Sth EPRI Balanc-of Plant Heat Exchanger NDE Symposium SLEEVING OF A HIGH PRESSURE FEEDWATER HEATER AS A COST EFFECTIVE ALTERNATIVE TO REPLACEMENT CL. Friant K.N. Craft H.J. Brust T.M. Robertson Baltimore Gas and Electric Company 1000 Brandon Shores Road Baltimore, Maryland 21226 Abstract This paper describes a project undertaken by Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE) to restore a non-functioning feedwater heater to service. A “tube-in-a-tube” repair was accomplished by the installation and hydraulic expansion of sleeves which spanned the entire length of the desuperheating zone of the feedwater heater. The length of the sleeves, at 87 inches, are believed to the longest ever installed in a high pressure feedwater heater. Background ‘The #15 High Pressure Feedwater Heater is located in C. P. Crane Station Unit #1, a 200 MW B&W subcritical once-through coal-fired cyclone boiler power plant. It is a 3-zone feedwater heater design fabricated by Yuba Corporation and placed into service in 1989. The design conditions of the heater are 3410 psi pressure and 650 °F feedwater inlet temperature. The 721 U-bend tubes, which comprise #15 Feedwater Heater are Grade SA-688 (seam-welded) 304 stainless steel alloy with an outside diameter of 0.625 in, minimum wall thicknesses of 0.083 in,, 0.078 in. and 0.075 in. for Rows 1 and 2, 3 to 9, and 10 to 22, respectively, and the straight sections measure 30 ft-11 in. long. The counting protocol used for both Inlet and Outlet was that the row number increased from the divider plate outward. ‘The current #15 Feedwater Heater is actually the third #15 Feedwater Heater installed at the power plant and had performed without any problems for 9 years until June, 1997 when 10 tubes were plugged for on-line leakage. At this time plant personnel did not understand what caused the leaks or whether it was an isolated incident or a widespread problem. By September, 1997 indication of new tube leakage was present.‘5th EPRI Balance-of Plant Heat Exchanger NDE Symposia Plant personnel decided to perform a limited exploratory eddy current examination to characterize and, hopefully, bound the problem. Initial Eddy Current Survey and Destructive Analysis ‘The planned examination included the bundle periphery and tubes surrounding the cluster of the 10 leaking tubes found in June. In late September the #15 Feedwater Heater was opened for eddy current testing and leak checking via shell-side pressurization with 90 psi air. Several new tube leaks were located scattered over the tubesheet. The eddy current testing commenced on the periphery in the outermost rov of the outlet pass. Beginning with the first tube tested, virtually every tube had multiple, sharp, crack-liki indications originating from the tube outside diameter (O.D.). The newly discovered leaking tubes exhibited the same eddy current behavior but with lightly larger depth values, After testing the four outermost rows of the outlet pass it became obvious that the damage could not be bounded and that we were facing a serious problem. A sampling of tubes in the inlet pass was then performed and revealed no indications, a sharp contrast to what was found in the outlet pass. At this point a tube pull was requested to help determine what could have caused the extensive damage found in the outlet pass tubing. Meanwhile, further analysis of the eddy current data revealed that the damage was confined to the desuperheating zone « the feedwater heater. Originally it was thought that fatigue cracks due to high steam flows were responsible, but these would tend to diminish toward the interior of the bundle. The only plausible explanation was that the stainless steel tubing had undergone extensive stress corrosion cracking. ‘Three tubes were pulled from the outlet pass and destructively analyzed. This confirmed that O.D.-initiated stress corrosion cracking was indeed the responsible mechanism. Other more specific observations included: ‘+ more cracks were present than detected by eddy current, * cracks were straight, discrete and approximately equally divided between axia and circumferential orientations, * cracks were filled with tightly packed oxides to the extent that they did not bleed when liquid penetrant tested, and * analysis of chemical deposits on the tubes and in the cracks revealed the presence of chloride and sulfur ions but not in large concentrationsSt) EPRI Blanc-ofPan Heat Exchanger NDESymposien Based on the eddy current testing, the destructive analysis of pulled tubes, and other maintenance and operating considerations, plant personnel elected to return the unit to service with feedwater and steam flow to the #15 Feedwater Heater bypassed. Problems directly attributable to bypassing the #15 Feedwater Heater emerged, including excessive vibration of the boiler feed pump turbine and increased occurrence of tube leaks in the next stage #16 Feedwater Heater. While having the #15 Feedwater Heater out of service had little effect on the power output of the unit, it did increase the fuel cost necessary to produce the equivalent amount of power by ~$10,000/month. Feedwater Heater Repair Options In less than four months from when plant personnel first became aware of any problem with the #15 Feedwater Heater they were forced to run the unit without it. A project team consisting of representatives from appropriate plant and engineering disciplines ‘was quickly mobilized. Only two repair options, feedwater heater replacement or retubing appeared readily available to the plant. Earlier in 1997, BGE became aware of a novel repair that CTI Industries (Stratford, CT) had performed in May, 1996 on a high pressure heater at Florida Power and Tight’s Port Everglades Unit #6. The work performed consisted of insertion and hydraulic expansion of 40 - 18 in. long 70/30 Cu/Ni “shields” into 5/8 x 16 BWG Morel tubing. ‘The damage in their feedwater heater was due to stress corrosion cracking in the roll at the back of the outlet tubesheet. BGE was impressed that CTI had successfully achieved. a structural repair in previously out-of-service tubes with through-wall cracks and had operated 16 months without any tube leakage. This was a significant advance beyond the typical non-structural repairs which utilized an insert “shield” to mitigate inlet end erosion damage. At this point BGE approached CTI to discuss the feasibility of performing a similar repair on #15 Feedwater Heater but one which would require a much longer sleeve length, Based on initial discussions with CTI, BGE elected to pursue the sleeving option. Prior to sleeving though, several more pieces of information were required. ‘These included: + how many tubes needed to be sleeved, how long, what diameter, and what material should they be made out of? ‘what effect would sleeving have on the performance characteristics of the #15, Feedwater Heater? and ‘+ how would the sleeving option compare from a cost standpoint to feedwater heater replacement or retubing?Sth EPRI Balance-of Pant Heat Exchanger NDE Symposiuss Pre-Sleeving Eddy Current Assessment To determine the number of sleeves required, a 100% eddy current examination of the outlet pass, where the damage was known to occur and also the inlet pass tubing as ‘well was performed. If extensive damage was found in the inlet pass tubing then the benefit of sleeving the outlet, even if 100% effective, would be short-lived. The second abjective of the eddy current examination was to determine how far down the tube the stress corrosion cracking had occurred in each tube. The purpose of this would be to provide CTI with the necessary length to make the sleeves in order to “cover” all the stress corrosion damage. In December, 1997 BGE performed the 100% examination described above, including several deplugged tubes just to make sure that the damage was confined to the desuperheating zone. While the feedwater heater was open for eddy current testing, CTI took ID measurements on a sampling of the three different tubes sizes to determin what diameter(s) of sleeve material to order. The eddy current results were favorable 4 continuing to pursue the sleeving option. The outlet pass stress corrosion cracking damage was found to lie wholly within the first 77 inches of tubing and no stress corrosion cracking was found in the inlet pass tubing, Based on correlation to the tube pulls and to allow for positional uncertainty of the ET measurements it was decided to specify that the sleeves be 87 inches in length, which also corresponded to the location of the first full tube support beyond the desuperheating zone Finally, grade 316L stainless steel was selected for the sleeve material itself based on its electro-chemical compatibility with the existing 304 stainless steel parent tubing, its ready availability and its favorable expansion characteristics. Performance Considerations Sleeving the #15 Feedwater Heater would, in principle, permit many of the 5% of tube: currently plugged to be placed back in operation, thereby improving the performance of the heater upon its return to service. More importantly than the direct operational fuel cost savings resulting from sleeving the #15 Feedwater Heater is the effect it has 0 the feedwater and steam system. It has been analyzed/stated that vibration problems with main boiler feed pump turbine are directly related to the out-of-service status of the #15 Feedwater Heater. The vibration problem is due to changed flow path characteristics in the boiler feed pump turbine. Also, the duty or load on the remainin, heater in service has increased beyond its intended design operating limits. This is du to the lower feedwater temperature entering the #16 Feedwater Heater. Keeping the #15 Feedwater Heater out of service will cause the #16 Feedwater Heater to prematurely fail. This is mainly due to the increased steam flow into the desuperheating zone, resulting in steam velocities above the recommended limit of 15( ft/sec. A remote field eddy current examination subsequently performed on the #16‘50 EPRI Balance-of Plant Heat Exchanger NDE Spmposu, Feedwater Heater did reveal significant steam erosion damage of the Carbon Steel tubing at the exit of the desuperheating zone. Economic Considerations To justify the sleeving project a cost/ benefits analysis was performed. Given that thy #15 Feedwater Heater was less than 10 years old and atherwise in very goad conditi the conventional repair that would have normally been performed would have been in-place retubing. For basis of comparison a retube would have had a lead time of 6- weeks for tube fabrication, bending and delivery vs. a lead time of 4 weeks for delive of sleeves and fabrication of customized tooling. The durations of the outage require for retubing vs. 100% sleeving were roughly equivalent at 10-14 days depending on number of shifts. The cost of 100% sleeving of the outlet pass was just over half of th associated with a total retube. Due to the shorter lead time and lower cost, sleeving chosen over retubing. Sleeve Installation The sleeving process consisted of the following steps: 1) Removing the feedwater heater head. Cutting the existing pass partition p flange to gain access to the lower rows of tubes for sleeving. 2) Removing the existing tube plugs from the heater, 3) Cleaning out any debris in the tubes using sponge balls driven by plant air 4) Preparing tubes for sleeve installation by wire brush cleaning (driven by a rotary drill motor) to a depth exceeding the length of the sleeve by six inches. Tub were then _ blown free of dust and debris using clean, dry compressed air. 5) Inserting tube sleeves into 709 open tubes in the outlet pass. 6) Hydraulically expanding the sleeves until they are mechanically attached t the existing tube. This process, referred to by CTI as hydroswaging, required pressures of ~ 7000 psi. 7) Roller expanding sleeves at the tubesheet and opposite sleeve end. 8) Eddy current examination of a 20% sampling of expanded sleeves to obtait baseline _signatures of “clean” sleeves installed in the host tube. A special eddy currentsleeve _standard with simulated axial and circumferential cracks was fabricated for this purpose.Sth EPRI Balance-of Plant Heat Exchanger NDE Symposium 9) Rewelding the pass partition plate flange and machining smooth the gaskete pass partition plate surface. 10) Reinstallation of the partition plate and reassembly of the feedwater heater head. The sleeving was executed as planned with the exception that a shortage of one of the two sleeve sizes led to installation of a number of undersized sleeves into the feedwat« heater. About 20% of these tubes failed the air test and it was determined that these sleeves could not be expanded enough to make a good seal with the parent tube. Subsequently, all 77 tubes with the undersized sleeves were preventatively plugged During an upcoming outage these sleeves will be removed and the proper size sleeve installed, thereby enabling recovery of 11% of the tubes in #15 Feedwater Heater. For variety of reasons 22 tubes (~3%) could not be sleeved which was thought to be a reasonable and acceptable percentage. Problems were also encountered with the partition plate reinstallation due to unaccounted for weld shrinkage on the order of 1/16”. This will require removal and repair of the partition plate at the same time that the 77 tubes will be resleeved. Post-Sleeving Feedwater Heater Performance A thermal performance test on #15 Feedwater Heater was performed approximately one month after completion of the sleeving project. The results indicate that the terminal temperature difference (TTD), a measure of the heat transfer capability of the feedwater heater, was essentially the same after sleeving although nearly 14% of tubes are now plugged. It is expected after the correct size sleeves are installed in 77 tubes 0 11% of total tubes, that the TTD will drop to around 9 °F, which is less than the TTD value prior to sleeving. Conclusions For #15 Feedwater Heater the sleeve repair has restored an otherwise non-functioning feedwater heater back to operational condition at a minimum of cost and time. So far, the #15 Feedwater Heater has operated for 3 months and 4 four cold restarts without any evidence of leakage. The timeliness of sleeving vs retube or replacement options also minimized the accumulation of damage to #16 Feedwater Heater and the boiler feed pump turbine. Had the all the tubes been sleeved with the appropriate size sleev the percentage of plugged tubes would now be approximately 3%, which froma thermal performance standpoint would be essentially as good as the heater was when new.‘sh EFL Ealune of Plant Host Exchanger NDE Symposia Future Considerations Since the #15 Feedwater Heater has operated only several months since sleeving it is premature to declare that the sleeves are a permanent fix. Follow-up eddy current examinations of the sleeves are planned to monitor aleeve condition and hopefully will provide adequate warning of their impending failure should they be susceptible to Gegradation. The Plant plans to install a steam sampling line just prior to entering #15, Feedwater Heater to check for the presence of chlorides and sulfides which could cause the reoccurrence of stress corrosion cracking This type of sleeving repair has applicability to feedwater heaters with localized damage relatively close to the tubesheet. Duc to installation tooling considerations it is ‘most economically feasible to perform when sleeves ofall the same length are required, This requires that the location of the damage be well characterized by eddy current or other appropriate methods. Acknowledgments The authors wish to express their gratitude to CT Industries for performing the sleeving work described in this paper. We also acknowledge the assistance of the Power Generation Feedwater Heater Life Extension Team at Florida Power and Light Corporation for taking a leadership role in promoting this new technology and sharing their experiences with a fellow utility. Finally the authors would like to thank Dr. Sanford R. Buxbaum for his diligence, expertise and patience in helping prepare this ‘manuscript for publication.