TP 2354

Transactions of The Indian Institute of Metals

Vol. 63, Issues 2-3, April-June 2010, pp. 411-416

Creep damage evaluation of a power plant header using

combined FEM analysis and quantitative metallography

M.K. Samal*, B.K. Dutta*, H.S. Kushwaha*, R. Daga** and G. Bandyopadhyay**

*
Health Safety and Environment Group, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400 085, India
**
NTPC R&D Centre, Noida-201 301, India

E-mail: mksamal@yahoo.com

Received 6 September 2008

Revised 2 February 2009 Keywords:
Accepted 2 February 2009 Online damage monitoring; residual life assessment;
Online at www.springerlink.com
quantitative metallography
© 2010 TIIM, India

Abstract
The actual operating conditions of a component may vary from the original design conditions either constantly or variably as a consequence
of deviation from design parameters. Hence, the knowledge of operating temperatures and stresses, both historically and for anticipated future
operation is required for an accurate life assessment. A number of high temperature and high stress components of Indian thermal power utilities
are being monitored round-the-clock for damage assessment by acquiring real-time process data using an on-line damage monitoring system
BOSSES, developed by BARC, Mumbai. A number of surface replicas have been obtained from the critical location of a shell-nozzle junction
of a super-heater header and analyzed by quantitative metallographic methods. The aim of these activities is to assess service damage of critical
components to prevent any unforeseen failure based on a closed loop on-line damage monitoring system-cum-surveillance-cum-life management
programme.

1. Introduction considers all the loading on the component such as pressure

Evaluation of damage due to creep and fatigue in critical
power plant components is of significant interest to
researchers involved in life estimation and life extension of
these components [1-3]. However, accurate life estimation
requires significant amount of data relating to loading history
and material properties at these critical locations. Traditional
life estimation techniques rely on the use of non-destructive
evaluation methods to detect presence of any significant
defect in these components and use codal rules to estimate
the remaining life. In this process, it is difficult to incorporate
the effect of prior operational history on the evolution of
damage in the material. Again, the state of micro-structural
degradation is also not quantified and hence not considered
explicitly for life estimation.
In this paper, the authors describe an online damage
monitoring system that has been combined with quantitative
metallography to evaluate the damage due to creep and
fatigue in power plant components [1]. The damage
monitoring system (called BOSSES, the acronym for BARC
Online Structural Safety Evaluation System) is a finite element
(FE) based program which has several modules to calculate
damage in the material. It is interfaced with a real-time data
acquisition system that acquires data of plant transients,
such as pressure, temperature and flow of fluid through the
component under monitoring. The thermal module (which
uses FEM to solve the transient heat conduction problem)
evaluates the temperature distribution in the actual 3D
geometry using fluid temperature and appropriate convective
boundary condition. The structural module evaluates the
stress distribution in the 3D geometry using FE analysis and
load, dead weight, thermal stress and piping loads etc. The
3D stress and temperature information are then used to
calculate the combined creep and fatigue damage at the
material point. The fracture mechanics module evaluates the
crack growth due to creep and fatigue from the postulated
cracks at critical locations using the 3D stress and
temperature information. This system has been monitoring
critical headers of several NTPC thermal power plants [1].
Case study of a particular super-heater outlet header is
presented here to demonstrate the methodology. Replicas of
microstructure have been obtained from many shell-nozzle
junctions of this header and studied through optical
microscope. These microstructures have been evaluated to
determine several parameters, such as the grain boundary
cavity density, A-parameter (no. of damaged grain
boundaries) etc. Based on continuum damage mechanics,
these parameters have been used along with FEM results of
stress and temperature distribution to evaluate the life
consumed at the above material points. Finally, a
methodology have been recommended which can be used
for rational evaluation of remaining life of critical plant
components subjected to creep and fatigue loading
conditions.
2. Creep cavitation process in power plant steels
and the life assessment procedure
If the code based calculation of life consumption [4-5]
and a review of operating and maintenance render the
component is unacceptable for further service, then one
412 Samal et al. : Trans. IIM Vol. 63, Issues 2-3, April-June 2010
should use results from in-service inspection involving
conventional non-destructive evaluation methods and various
metallographic techniques [6]. The overall philosophy is to
identify the physical metallurgical processes that are either
life limiting (e.g., creep cavitation) or are related to life
consumption (e.g., thermal softening). For each process,
directly observable indicators are selected that can be used
qualitatively or quantitatively in life prediction. Creep
cavitation is the precursor to the creep cracking that
ultimately results in creep failure. In some steels, grain
boundary cavitation develops early in life, progressing
steadily through the stages of growth and linkage into
microcracks before reaching the failure point. This behavior
is generally characteristic of low ductility steels, the cavities
forming preferentially on grain boundaries orientated normal
to the maximum principal stress on particles such as sulfides
or carbides [7-8]. Conversely, higher ductility materials may
not exhibit detectable cavitation until a late stage in life and
the cavities or voids may form intragranularly or on grain
boundaries experiencing the maximum shear stress. In either
case the detection of cavities as early as possible is essential
and this has become one of the major tools in any life
management program.
3. Methods for quantification of micro-structural
degradation mechanisms
Creep cavitation damage can be measured by direct
observation. The metallographic method of examination
involves the following steps, i.e., removal of samples from a
location, in-situ replication (when removal of sample is
difficult or not permissible or repeated observation is
required). This method can be used to observe microstructure
(creep cavitation, grain size etc.) using surface replication
and optical microscopy. It can also be used for examination
and identification of small second-phase particles by replica
technique (for determining inter-particle spacing). Replicas
can provide information on the condition of the material.
They are nondestructive and can be taken from any
accessible point. They provide data relevant to the surface
of the component. The procedure of surface replication is
sensitive to cavitation and hence suitable for assessment of
high temperature components. There also exists a standard
method for this purpose, i.e., ASTM E1351-90.
3.1 Quantification using A-parameter
The need for a quantitative assessment parameter which
was as independent of preparation procedure as possible but
which could still be related mechanistically rather than
empirically to creep-life led to the development of the ‘A’
parameter [9-10]. According to the Kachanov’s continuum
damage model [11], a creep curve can be described by the
following coupled equations.
(1)
where B, C, m, K and Q are the material constants, H is the
creep strain and Z is the generalized damage parameter, in
this case describing cavitation damage, which varies from 0
in the undamaged state to 1 at failure. In the simplified form
often used, primary creep is neglected, i.e., m = 0 and damage
is assumed to be strain controlled, i.e., K n; where n is the
stress exponent of the uni-axial creep rate. The use of this
simplified form then leads to the following relationship
between the A-parameter and the remaining life fraction, i.e.,
(2)
where / is the ratio of tertiary to secondary creep strain rate.
The A-parameter is defined as the number fraction of
cavitating grain boundaries encountered in a line parallel to
the direction of maximum principal stress. The measurements
are usually made with optical microscope with magnification
levels of 400X to 500X. The replica to be measured is
traversed along the direction of maximum principal stress. As
each grain boundary is intersected, it is either classified as
damaged or undamaged using a set of rules. A grain boundary
is called damaged if it contains one or more cavities (or
micro-cracking) along its observable length including cavities
centered on the triple point itself; otherwise it is treated as
undamaged. Multiple intersections with the same boundary
are each counted and are classified with the damage state of
the whole boundary. Intersections with triple points count as
one boundary intersection. The classification of damaged or
undamaged is determined by a majority vote of damage states
of the three adjoining boundaries. It is usually necessary to
count a minimum of 400 grain boundaries (with a series of
parallel traverses separated by two fields of view to get an
accurate value of the A-parameter). If the number of damaged
boundaries is ND and the number of undamaged boundaries
is NU, then the A-parameter is defined as A=ND / (ND+NU).
3.2 Quantification using cavity density ' f '
The cavity density is defined as the number of cavities
per unit area. Measurement is done through direct
observation with microscope or through photographs. The
replica is traversed in the direction of maximum principal
stress. The features like cavity linkage (if any) should be
noted. In principle, the cavity fraction can be used to calculate
the lower bound strain that a component has experienced
using equation of the form
(3)
where the I function depends upon nucleation and growth
kinetics [12-14]. The ratio of lower bound value of strain H to
the rupture strain Hr can be written as function of a ratio of
current cavity density f to the critical cavity density fcaw
(4)
where q is a material dependent constant (1<q<2) and fc is
the critical value of f at failure. In order to estimate remaining
component life from the above strain ratio values, a suitable
parametric model which adequately describes the creep
behavior is required. A model derived by Cane [15-17] from
the earlier work by Kachanov [11] and Robotnov [18] gives
the following expressions that can be used to give direct
estimate of remaining life fraction.
(5)
 Samal et al. : Trans. IIM Vol. 63, Issues 2-3, April-June 2010 413

where tr is the rupture life and Hs is the Monkman Grant
constant [5].
4. Evaluation of damage in the shell-nozzle
junction of a superheater outlet header
The on-line creep fatigue monitoring system was installed
for superheater outlet header (SHOH), reheater outlet header,
reheater inlet header, left & right hot reheat pipe bends of a
unit of a thermal power station of India in August, 2006. The
actual plant transients used by BOSSES are main steam
pressure, temperature and flow and similar parameters in
other circuits such as hot and cold reheat lines. The system
is acquiring on-line plant transients and computing the
accrued creep and fatigue damages and estimating the
remaining life based on extrapolation of logged computed
data.
During full power operation, the main steam pressure and
temperatures are approximately 150 Kg/cm 2 and 535°C
respectively. The corresponding pressure and temperature in
the hot reheat lines are 38 and 538°C respectively. The
pressure and temperature in the cold reheat lines are 39 and
355°C respectively. The main steam flow is approximately 680
tonnes per hour for the full power operation of the unit.
However, these parameters change during the operation and
their actual variation with time as acquired by the data
acquisition system are shown in Fig. 1 for one of the
parameter (i.e., main steam temperature) for a period of last
one month of plant operation. The computed values of
material temperature, maximum stress intensity and damage
history at a shell-nozzle junction of the superheater outlet
header are shown in Fig. 2. After 11482 hours of on-line
monitoring, the component SHOH had an accumulated
damage index of 0.245 which on extrapolation to the total
operating time of 1,15,913 hours (presuming the component
had been operated in similar service conditions) indicated
that the identified stub-header weld joints of the SHOH had
consumed its ASME design life fraction of 1. Thus the SHOH
was taken for surveillance programme for Residual Life

Fig. 1 : Variation of main steam temperature with time as acquired by the plant sensors

Fig. 2 : Computed material stress intensity, temperature and damage history at a shell-nozzle junction of the super-heater outlet header
414 Samal et al. : Trans. IIM Vol. 63, Issues 2-3, April-June 2010

Assessment (RLA) as per IBR Act 391A of 1998 as a
statutory requirement.
4.1 Results from quantitative metallography
Some of the locations of the SHOH, where replica was
taken following the cryogenic in-situ metallographic
technique developed in Ref. [19], shows fully spheroidised
carbides and creep cavities at grain boundaries, with damage
level of 2 and between 1 & 2 as per Neubauer ’s [6]
classification [Fig. 3]. Qualitatively speaking, the header will
need re-inspection to monitor its health in the next 4 to 5
years. The results of the quantitative damage assessment of
the header location from the replicas (using A-parameter as
discussed in Section 3.1) along with the location identity &
description indicating their damage levels and ratings as per
Neubauer ’s classification are shown in Table 1. The
consumed creep life fraction and the corresponding remaining
life fractions computed are also depicted in the table
[calculated using Eq.(2)]. For this calculation, the material
parameters n and / are required, which are taken as 4.7 and
5.0 respectively which are typical for a 2.25Cr1Mo steel as
commonly used for power plant piping and header
material [20]. The material in this case is the ASME SA335
P22 grade steel. The creep strain rate hardening exponent n
corresponds to the Norton’s law in which time is in hours
and stress is in MPa.
The physical observation in qualitative metallography of
micro-cracks at accessible location C, in close proximity to
stub-header weld joint is indicative of a very common
localized damage phenomenon of ligament crack initiation in
the header. Since the consumed life calculated by quantitative
metallography at the investigated location C is around 99%
for a total operating period of 1,12,447 hours, it is necessary
to be vigilant. As the damage is highly localized due to the
discontinuity in the geometry, it may not lead to header
failure and hence it is not necessary to replace the header.
This indicates local micro-structural degradation due to creep
damage and may lead to creep crack initiation and subsequent
crack growth at this location. It is necessary to have a
surveillance programme in place for the above location and
it may be necessary to grind this location to remove the
degraded material and fill it with repair welding technique
when the micro-structure is sufficiently degraded as
determined from the quantitative procedures.
The results of quantitative life assessment using the
cavity density parameterare shown in Table 2. The cavity
density is calculated from image analysis of different replicas
as shown in Fig. 3. The different cavity factions computed
from the replicas are also shown in these figures. Many such
replicas were analysed to determine the cavity fractions. The
distributions of cavity fractions from different images are
shown in Fig. 4 using a bar-chart along with a cumulative
probability distribution. It was observed from Fig. 4 that the

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

Fig. 3(a): Quantification of grain boundary cavity density from a replica (f = 0.19%)
Fig. 3(b): Quantification of grain boundary cavity density from a replica (f = 0.25%)
Fig. 3(c): Quantification of grain boundary cavity density from a replica (f = 0.23%)
Fig. 3(d): Quantification of grain boundary cavity density from a replica (f = 0.29%)
 Samal et al. : Trans. IIM Vol. 63, Issues 2-3, April-June 2010 415

Table 1 : Results of quantitative damage assessment using A-parameter

Location Location Damage Damage A- Consumed Remaining
ID Description Level Rating parameter Life fraction Life fraction
D Stub tube 3 Oriented cavities 0.34 0.913 0.087
C Tube Ligament-1 4 Microcracks 0.57 0.993 0.007
A Header surface 3 Oriented cavities 0.31 0.887 0.113
B Tube ligament-2 2 Isolated cavities 0.13 0.559 0.441

Table 2: Results of quantitative damage assessment using cavity density

Fig. No. Cavity density f (%) Consumed Life fraction Remaining Life fraction
3(a) 0.19 0.839 0.161
3(b) 0.25 0.884 0.116
3(c) 0.23 0.871 0.129
3(d) 0.29 0.906 0.094

majority of cavity fractions lie between 0.2% and 0.3%. Such
values are tabulated in Table 2 along with the calculated
values of consumed and remaining life fractions. The
calculation is done using Eqs. and . The material properties
used for this analysis are fc = 0.035, q = 1.9, Hr = 0.3, Hs = 0.04
which are typical for this material [20]. It may be noted from
Table 2 that the location has exhausted the creep life and the
same conclusion was also drawn from results of online
monitoring and analysis using A-parameter method as
discussed earlier.
For estimating the remaining life using information from
cavity density, it may be required to separate the density of
precipitates (which are mostly carbides in these types of low
alloy steels) in the replicas. For this purpose, one can use
carbide extraction replicas if it is not possible to extract small
samples of metal from the components for analysis. The
process is similar to that used for cavitation assessment. The
replicas may be examined in the scanning transmission
electron microscope to enable both microstructural and
Fig. 4 : Distribution of cavity density from several replicas taken
from the shell-nozzle junction
chemical studies of the precipitates. The plastic extraction
replica technique, however, suffers from some limitations,
notably inconsistency in the extraction of very fine carbides
such as VC and Mo2C and hence, it is not widely used in
the field. Another issue in the remaining life assessment is
the consideration of degradation of the microstructure during
creep. Hence, different creep material properties, e.g., strain
hardening exponent for creep, creep rupture strain, ratio of
tertiary to secondary creep strain rate and Monkman Grant
constant etc. are functions of time (i.e., they vary as the
microstructure degrades due to various mechanisms). For
quantification of remaining life, one needs to know the above
data which may be possible to be determined in the laboratory,
though the process is cumbersome.
5. Conclusion: A recommended procedure for life
assessment
The final evidence for the development of creep damage
during service is the initiation and growth of discrete cracks
either by creep processes alone or by creep fatigue
interactions. These may form either as single crack at stress
concentrating features or as the final phase of more
generalized damage. In the case of the former, it is often
possible to extend life by local repair procedures involving
grinding out of the crack and replacement of the metal by
welding, often accompanied by repro-filing to remove the
stress concentration. Another example is the growth of creep
cracks in the heat affected zones of welds in heavy section
steam pipes. In this case, the formation of the cracks may be
exacerbated by the presence of localized regions of weak or
low ductility microstructure, which may be modified during
the repair. If, however, the cracking is a consequence of more
widespread creep damage, then it will generally appear as
multiple cracks on either the macro- or microscopic level.
Examples of this form of end of life damage may occur in the
weld metal of heavy section welds and in also pipe bends.
Headers originally fabricated from low alloy steels such as
2.25Cr1Mo type may be replaced by components made from
higher creep strength material such as modified 9Cr-Mo
steels.
Quantitative metallographic methods using replication
techniques are very useful micro-structural techniques for
damage assessment. From previous plant experience, the
critical components may be selected for online damage
416 Samal et al. : Trans. IIM Vol. 63, Issues 2-3, April-June 2010
monitoring. The critical locations within the components may
be identified from the results of the monitoring system as
discussed in this work. During plant shut-down period, these
locations should be accessed to obtain the replicas for
determining A-parameter, cavity density and carryout suitable
tests such as micro-hardness test for hardness measurement
etc. Now-a-days, advanced techniques are also available for
removing samples for accelerated creep testing without
compromising the integrity of the component, the result of
which may be used in the remaining life calculations. If the
critical regions are not accessible (e.g., damage in welds
generally initiates subsurface due to micro-structural
variations), the results of stress and damage analysis (from
online monitoring system), service experience, and ultrasonic
examinations may be used for suitable assessment.
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