Trans Indian Inst Met (2016) 69(2):665–668

DOI 10.1007/s12666-015-0749-8

TECHNICAL PAPER

Failure Analysis of SA213-T22 Re-heater Rear Tube of Thermal

Power Plant
Avijit Kr. Metya1 • Parikshit Munda1 • V. Rajinikanth1 • Rajat Kr. Roy1

Received: 27 October 2015 / Accepted: 2 November 2015 / Published online: 16 December 2015
 The Indian Institute of Metals - IIM 2015

Abstract SA213-T22 steel had been widely used in
petrochemical and power generation plants. But due to
prolonged service exposure in various conditions, these
tubes have been ageing continuously and deteriorations of
the materials cannot be avoided. This paper presents a case
study of SA213 type-T22 alloy steel reheater tube that
failed in a boiler of a power plant. The failed tube was
investigated through visual examination, mechanical
properties evaluation, and microstructural analysis to find
the root cause of failure. The tube was found to fail by long
term over-heating due to formation of thick oxide scale
formation leading to creep.
Keywords SA213-T22 steel  Reheater tube 
Over-heating  Finite element simulation
1 Introduction
over-heating, creep damage, thermal stress etc. Generation
of oxide scales on the tube surface during service promotes
localized over-heating. Generation of oxides on the tube
surface can induce localized over-heating due to its insu-
lating effect that promotes failure [2]. Correlation between
hardness and creep damage (Larsen-Miller parameter) was
studied in reheater and superheater tubes in fossil boilers
[3]. Purbolaksono et al. [4] showed the increase in tem-
perature and decrease in hardness with increment of oxide
scales in SA213-T22 steel tubes using finite element
analysis.
In this work, a failure analysis was done on the SA213-
T22 reheater tube by visual inspection, mechanical evalu-
ation and microstructural analysis. Finite element analysis
was also done using COMSOL Multiphysics [5] to see the
temperature distribution in the tube during service
conditions.

Low alloy steel has been widely used in conventional

power plant components like superheater, reheater tube etc.
Prolonged exposure of these types of materials at high
temperature and pressure results in aging of these materi-
als. Reheater tube failure is a very common issue in boilers.
Thickness: ~0.67mm
Improper heat transfer between steam and furnace gas
leads to problems of localized heating. Uneven heat
transfer is a result of non-uniform gas flow or non-uniform
steam distribution or oxide scale generation [1]. The sig-
nificant causes of failure in re-heater tubes are long-term

& Avijit Kr. Metya

avijit353@gmail.com; avijit@nmlindia.org
Scale
1
MST-Division, CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory,
Jamshedpur 831007, India Fig. 1 Failed reheater showing thin lipped rupture

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Table 1 Chemical compositions of received reheater tube and comparison with standard
Chemical compositions (in wt%)
C Mn P S Si Cr Mo

ASME SA213 T22 0.05–0.15 0.30–0.60 B0.025 B0.025 B0.5 1.90–2.60 0.87–1.13
Reheater rear tube 0.18 0.69 0.013 0.021 0.27 2.29 1.08

Table 2 Mechanical properties of the received tube with standard

data
Boiler tube Tensile strength Yeild strength Elongation
(UTS) (MPa) (YS) (MPa) (%)

Re-heater tube 327 196 41.7

(Sl. No.: 4)
(Unit #6)
(SA213 T22)
ASME SA213 T22 C415 C220 C30

Fig. 3 XRD analysis of the scales from outer surface of the pipe
showing mostly iron oxides

little bit of swelling was observed at and around the failed

region. The wall thickness of the end of the received tube
was *4.6 mm and the thickness at the fractured thin lip
was *0.67 mm. Non-uniform thick deposition of scale
was observed throughout the received tube on outer surface
with thickness of *1.2 mm. The internal diameter and the
thickness of the pipe were 56 and 4 mm respectively.

Tube with oxide layer 2.2 Chemical Analysis

Tube without oxide layer

Fig. 2 Tube and oxide layer used for simulation The chemical compositions of the tube was determined by
optical emission spectroscopy and are tabulated in Table 1
against the standard specifications. The chemical compo-
Table 3 Heat transfer properties of steam and flue gas used for sitions of the tube are within limit of standard specification.
simulation Hence there were no major discrepancies in the chemical
Material Bulk temperature Bulk temperature hsteam hflue compositions w.r.t. the standard chemical composition of
of steam (C) of flue gas (C) (W/m2 C) (W/m2 C) the steel under use.
SA213-T22 530 615 2053.65 126.01
2.3 Mechanical Evaluation

2.3.1 Tensile Properties

2 Experimental Results and Discussions
2.1 Visual Inspection
The visual inspection of the failed tube showed no wall
thinning except at the failure portion. Figure 1 shows the
failed tube as received during analysis. Failed tube section
revealed ductile breaks, with the edges became thinned. A
Tensile properties were evaluated by a universal tensile
testing machine at the strain rate of 10-3 per second and
the tensile properties, i.e., yield strength (YS), ultimate
tensile strength (UTS) and elongation, are reported in
Table 2. It is observed that both UTS and YS value of re-
heater tube are below the standard specification (i.e. ASME
SA213 T22).

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Fig. 4 Temperature
distribution along the tube
thickness in the presence of
oxide layer

Moreover, the estimated hoop stress developed in the

tube may be determined as
r þ 2t
rh ¼ P
t
where, P is the operational internal pressure; r and t are the
inner radius and wall thickness respectively. The operating
pressure of the tube was 37 kg/cm2. Accordingly, the hoop
stress is well below the limiting pressure.

2.4 Heat Transfer Model

The finite element analysis was carried out to analyze the

temperature distribution within the pipe. Free triangular
solid elements were chosen for doing this analysis. In the
Fig. 5 Temperature is almost linearly increasing with the increase of
oxide layer thickness presence of the oxide scale, the domain was defined as two

Fig. 6 Optical micrograph of the failed tube at the ruptured region a longitudinal view, b transverse view

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Fig. 7 Optical micrograph of the failed tube away from ruptured region a longitudinal view, b transverse view
regions; tube material and the oxide scales (Fig. 2). The
bulk temperature of the steam and the steam convection co-
efficient (hsteam) was given inside the pipe and the bulk
temperature of the flue gas and the flue gas convection co-
efficient (hflue) was given outside of the tube. Table 3
shows the various parameters used for analyzing the heat
transfer within the pipe.
hsteam and hflue are related to the Prandtl number and
the Reynolds number of the steam and the flue gas
respectively. Oxide layer is taken as magnetite (Fe3O4)
as X-ray diffraction analysis of the layer materials from
the failed tube reveals the presence of Fe2O3 and Fe3O4
(Fig. 3).
Simulation shows that the presence of oxide layer
increases the tube temperature. Figure 4 shows the tem-
perature distribution within the tube material along the
thickness in the presence of 1.2 mm thick oxide layer.
Maximum temperature of 566 C is observed in the region
where oxide layer is present.
Figure 5 shows almost the linear relation between tube
temperature and the oxide layer thickness obtained from
the simulation.
2.5 Microstructural Analysis
Figure 6a, b shows the optical microstructure of failed tube
near failed region and Fig. 7a, b shows away from failed
region. Ferritic structure can be seen away from failed
region with distribution of carbide precipitates (Fig. 7) but
Fig. 6 shows complete de-generation and spheroidization
of carbides near the failed region within ferrite matrix. This
degeneration and spheroidization may have occurred due to
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Trans Indian Inst Met (2016) 69(2):665–668
long term over-heating above the operating temperature
due to deposition of thick scales.
In Fig. 6, the optical micrographs show complete
spheroidization of the carbide particle after coarsening and
coalesce with most of the carbide particles concentrating
along the ferrite grain boundaries. Qualitatively, Fig. 6 i.e.
near rupture-region micrographs show more spheroidiza-
tion than Fig. 7 i.e. away from ruptured region.
3 Conclusions
• The reheater tube failed due to long-term over-heating.
This over-heating may be caused due to deposition of
thick oxides.
• This over-heating caused the spheroidization and
coarsening and coalescence of the carbides along the
grain boundaries by which strength reduced and rupture
occurred.
References
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12–14’2014; IIT Guwahati, Assam, India.
2. Starr F, Castle J, and Walker R, Mater High Temp 21 (2004).
3. Viswanathan R, Foulds J R, and Roberts D A, Proceeding of the
international conference on life extension and assessment, The
Hague.
4. Purbolaksono J, Ahmad J, Khinani A, Ali A A, and Rashid A Z, J
Loss Prev Process Ind 22 (2009).
5. COMSOL Multiphysics 5.1.