, aggressive environment,
corrosive degradation, etc. However, use of
suitable boiler tube material according to the
temperature produced in thermal power plants are
required to ensure that the tube materials are
safely used under higher temperatures and
pressures for a long period of operation [1].
The pressure In reheater tube is about 25
Kg/cm2 and in super heater is 320 Kg/cm2. The
main factor causing premature failure is the
overheating and consequently creep or hot
corrosion failure. The reheaters begin to receive
steam only when the turbine is started up i.e., they
are not cooled at all for appreciably long time
during boiler start up. The same is true in an
emergency shut-down of the boiler. In order to
avoid overheating, reheaters are usually designed
of convective type and compared to platen type.
They are arranged in the zone of moderate heating
where the flue gas temperature is around 850°C
[8]. In some places reheaters are cooled at a
startup (i.e. before the steam enters in tubes) and
shut down by fresh steam supplied through an at
temperature. Increased temperature and reduced
hardness values of the material of tube metal and
development of oxide scale on the inner surface of
reheater tubes over a long period of time are
typical problems in power plants. Appropriate
inspection and condition of boiler tube should be
monitored and carried out from time to time.
P.Praveen www.ijetst.in
2016
Computer simulations and non-destructive
analysis may economically support the post-
failure assessment method, i.e. visual inspections,
liquid penetrant testing,metallurgical
examinations and mechanical strength
measurements.To prevent the reheater and super
heater tube failures, which causes temporary
shutdown of the power plant, inspection of the
tubes are always conducted according to standard
power plant preventive maintenance practices at
regular intervals.
2. RELATED WORK
Khalil Ranjbar (2007) [1] made analysis of
the failure and shut down of boiler cold and hot
reheater tubes by chemical analysis of sediments,
metallographic examinations, XRD, SEM and
EDX studies. The mode of operation,
maintenance, and feed water chemistry were also
checked. It is concluded that the bad maintenance
and feed water chemistry are the main causes of
the failure, leading to various types of corrosion
mechanisms, which are identified.
Purbolaksono.J et al (2010) [2] made an
analysis and stated that Increased temperature and
decreased hardness values of the tube metal and
development of oxide scale on the inner surface of
boiler tubes over a prolonged period of time are
typical problems in power plants. Appropriate life
assessments or condition monitoring of boiler tube
should be carried out from time to time. Computer
simulations may economically support the post-
failure assessment method, i.e. visual inspections,
metallurgical examinations and mechanical
strength measurements. However, estimations
obtained from the simulations may provide an
advanced warning to take preventive actions prior
to failure. In this work two failure cases of the
reheater and super heater tubes made of a typical
material of SA213-T22 steel are evaluated. As the
oxide scales are increasingly developed on the
inner surface, the increasing of temperature and
decreasing of hardness value in tube metal for
both cases is determined. The remnant life
estimations are then made in the form of creep
cumulative damages.
Hajee Mohamed.M et al (2014) [3] studied
that most of the fossil fuel & Cement Plant waste
heat based thermal power plants are facing the
Page 456
 IJETST- Vol.||03||Issue||05||Pages 455-460||May||ISSN 2348-9480
problem of Boiler Super Heater tube leakage due
to high flue gas Temperature. This will affect the
working of power plant and income in general.
The research is to study boiler super heater tube
leakage problem and find the causes of tube
leakages with the help of Computational Fluid
Dynamics simulation. An Auto CADD 2-D
modelling of super heater is performed and Import
to Computational Fluid Analysis software where
the temperature of flue gases over the Super
Heater Tubes using the actual boundary
conditions has been studied. The Computational
Fluid Dynamics results will be useful for to avoid
the same in future projects and can be avoided the
leakage in running Thermal Power plants with
providing the Shield arrangement over the critical
zone of super heater tubes to reduce the erosion
and restricting Super heater tubes.
Azad Sohail.M et al (2007) [4] made an
investigation on the damages in the alloyed super
heater and reheater tube materials for natural
circulation water wall tubes (NCWWTs) high
pressure drum boiler units of the ghorasal thermal
power station, Bangladesh, have been carried out
at different schedule maintenances. Extensive
analysis of different chemical parameters of the
boiler water regime and generated steam quality at
rated operating steam pressure and temperature,
revealed carry over in steam during cold startup
and abrupt increase in thermal load of the boiler.
The micro and macro structural examinations of
super heater tube materials, scale composition,
scale thickness and composition of super heater
tube materials have been monitored very
carefully. silica is found to be the major
component for the super heater scaling which has
strong affinity to the chromium containing steel
reheater tube materials.
Movahedi-Rad.A et al (2015) [5] made an
failure analysis of a ruptured super heater tube
after 20 years service in the oil-fueled boiler, as
the typical problems in power plants, was
investigated. A thin-lipped rupture at failed region
was observed in super heater tube. By measuring
the tube’s wall thicknesses far from failed region,
non-uniformity was seen. The suggested main root
cause of failure was fireside corrosion of the tube
during the service. Because of low grade of used
fuel, sodium, sulfur, and vanadium elements were
observed at the outer surface, which caused
continuously scale formation and reduction of
P.Praveen www.ijetst.in
2016
wall thickness, by metal consumption. In addition,
it seems that it has been worsened by occurrence
of long-term overheating. Coagulation of carbides
at both outer and inner regions of tube was
observed that could prove the occurrence of
overheating during the service. In addition, the
formation of sigma-phase particles was revealed
because of being in the susceptible temperature
after 20 years in service.
Shokouhmand.H et al (2015) [6] done the
failure analysis in super heater tubes and studied
that the extreme spray water mass flow rate
deviation was observed to occur in the middle
temperature super heater of Sahand 325MW
Power Plant utility boiler, which severely affected
its economic performance and safe operation.
Boilers operating in these conditions led to failure
in super heater tubes at the same place for two
consecutive times in a three year span. Thus, the
failure analysis of super heater tubes by
investigating the visual inspection, chemical, scale
and creep analysis was carried out. The Brittle
failure occurred in the super heater tubes after the
fuel was changed from natural gas to heavy oil.
Failure analysis showed that tubes were suffering
from long term overheating which was instigated
by high spray water flow rate. In order to rectify
the boiler operating conditions, some
modifications were applied in the boiler unit 1 and
operating parameters on this boiler were
compared with boiler unit 2. The results showed
that the 8.33% reduction in heating surface area
corresponds to 52.84% and 17.80% reduction in
spray water mass flow rate for capacities equal to
300 MW and 260 MW, respectively.
3. PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
The Mettur Thermal Power Station (MTPS)
was designed to generate 700 T/Hr/Unit of
superheated steam with rated pressure of 1
kg sq.cm and 0 C. units already clocked
more than 1,00,000 Hrs of operation. After about
90,000 Hrs tube failure in reheater and super
heater were reported. Since already 15 times the
boiler had to face forced SD due to RH tube
failure. Since the situation was becoming critical,
M/S TNEB wanted some proactive action for
checking the condition/replacement of
deteriorated RH and SH coils so that the forced
outage during the operation is avoided/minimized.
Page 457
 IJETST- Vol.||03||Issue||05||Pages 455-460||May||ISSN 2348-9480
So , M/S TNEB wanted to find the actual causes
of tube failure for taking corrective action to avoid
the failure.
The main causes for the above failures of
the boiler tubes are over heating of reheater and
super heater tubes and also the improper welding
of boiler tubes. The overheating problems are
caused due to the continuous exposure of the
reheater and super heater tubes to high
temperature exhaust gases. The exhaust gases
consists of various types of impurities and harmful
gases because of improper combustion of the coal.
This impurities leads to the corrosion of the tube
walls which in later leads to failure.
3.1. Over heating
The overheating of reheater and super heater
tubes are one of the most causative for the
reheater tube failures. The overheating is also one
of the less avoidable problem caused in boilers.
Due to the improper combustion of the coal in the
furnace and excess amount of impurities present
in the air to lead the production of unwanted
harmful gases which leads to the deterioration of
the super heater and reheater tubes. The
overheating of the reheater tubes mainly caused in
the outer diameter of the tubes. The overheating
reduces the properties of the reheater tubes and
leads to failure.
3.2. Welding Defect
The Reheater and super heater tubes are not
available in a single set so, it should be bought for
the required length and it is joined together by
using welding process. Two layers of welding are
done for withstanding high pressure and high
temperature. First layer is done by using electric
arc welding and the second layer is done by using
gas welding. Due to the insufficient training of
labours and other factors leads to improper
welding of reheater and super heater tubes.
4.PROPOSED METHODOLOGY
The main causes of welding defects are due
to the improper welding done during the onsite
welding. This problem reduces the quality of
welding which in turn due to the high temperature
P.Praveen www.ijetst.in
2016
of the steam inside the tube walls and also high
flue gas temperature on the outer walls slowly
deteriorates the properties of the re-heater and
super heater tubes. This can be overcome by
covering the weldings by a ring over the outer
surface of the tubes. This ring over the weldings
protects the weld from the excess flue gas
temperature and also from the impurities in flue
gases.
The below figure 1 shows the proposed
design of the reheater and super heater tubes with
ring over the weld material. The ring material is
made of SA213 T22, which covers over the
welded part to protect it from the impurities
affecting the welded portion of the tubes.
The ring over the welded material doesn’t
affect the temperature and pressure of the steam
flowing inside the tubes and thus it doesn’t reduce
the efficiency of the boiler and also increases the
life of the boiler tubes.
Figure 1 Re-heater and Super heater tube
design
The problem of scale formation can be
overcome by using the upgraded steel alloy of SA
213 T91 material. This material decreases the
formation of scaling inside the tubes and thus
reduces the failure of the boiler tubes.
5. CFD ANALYSIS
Computational fluid dynamics is used in
order to analyse the system with the combined
effect of temperature and pressure , Ansys multi
physics environment is used. Also to find the
temperature distribution, thermal stress , thermal
strain, velocity of the moving fluid and its
pressure differences in a pipe the flow analysis
needed to be carried out. It helps to predict the
various parameters in order to test the efficiency
Page 458
 IJETST- Vol.||03||Issue||05||Pages 455-460||May||ISSN 2348-9480 2016

of the SA 213T91 material and also to check the

new design.
The CFD analysis is done by using the
ANSYS FLUENT software package. The
modelling is done in Pro-E and then it is imported
to ANSYS Fluent software for the CFD
analysis.The various inputs such as the steam
temperature, pressure and flue gas temperatures
were given manually to get the accurate results
from the analysis.
The figure 2 shows the CFD analysis done
in the SA213 T22 material without the rings
around the weldments. The pressure distribution
inside the pipe is shown in the analysis.The exact
temperature values were collected from the MTPS
and given as input for the analysis to get the real Figure 3 CFD analysis of SA 213 T916.
time results. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The following table shows the comparison

between the two materials analysed using the
FLUENT software,

Table 1 Report from the analysis

ANALYSIS PARAMETE SA21 SA213

R 3 T22 T91

TEMPERAT 1181. 1180.0

URE C) 3
THERMAL

TOTAL
HEAT FLUX 3.8742e
Figure 2 CFD Analysis of SA 213 T22
(W/sq.m) 4.456 6
The SA213 T91 material with ring around 7e6
the weld material has also been analysed by using
Ansys Fluent software and the pressure,
temperature distribution and deformation of the
tubes has been found out. The figure 3 represents
the Analysis carried out in the SA 213 t91 DEFORMAT 0.033 0.0068
material with rings around the weld tubes. ION(m) 12 34
STATIC
STRUCTU
RAL
STRESS (Pa) 1.65e 1.55e6
6

The heavy scaling on the surface of the

wall tubes acts as a thermal barrier for the
effective heat transfer operation with hot steam

P.Praveen www.ijetst.in Page 459

 IJETST- Vol.||03||Issue||05||Pages 455-460||May||ISSN 2348-9480 2016

temperatures will result in excessive metal [5] Failure Analysis of Super heater tube,
temperature. Hence it is recommended to replace Movahedi-
the outlet section in total with higher chromium Rad.M,Plasseyed.S.S,Attarian.M.Engineering
contained steel SA 213 T91 to ensure trouble free Failure Analysis 48 (2015) 94–104.
surface.
[6] Failure Analysis and Retrofitting of Super
It also recommended to use the rings heater Tubes in Utility Boiler
around the weldings in order to increase the life of Shokouhmand.H, Ghadimi.B,
the boiler tubes by reducing the cracks caused due Espanani.R.Engineering Failure Analysis 50
to improper welding. (2015) 20–28.

CONCLUSION [7] Root cause failure analysis of a divison wall

super heater tube, M.M. Rahman,
The reheater and super heater tubes have Purbolaksono.J, Ahmad.J.Engineering Failure
been tested and analysed by using the ANSYS Analysis 17 (2010) 1490–1494.
Workbench software . we had also done the static
structural and thermal analysis at various material [8] Failure analysis of a high temperature super
grades by using fluent. heater tube (HTS) of a pilverized coal fire
Thus by various analysis we have concluded station. Md. Mujibur Rahman, Ahmad Kamal
that the root cause for the boiler tube failure is Kadir .Proceedings of the International
scale formation and the weld failures. The scale Conference on Advanced Science,
formation can be overcome by using the better Engineering and Information Technology
grade steel SA213 T91 and the weld failures can (2011).
be reduced by providing a ring over the weld
materials. the rings over the weld material [9] http://www.vallourec.com/fossilpower/EN/Ap
increases the life of the weld and improves the plication/Pages/reheaters.aspx
efficiency of the boiler tubes.

REFERENCES

[1] Failure Analysis of Boiler Cold and Hot

Reheater Tubes, Khalil Ranjbar. Engineering
Failure Analysis 14 (2007) 620–625.

[2] Failure case studies of SA213-T22 steel tubes

of boiler through computer simulations,
Purbolaksono.J , Ahmad.J , Khinani.A ,
Rashid.A. Journal of Loss Prevention in the
Process Industries 23 (2010) 98–105.

[3] Analysis of Boiler Super Heater Tubes from

High Flue Gas Temperature, Hajee
Mohamed.M, Vincent.H.Wilson.International
Journal of Innovative Research in Advanced
Engineering (IJIRAE) ISSN: 2349-2163 Vol.1
NO.12 (2014).

[4] A Study on damages in alloyed super heater

tubes of thermal power station, Azad Sohail.A
and Ismail Mustafa.A,Indian. Journal of
Engineering and Material Sciences Vol.14,
(2007), pp. 19-23.

P.Praveen www.ijetst.in Page 460