Failure analysis on a primary superheater tube of a power plant

In this paper failure analysis on the SA213-T12 superheater tube by visual inspection, in situ measurements of hardness and finite element analyses is presented. A primary superheater tube has failed with a wide open burst after running at around 28,194 h. Heavy clinkers were found to almost entirely cover the primary superheater region. In situ hardness measurements were carried out on the selected primary superheater first row tubes at the middle region between furnace rear screen tube and primary superheater blower now path. Hardness measurements are also taken on the as-received failed tube. Finite element analyses on possible features prior to failure are also conducted in order to illustrate and deduce the failure mechanism and failure root cause. Localized short-term overheating of the tube due to localized and concentrated flue gas flow resulted in a failure of the primary superheater tube. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.