By.

Shane Turcott
Shared on LinkedIn

IDENTIFYING THE
CRACK TYPE
NON-DESTRUCTIVELY

USING FIELD METALLOGRAPHY

When inspection finds crack-like features, understanding what they are is critical for making
tough repair decisions. Whether they are mechanical fatigue, corrosion-based or material quality
issues, the repair and fitness-for-service considerations will be quite different. Yet the trick is
diagnosing the damage mode without further damaging the equipment. No one wants to cut
samples from their expensive equipment only to have a laboratory tell them it was repairable.
Yet there is a lesser known, non-destructive option – field metallographic replication (FMR).

Within hours, the details regarding the crack type and surrounding material condition can be
provided by field metallography replication. This method gently polishes the cracked surface and
makes replications (molds) that can be evaluated using a microscope. It allows for the diagnosis
of the crack type and examination of the surrounding material. If you can comfortably reach and
touch the cracked surface, it can usually be evaluated by FMR.

Grind, polish and etch Replicate (mold)

feature of interest prepared
surface

Assess
crack
Prepared Examine type
area replication (400-1000x)

The benefits of using FMR to assess crack-like features extend to applications where significant
repair, reliability and/or safety decisions need to be made without destroying the part. My own
experience has been within the refining, petro-chemcal, transportation and energy industries

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 By. Shane Turcott
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usually looking at pressure vessels or large/costly pieces of equipment. Here are three examples
that FMR helped with making tough repair decisions after crack-like features had been found.

Example #1 – Linear Indications on a Freighter Rudder Horn

Crack-like features were found during the inspection of a freighter rudder horn. Before deciding
whether to perform costly drydock repairs, we were called in to perform FMR on the feature.

Rudder horn

Boat from
which I had to
do FMR from

FMR identified the visible feature as a cold shut casting flaw. On the aft side for the defect,
etching had revealed a grossly inadequate weld repair attempt. Ha, I wonder what was so bad
at that site they felt it had to be weld repaired while deciding to leave in this massive casting
flaw. Anyway, this repair weld itself comprised of visible tears formed as a result of the casting
defect. The weld repairs indicated that the poor casting quality had not gone entirely unnoticed
by the caster. The ship owner would later comment that the casting repair maps provided had
not been marked with repair welds at this site.

Of concern was that fatigue cracks had initiated from the casting defect. Fatigue crack growth
would eventually have put the horn at risk of catastrophic failure. Based upon this information
plus additional NDT inspection, the ship was dry docked and the casting flaw/cracks weld
repaired. Excavation during the repairs found the casting flaw had extended deep into the horn.
Other ships of this design were scheduled for inspection.

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 By. Shane Turcott
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a) Horn, Feature of Concern

Weld Repair
Attempt Casting Flaw
b) Defect Edge

Fatigue Crack

Casting / Weld Flaw

c) Fatigue Crack, ~66x

Example #2 – Cracked Reboiler Heat Exchanger Shell

During a refinery shutdown, the insulation on a carbonate reboiler heat exchanger was removed
and internal weld repairs completed. Afterwards, cracks were noted on the external surface of
the 304 stainless steel shell. As I was already at the shutdown for scheduled heater FMR work,
it didn’t take long to evaluate these cracks as well.

During surface preparation for FMR, it became clear that the cracking was more extensive than
first thought after penetrant inspection. Optical examination of the replications taken found
branched, intergranular crack morphologies consistent with stress corrosion cracking (SCC). The
internal weld repairs had not caused the cracks but instead, had caused the pre-existing corrosion
cracks to open.

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 By. Shane Turcott
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a) Heat Exchanger Shell

b) Cracks Found

High density
of cracks

c) After FMR Preparation

The cracks were likely ‘chloride’ induced SCC yet FMR cannot definitively determine the corrosion
agent responsible. Yet fusing over the corrosion agent responsible for SCC was not needed in
this case. As cracking had occurred on the external insulated surface, the cracking mode was
diagnosed as corrosion under insulation (CUI). The primary cause of CUI is water entering
through the insulating jacket, wetting the external surface for prolonged periods. The

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 By. Shane Turcott
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combination of the water, leaching from the insulation and warmth from the heat exchanger
caused corrosion cracking. Stainless steel vessels containing extensive CUI/SCC cracking are
challenging to repair and as these cracks were found early in the shutdown, the refinery made
the tough but necessary decision to replace the shell. I’d like to think that the crack diagnosis
during the shutdown, on the same day the cracks were found, greatly aided in making tough
decisions in a timely manner.

Chloride stress
corrosion cracks
a) Shell, Location #1, ~66x

Chloride stress
corrosion cracks

b) Location #2, 100x c) Location #2, 400x

Cracks pulled open

during weld repair

d) Location #3, ~66x

Example #3 – Linear Indication on Steam Turbine Disc

During the refurbishment of a steam turbine rotating assembly, inspection found two cracks on
one of the discs. The shop did not believe the radial cracks were fatigue cracks from service yet
they couldn’t be ignored either. Nothing a little FMR couldn’t help diagnose.

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 By. Shane Turcott
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Cracks

a) Steam Turbine Rotating Assembly b) Cracks on Disc

Optical examination of the replications made of the cracks found them to be hot tear cracks
formed during forging. The cracks were intergranular and still contained high temperature oxide
within from the hot forging temperatures. No service-based cracks had initiated from the tears,
showing that they had been benign. After further work by the repair shop and owner, they
concluded that the disc could be reused and monitored carefully. Although the shop had initially
suspected that the cracks had been material defects or forging flaws, the FMR diagnosis allowed
for fitness-for-service decisions to be made with increased confidence.

a) Disc, Forging Tear, 66x

No new cracks
formed at tear tips

Intergranular cracks filled with

high temperature oxide
(forging tears)

b) Forging Tear Edge, 200x

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 By. Shane Turcott
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In summary, if something has cracked, please cut it out and send it to our lab (ha!). We’ll cut it
down further and use every tool available in our metallurgical laboratory to explain the details of
cracking. Yet if you can’t cut it out and instead hope to repair it, you still have options. Field
metallography replication (FMR) can provide non-destructive details on-site about the the crack
type, find quality issues with the surrounding material and assess for material service degradation.
This information can be provided quickly and used to make time-sensitive repair and fitness-for-
service decisions. Next time you have a cracked pressure vessel or expensive piece of equipment,
consider bringing in an expert to use FMR (like me!!) to better understand the problem and aid
with making the repair decisions.

Shane Turcott, P.Eng. M.A.Sc

Principal Metallurgist
shane.turcott@steelimage.com

Up-Coming Courses:

March 23, 2023 May 11, 2023 June 6, 2023

Details at www.steelimage.com/training

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