• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.242-248
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• 2021

Unforeseen failures of boilers in power plants may affect the continuation of electricity generation. Main failures in boilers are influenced by the tube material, tube position, boiler service temperature and pressure, and chemical composition of the feed water and coal. This investigation was intended to find answers on the causes and mechanism of failure of the fire-side boiler water-wall tubes, due to perforation and corrosion. The tube conformed to the material requirements in terms of its chemical composition and hardness. Microscopic examination showed ferrite and pearlite indicating no changes in its microstructure due to the temperature variation. SEM test showed a single layer and homogenous film density particularly on the area far from perforation. However, layers of corrosion product were formed on the nearby perforation area. EDX showed that there were Na, Ca, S, and O elements on the failed surface. XRD indicated the presence of Fe₂O₃ oxide. The failure mechanism was identified as a result of significant localized wall thinning of the boiler water wall-tube due to oxidation.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Nondestructive Testing
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.181-187
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• 2016

A thermal power plant has a heat exchanger tube to collect and convert the heat generated from the high temperature and pressure steam to energy, but the tubes are arranged in a complex manner. In the event that a leakage occurs in any of these tubes, the high-pressure steam leaks out and may cause the neighboring tubes to rupture. This leakage can finally stop power generation, and hence there is a dire need to establish a suitable technology capable of detecting tube leaks at an early stage even before it occurs. As shown in this paper, by applying acoustic emission (AE) technology in existing boiler tube leak detection equipment (BTLD), we developed a system that detects these leakages early enough and generates an alarm at an early stage to necessitate action; the developed system works better that the existing system used to detect fine leakages. We verified the usability of the system in a 560MW-class thermal power plant boiler by conducting leak tests by simulating leakages from a variety of hole sizes (ⵁ2, ⵁ5, ⵁ10 mm). Results show that while the existing fine leakage detection system does not detect fine leakages of ⵁ2 mm and ⵁ5 mm, the newly developed system could detect leakages early enough and generate an alarm at an early stage, and it is possible to increase the signal to more than 18 dB.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.200-211
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• 1998

Heat transfer performance improvement by fin and groovs is studied for condensation of R-11 on integral-fin tubes. Eight tubes with trapczodially shaped integral-fins having fin density from 748 to 1654fpm(fin per meter) and 10, 30 grooves are tested. A plain tube having the same diameter as the finned tubes is also used for comparison. R-11 condensates at saturation state of 32 $^{\circ}C$ on the outside tube surface coded by inside water flow. All of test data are taken at steady state. The heat transfer loop is used for testing singe long tubes and cooling is pumped from a storage tank through filters and folwmeters to the horizontal test section where it is heated by steam condensing on the outside of the tubes. The pressure drop across the test section is measured by menas pressure gauge and manometer. The results obtained in this study is as follows : 1. Based on inside diameter and nominal inside area, overall heat transfer coefficients of finned tube are enhanced up to 1.6 ~ 3.7 times that of a plain tube at a constant Reynolds number. 2. Friction factors are up to 1.6 ~ 2.1 times those of plain tubes. 3. The constant pumping power ratio for the low integral-fin tubes increase directly with the effective area to the nominal area ratio, and with the effective area diameter ratio. 4. A tube having a fin density of 1299fpm and 30 grooves has the best heat transfer performance.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.82-88
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• 2012

The thickness and chemical composition of oxides on heat recovery steam generator tubes of combined cycle power plant were examined in order to evaluate the corrosion of the tubes. Tubes were removed from the plant after actual operations for 21,482, 42,552 and 56,123 hours respectively. Thickness and growth rate of the oxide scale on reheater inner tube (SA213-T22) were very high compared to those other tubes. The oxide scale was about $250{\mu}m$ thick and uniform. The components of the scale were iron oxides. The oxide scale was mixed oxides consisting of magnetite$(Fe_3O_4)$ and hematite$(Fe_2O_3)$. The oxide on inner tube was removed using many kinds of chemicals and it was found that chelating agents were dissolved faster than other chemicals.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.67-77
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• 1996

The heat transfer performance of R - 11 vapor condensing on integral fin tubes has been studied using fin tubes having the fin density from 748 to 1654 fins per meter. Electric heater supplied heat energy to the boiler to generate R - 11 vapor over the range of 25-60W. Condensation rates of each tubes were tested under the condition of cooling water flow rate from 400l/h to 2500l/h. For the seven fin tubes tested, the best performance has been obtained with a tube having a fin density of 1417fpm and a fin height of 1.3mm. This tube has yielded a maximum value of the heat transfer coefficient of 16500W/$m_2$K, at a vapor to wall temperature difference of 3K. Experimental results of integral fin tubes have been compared with available predictive models such as Beatty - Katz's analysis, Webb's analysis, Sukhatme's analysis and Rudy's empirical relation. The experimental results were shown to be in good agreement with that of the Sukhatme's analysis.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.342-348
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• 2002

The welding technology for production of power plant facility as for other industries has been progressing forward automation and mechanization for cost reduction and shortening of cycle time. The welding for boiler tube is automated or mechanized as the parts and subassemblies of tubes are conveyed automatically in the shop. The temperature of boiler stearn is being progressively increased for higher plant efficiency. The welding of nuclear component is characterized by heavy thickness and narrow gap Submerged Arc Welding. Narrow gap Gas Metal Arc Welding and Electron Beam Welding is applied to turbine diaphragm. To improve the resistance of solid particle erosion of turbine blade and nozzle partition, HVOF spray technology and boriding process has been applied.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.24 no.11
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• pp.2812-2822
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• 2000

Several methods have been developed to predict the rupture time of the boiler tubes in thermal power plant. However, existing life prediction methods give very conservative value at operating stress of power plant and rupture strain cannot be well estimated. Therefore, in this study, rupture time and strain prediction method accounting for creep, corrosion and heat transfer is newly proposed and compared with the current research results. The creep damage evolves by continuous cavity nucleation and constrained cavity growth. The corrosion damage evolves by steam side and fire side corrosion. The results showed good correlation between the theoretically predicted rupture time and the current research results. And rupture strain may be well estimated by using the proposed method.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.265-270
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• 2012

A finned tube type heat exchange module has been proposed for a multi-burner water tube boiler. Fin density and length increase in streamwise direction to equalize the evaporation for each module, which makes it difficult to apply conventional bulk design procedure. The design program has been improved by updating data for every row of tubes along the flow. A numerical simulation has been also conducted to evaluate the effect of inlet conditions and validated with experiment. The heat transfer of the first row has been underpredicted by the conventional Zhukauskas correlation, since the acceleration of the flow due to the blockage is not fully inflected. The fin tip temperature is also underpredicted by Bessel solution, because of the interaction with neighboring fins.

• Proceedings of the SAREK Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.528-533
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• 2007

A finned tube type heat transfer module has been proposed for a multi-burner water tube boiler. Fins change their geometry along the streamwise direction to maximize the performance, which makes it difficult to apply conventional bulk analysis. The design program has been improved by updating data for every row of tubes along the flow. A numerical simulation has been also performed to evaluate the effect of inlet conditions and validated with experiment. The heat transfer of the first row has been underpredicted by the conventional Zhukauskas correlation, where the acceleration of the flow due to the blockage is not fully inflected. The fin tip temperature is also underpredicted by Bessel solution, because of the interaction with neighboring fins.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.179-187
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• 2002

Finite element analysis was performed to evaluate the integrity of the tubes in the fixed tubesheet of horizontal type heat exchanger under operating condition. For the finite element analysis of the heat exchanger, tubes and tubesheets were equivalently modeled with concentroidal hexagonal columns and solid plates having equivalent properties for the convenience of finite element modeling, respectively. Load combination of tube pressure and thermal expansion most likely to precipitate possible failure of the tubes was selected and applied to the finite element analysis. The compressive stresses of the tubes were calculated based on displacements of each tube, which were obtained from anile element analysis. Finally, the maximum tube stress was compared with the design criterion of ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code Section VIII.