Thermal Stress Evaluation by Elastic-Creep Analysis during Start-up of Boiler Header

Thermal stress and elastic creeping stress analysis was conducted by finite element method to simulate start-up process of a boiler header of 500MW standard fossil power plant. Start-up temperature and operating pressure history were simplified from the real field data and they were used for the thermal stress analysis. Two kinds of thermal stress analysis were considered. In the first case only temperature increase was considered and in the second case both of temperature and operating pressure histories were considered. In the first analysis peak stress was occurred during the temperature increase from the room temperature. Hence cracking or fracture may occur at the temperature far below the operating maximum temperature. In the results of the second analysis von Mises stress appeared to be higher after the second temperature increase. This is due to internal pressure increase not due to the thermal stress. When the stress components of radial(r), hoop($\theta$) and longitudinal(z) stress were investigated, compression hoop stress was occurred at inner surface of the stub tube when the temperature increased from room temperature to elevated temperature. Then it was changed to tension hoop stress and increased because of the operating pressure. It was expected that frequent start-up and shut-down operations could cause thermal fatigue damage and cracking at the stub tube hole in the header. Elastic-creeping analysis was also carried out to investigate the stress relaxation due to creep and stabilized stress after considerable elapsed time. The results could be used for assessing the creep damage and the residual life of the boiler header during the long-tenn service.

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