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Experimental investigation of thermal fatigue behaviour of header tube to stub welded joint in power plants

  • G. R. Jinu , P. Sathiya , G. Ravichandran and A. Rathinam
Published/Copyright: May 18, 2013
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International Journal of Materials Research
From the journal International Journal of Materials Research Volume 101 Issue 9

Abstract

Super heater tubes and outlet headers are subjected to thermal fatigue from alternating heating and cooling during start up and shut down, causing cracks and eventually failure. Super heater tubes are subjected to a temperature of 600 °C and steam at a temperature of 540 °C and a pressure of 160 bar. In this paper, a laboratory simulation for reproducing thermal fatigue phenomena was developed to determine the number of cycles before failure occurs in a header tube to stub welded joint. For this purpose a carbon steel tube (stub) welded to a carbon steel plate which resembles a header pipe to stub welded joint was subjected to thermal cycles from 800 °C (accelerated test) to room temperature. A tungsten inert gas arc was used as a heating source and a water bath was utilized for quenching. After 300 thermal cycles, the cross-section of the header was subjected to optical microscopy. Micro fissures were observed in the header tube. This study reveals that subsequent localized heating and cooling will cause thermal fatigue, which will initiate and propagate cracks in the tubes.

Keywords: Thermal fatigue; Header tube joint; TIG arc heating; Metallographic study; Micro fissures
∗ Correspondence address, Dr. P. Sathiya, M. E., Ph. D. Associate Professor Department of Production EngineeringNational Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli-620015 Tamil Nadu, India Tel.: +91 94434 94090 (mobile)+91 0431 250 3510 (office) E-mail:

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Received: 2008-11-2
Accepted: 2010-6-29
Published Online: 2013-05-18
Published in Print: 2010-09-01

© 2010, Carl Hanser Verlag, München

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https://doi.org/10.3139/146.110390
Keywords for this article
Thermal fatigue; Header tube joint; TIG arc heating; Metallographic study; Micro fissures

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Contents
  2. Contents
  3. Editorial
  4. Hans-Peter Degischer – 65th birthday
  5. Basic
  6. X-ray and neutron imaging – Complementary techniques for materials science and engineering
  7. Fast in-situ X-ray micro tomography characterisation of microstructural evolution and strain-induced damage in alloys at various temperatures
  8. Thermo-kinetic computer simulation of differential scanning calorimetry curves of AlMgSi alloys
  9. Influence of stacking fault energy and alloying on stage V hardening of HPT-deformed materials
  10. Thermo-physical properties of silver/carbon fibre composites
  11. Influence of reinforcement contiguity on the thermal expansion of alumina particle reinforced aluminium composites
  12. A continuum based microstructure model of inhomogeneous hardening and recovery as a pre-stage of recrystallization nucleation
  13. Applied
  14. Metal foams – towards microcellular materials
  15. Gigacycle fatigue response of tool steels produced by powder metallurgy compared to ingot metallurgy tool steels
  16. Characterization of the microstructure and damage mechanisms in a Ti6Al4V alloy modified with 1 wt.% B
  17. Structural and age hardening characteristics of near eutectic Al–Si alloys
  18. Stress-corrosion cracking susceptibility of AZ31 alloy after varied heat-treatment in 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution
  19. Tensile deformation behavior of AA5083-H111 at cold and warm temperatures
  20. Experimental investigation of thermal fatigue behaviour of header tube to stub welded joint in power plants
  21. Synthesis and characterization of nanostructured Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 from lyotropic liquid crystalline templates
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