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Evaluating The Condition & Remaining Life of Older Power Plants
Evaluating The Condition & Remaining Life of Older Power Plants
SUMMARY
Run/repair/replace or refurbishment decision making is the day of today in an open market a more strategical
approach than the last decade. The best technical solution for higher assets is a must which can only be achieved by
applying a mixed methodology of Remaining Life Time (RLT), Risk Based Inspection (RBI) & Reliability
Engineering (RE). This paper gives an overview of the RLT & RBI methodology applied by Laborelec for the
Belgian Power generator Electrabel.
As further explained in the paper the Laborelec Remaining Life Time (RLT) methodology; mainly based on
corrosion, creep and thermal fatigue principals, is structured in a multi-level approach where the final scientific
approach is a mix of design, operation & maintenance history in combination with quantified material
characteristics.
The scientific approach results in a theoretical creep & thermal fatigue remaining life estimation extended with
recommendations of future predictive inspection intervals or run/repair/replace decisions. These recommendations
are determinated by the complementary Risk Based Inspection (RBI) & Reliability Engineering (RE) home
developed methodologies. Some practical examples will show the benefit of this "three dimensional" approach.
1. BACKGROUND
The current situation regarding the assessment, testing and inspection of power plants frequently results in the
formulation of the following question : How long can power plants be operated safely and cost-effectively while
satisfying increased requirements pertaining to operational availability and reduced pollutant emissions after
having served their originally intended service life ?
This question is of growing importance when the fact is considered that the percentage of plants currently in
operation that are more than 30 years old is rising. In order to answer this question the operational capability of the
existing plant must first be investigated.
The availability of a power plant depends on the availability of its non-redundant component. Assurance of a
proper operation of these components, so called Key Components, should be, therefore, the main task of a plant
Remaining Life Time (RLT) program. The condition of these components can be assessed only by way of a RLT
methodology. Based on the RLT results a proper decision can be made as to plant safety and availability :
maintain in operation as it is
repair
replace
Taking into account the economic implications of these three alternatives as well as the economic, social and
environmental implications of unscheduled outages due to sudden failures the selection of a proper RLT
methodology gain in importance. This methodology should provide the best technical solution to ensure a safe
operation of the plant.
Unexpected damage may be caused by exceeding thermal, static, and/or dynamic parameters which are used as the
basis for calculations.
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An important basis for the results is the analysis of the actual operational data (e.g. temperature, pressure,
throughput), operational experience and operational tenders.
A systematic integral approach which allows assessment of the plants current operational capability and safety is
only possible by correctly drawing a correlation between the operational load and the actual status of the plant or
its components, which has been obtained from tests and inspections.
Based on these results, the right measures for future procedures can then be initiated in a reasonable manner.
In accordance with the "Three Level Approach" concept, each section contains a specific
program for the condition assessment of the equipment.
The Laborelec 3 level RLT methodology, schematicly presented in underlaying figure,
can be applied on the following power plant components :
pipe lines
boiler tubes Fig :
boiler large components
The question posed during an initial approach is what kind of damage? malfunctions? material failures ? can occur.
A first quick scan will separate the possible & non-critical items in the proces and this based on temperature & wall
thickness design data. The establishment of the list of possible critical parts is based on our 30 years field
experience for similar equipment. For the final list we can go on with level 2 & 3.
Following table gives a quick overview of possible failure mechanisms for boiler components.
C R TF F E Er Co
- evaporator X H² X X
- drum X X
- superheater / reheater tubes X X
- superheater headers X X
- reheater headers, X X
- desuperheater nozzles X X
- steam lines X X
- feedwater lines X X
Table 1:
C = creep R = relaxation TF = thermal fatigue F = fatigue
E = embrittlement Er = Erosion Co = Corrosion
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The results of the NDE & DE provide one essential input for the component integrity evaluation and life
assessment.
When ?
Where ?
How ?
The used inspection techniques depend on the given component, the location on the component, the damage modes
to be looked at and the material used. Some of the regularly used methods to establish the material condition
provide data which can be quantified in analyses whereas others can only indicate whether a defect is present or
not. Following table correlates the examination methods with various components of fossil fired power stations.
In underlaying short overview we see the NDE-techniques used on the different boiler components.
Components DC TM ME HT PT/MT ET UT RT
- economiser headers X X X
- waterwalls X X X
- boilers drums X X X
- lower waterwalls and headers X
- junction headers X X X
- waterwall risers X X X
- waterwall headers X
- superheater headers (welds) X X X X X
- reheater headers (welds) X X X X X
- desuperheaters :
liners X
nozzles X X
- HT superheater tubing X X X X X X
- steam piping X X X X X X X
- feedwater piping X X
Table 2:
DC Dimension checks TM Thickness measurement ME Microscopic examination
HT Hardness testing PT Liquid penetrant examination MT Magnetic particle examination
ET Eddy current examination UT Ultrasonic examination RT Radiographic examination
For some of them subsequent weld repair may be required. Destructive testing can have following objectives
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The decision to choose for increased temperature testing instead of increased stress, is based on the fact that creep
is a thermally activated process. For ferritic materials however the maximum temperature is limited to about 720°C
(by approaching the AC1 temperature). Test specimens are loaded under tension to a stress equal to the service
stress of the component under investigation. Usually 5 to 6 specimens are exposed to mutually different
temperatures, chosen such that creep rupture times are invoked in the range of 100 to 1000 hours. The secondary
creeprate is deduced from the recorded strain-time evolution. Time to failure and total elongation after failures are
determined also. Finally the test results are extrapolated in the co-ordinate system ln (rupture time) versus
temperature (°C).
For each of these apporaches we use several home made soft tools like
recalculation of stresses from internal pressure under static loading & ultrasonic measured wall thickness by
our soft programme called "LILCA"
calculation of metaltemperature by oxide thickness measurement also done by the soft "LILCA"
recalculation of the stress range under cyclic loads by a home made soft programme called
"THERMSTRESS"
calculate or estimate creep damage level based on metallographic examination results of critical locations by
our soft programme "CREEPMAP"
recommendation of predictive inspection intervals by the Laborelec soft "INTERVAL"
The aging of the boiler & piping components is mainly manifested by 2 mechanisms :
creep
thermal fatigue
Degradation mechanisms other than creep and fatigue are less accessible to useful life prediction by calculation
7.1. Creep
Static load creep degradation can only appear under certain conditions of stress & temperature which has to be
superior of 450°C. For each period of time "ti", under a certain stress & temperature, the relative creep life
consumption "e" is calculated as follows :
with t "Ri" = time to rupture for that stress & temperature during period "ti"
The time to rupture is calculated based on the creep rupture data curves for the different boiler materials. These
curves (lower, mean & maximum material resistance) are specified are specified in following standards :
NBN 837
Din 17735
Static load creep life consumptions are calculated by the home made soft programme called "LILCA"; which also
allows you eventually to estimate the mean metaltemperature in service.
Laborelec measures wall and internal oxide scale thickness to predict remaining tube life with "LILCA" software.
Thickness measurements are made using focused UT transducers. Steamside oxide layer thickness measurements
allow the evaluation of the average metal temperature of components by using the material oxidation kinetics.
"LILCA", with the possibility for input of external wall loss due to erosion or high temperature corrosion, contains
algorithms that allows the user to make deterministic estimates of tube remaining life.
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There exist "Wöhler"-fatigue curves for these 3 types of stress and the different materials. These curves predict the
total acceptable number of stress cycles. The relative life consumption "fi" for one cycle with a constant stress
amplitude is calculated as follows :
where
N/Nf - cycling load portion of the life fraction;
N - number of cycles at a given strain range;
Nf - fatigue life (number of cycles to failure without creep damage) at that strain range
t/tf - time-dependent creep life fraction
t - time at a given stress;
tr - time to rupture at that stress;
D' - the cumulative damage index
The damage summation method is very popular because it is easy to use and requires only standard S-N (Wöhler)
and creep stress rupture curves.
Localized damage creep may become manifest in the form of cracks. The cracking process is characterized by a
time-dependent growth under an approximately constant load. As in the case of fatigue cracking, creep cracking
may be characterized by some fracture mechanics parameters.
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Surface oxides as well as decarburized zones must be removed prior to replication of the component surface.
Because of the high conservatism included into this theory, it is actually used as a monitoring technique, rather than
a life prediciton method. Nevertheless, worldwide acceptance with power plant operators because of its simplicity.
Laborelec also suggested a mixted method of assessment where creep degradation and aging proces are taken into
account in combination with there repercussions on the component remaining life. Creep damage process is not the
only one affecting power plant components operated at elevated temperatures and high pressures. There are many
other damage mechanisms that result in an increase of the damage rate of these components and consequently in a
decrease remaining life.
The author proposes a parameter to define a correlation between the following variables :
It is accomplished based on a logarithmic correlation between the recurrent inspection intervals and component
expended life, for each damage level.
the "risk knowledge management" (fig 4). Laborelec developed a risk based inspection concept avoiding the above
pitfalls and resulting in measurable benefits (fig 5).
Fig 4: Fig 5:
Concluding comments
None of the worldwide Remaining lifetime methodologies takes into account all uncertainties like scatter in
material properties and additional system stresses. This paper demonstrates that the Laborelec 3 dimensional
remaining life time methodology; based on creep, thermal fatigue & erosion or corrosion; allows to take into
account a maximum of these uncertainties. Some practical examples for use of our home made RLT soft tools are
shown.
This RLT-methodology in combination with our RBI-methodology, a risk ranking approach also discussed in this
paper, allows the client to identify the optimum inspection interval for all proces items that are sensible for trending
degradation mechanisms. The proces equipment affected by non trending degradation mechanisms can only be
optimised by changes in design, maintenance or operation conditions.
As a mix of trending & non trending degradation mechanisms will always be present in the entire proces, the
author is of the opinion that the most effective manner to manage "trending & non-trending" is to implement a
progressive but flexible inspection plan worked out by a team build of material- & NDT-specialists + maintenance
& operation people of the plant. This plan must be continuously adjusted according to new information and
evolving technological + economical factors.
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