SOUVENIR

NATIONAL WORKSHOP ON
Root Cause Failure Analysis of Boiler Tubes

Organized by
Student Chapters of ASME & AMPP

Supported by

Society for Failure Analysis Mumbai Chapter &

Pillai HOC College of Engineering & Technology
Rasayani
September 24,2024

Edited by:Dr.R.C.Prasad,Convener,Faculty Advisor &

Mentor
Students Chapters of American Society of Mechanical
Engineers &
Association for Materials Protection and Performance
at Rasayani
 BTF- 2024
The student Chapters of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers
( ASME ) & the Association for Materials Protection and Performance( AMPP )
at the PHCET are organizing this one day National Workshop on Root Cause
Failure Analysis of Boiler Tubes. The program is supported by the Society for
Failure Analysis Mumbai Chapter & the Pillai HOC College of Engineering and
Technology Rasayani. Boilers are used for generating steam that is used for
power generation as well as in process industries.They operate at high
temperature and pressure. The boiler tubes are subjected to a wide variety of
failures involving one or more mechanisms. Tube leakages and failures are the
leading cause of availability loss in conventional fossil power plants.The objective
of this workshop is to share experiences and exchange information on BTFs and
evolve possible future research and development that can be pursued in this area
to reduce failures to obtain world class boiler availability status. The focus will
be on areas that need further research like fracture mechanics based studies of
environmental assisted cracking that includes corrosion fatigue and Hydrogen
Embrittlement, life assessment and extension. To understand the causes and
prevention methods of boiler tube/pressure parts failure and its aging process to
get a predictive approach to reduce tube failure in boilers. This will provide the
participants with critical analysis of the problems and the operation &
maintenance techniques needed to improve the reliability of power generating
station.
The eminent speakers of the workshop are from reputed academic institutes,
research establishments and industries having worked extensively in different
aspects of tube failure . The list of speakers along with patrons, advisory and
organising committee members is given below.

Patrons:
Dr. K. M. Vasudevan Pillai, Chairman & CEO MES
Mr.T.S.Kathayat, COO WELSPUN Pvt. Ltd.
Organizing committee
Mr. Arya Parag Patil , Chairman Student Chapter AMPP
Mr. Aditya Patil, Vice Chair Student Chapter AMPP
Mr. Ketan Mhatre, Secretary Student Chapter AMPP
Mr. Aman Singh, Treasurer Secretary Student Chapter AMPP
Mr.Prajyot Gharat, Member Student Chapter AMPP
Mr.Omkar Bhoir, Member Student Chapter AMPP
Mr.Nikhil Saindane, Member Student Chapter AMPP
Mr.Jay Salvi, Member Student Chapter AMPP
Mr. Vinay Mundhe, Member Student Chapter AMPP
Mr.Karan Patil, Member Student Chapter AMPP
Mr.Rutuja Pugaonkar, Member Student Chapter AMPP
Mr.Sahil Naik, Member Student Chapter AMPP
Mr.Pranay Patil, Member Student Chapter AMPP
Mr.Parth Bhoir, Member Student Chapter AMPP
Mr.Yash Gawand, Member Student Chapter AMPP
Mr.Keshav Nirguda, , Member Student Chapter AMPP
Mr.Amir Khan, Chairman ASME Students Chapter
Mr.Parshuram Talwar, Vice Chair, ASME Students Chap
Mr.Sujal Gawand, Secretary ASME Students Chapter
Mr.Niraj Patil, Treasurer ASME Students Chapter
Mr.Ketan Mhatre, Member ASME Students Chapter
Mr.Aman Singh, Member ASME Students Chapter
Mr.Prashant Thorve, Member ASME Students Chapter
Mr.Arya Patil, Member ASME Students Chapter
Mr.Aryan Mhatre, , Member ASME Students Chapter
Mr. Mustafa Bohri, , Member ASME Students Chapter
Mr. Tejas Gadagoli, , Member ASME Students Chapter
Mr.Mohit Baikar, Member ASME Students Chapter
Mr.Onkar Bhoir, Member ASME Students Chapter
Mr.Harsh H Patil, , Member ASME Students Chapter
Ms Sunita Giri, Member ASME Students Chapter
Ms Vaishnavi KThale, Member Student Chapter AMPP
Mr.Vedant H Khade, Member Student Chapter AMPP
Mr. Bhavesh H Shinde, Member Student Chapter AMPP
Mr.Ketan H Patil, Member Student Chapter AMPP
Mr.Shirish S Korade Member Student Chapter AMPP
Mr.Tushar G Thakur Member Student Chapter AMPP
Dr.R.C.Prasad, Faculty Advisor & Mentor Student Chapters of ASME &
AMPP, Vice Chair SFA Mumbai Chapter
Dr. Ajit Bhandarkar, DGM HAL Nashik, Secretary SFA-MC
Mr. Parikshit Gupta, MD OHT, Treasurer SFA-MC
DR. K. M. Vasudevan Pillai Dr. Daphane Pillai
Chairman & C. E. O secretary
Mahatma Education Society Mahatma Education
Society

Mahatma Education Society

The Mahatma Education Society (MES) embarked upon its mission of ‘Education of
All” with Chembur English School in the year 1970. The mahatma Education Society
is proof of a vision linked irrevocably to national goals. Born in a time when
education was deemed service, it set about bringing social and economic change
through the proactive personal development of every child that came into its fold. The
vision, dedication, global outlook, tenacious struggle and undaunted spirit of Dr. K.
M. Vasudevan Pillai (Founder, secretary and CEO) and Dr. Daphne Pillai (Joint
Secretary and Rector), the Trust grew from a single school into a multi-institution,
multi-location group delivering quality education at all levels
Today MES owns and manages over 48 institutions spread across six elegant
campuses at Borivali, Chembur, Powai, New Panvel(W), New Panvel(E) and
Rasayani. It manages educational Institutions’ from pre-primary to post- graduation.
It comprises of schools, international schools, degree colleges, night colleges,
Management Institutions, Engineering colleges, Architecture colleges, colleges of
Education (including Physical education) and polytechnic Institutions. Popularly
known as the Pillai Group of Institutions, this education major has its own teacher
training institutes, which allow it to define its own standards and to achieve 100%
results unfailingly, The group has more than 35,000 students, 2,000 teachers and
1500 members of support staff.
It does so through a highly motivated faculty, a learning environment powered with
the latest technologies, a spirit of innovation that sees it reach for the highest
standards of accreditation in its field, and an approach that recognizes the sharing of
knowledge remains the finest manifestation of a unified world. The Pillai Group is
credited with several “firsts” in its field.
 Chairman’s Message
We live in unprecedented times with unprecedented problems. Hitherto unknown
problems need hitherto unknown solutions. ‘Thinking out of the box’ is a cliché.
However, at no other time in our history have we needed it more. Genuine problem
solving requires ‘thoughts sans frontier’. What is the role of academia in it? What is the
role of PHCET in it? Known methods, solutions and strategies are no longer valid. We in
PHCET have been looking at new alternatives and strategies as well as to involve
different partners to make our service more relevant, contemporary and forward looking.
Evaluating the Employability, Creating a ‘Value Add Metric’, mentoring of students and
faculty by Industry experts, etc.are some of the new initiatives.
Established in 2009 and affiliated to Mumbai University, PHCET offers specializations
in seven areas of engineering. And also provides excellent facilities, infrastructure and
high quality education on an extremely safe and highly quality conscious, beautiful and
verdant campus for a fraction of the cost one would normally have to pay. It is also a
matter of pride for us to inform our readers that PHCET is accredited with an ‘A+’ Grade
in 2024 by NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council); UG programs in
Computer and Mechanical Engineering are accredited two times each by NBA (National
Board of Accreditation); PHCET is the winner of the ‘First Best of the Work Place Safety
Awards’ in 2019 from Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) and also the
winner of the ‘Performance Excellence Trophy’ from Indian Merchants Chamber
Ramkrishna Bajaj National Quality Award (RBNQA) in December 2019. PHCET has a
manufacturing centre started in January 2020 from design to manufacture of Printed
Circuit Board (PCB). This centre is for training students to become employable and also
become entrepreneurs. Mumbai University has appointed PHCET as a Lead Cluster
College for conducting the University examinations.
We look forward with hopes and aspirations. It is also time for the academia to look at
the realties around us anew. In difficult times it is the academia that has to rise up and
show the way. In that spirit PHCET is organizing a National Workshop on ‘ROOT
CAUSE FAILURE ANALYSIS OF BOILER TUBES’, which is a very relevant and
contemporary theme. The galaxy of the eminent resource persons from different parts of
the Country and the enthusiastic participants have made the effort worthwhile and gives
enormous satisfaction to the organizers. I compliment the coordinator of the National
Workshop Prof. R.C. Prasad and his team of members of the Student Chapters of the
AAMP & ASME for the splendid job in pursuance of the PHCET Motto: ‘Vidya
Karmasu Kaushalam’.
Patrons The Society for Failure Analysis was established in the year
Prof. D Banerjee, IISc, Bengaluru 2006 with the patronage from many eminent experts with a
Dr. G Sateesh Reddy, DRDO, New Delhi mission to reduce failures that are estimated to cost 3-4% of
Dr. S V Kamat, DRDO, New Delhi GDP in a developing country.
Dr. Amol Gokhale, IIT-B, Mumbai
Dr. A C Raghuram, Former NAL, Bengaluru Aims & Objectives of SFA
Prof. B S Murthy, IIT, Hyderabad  Promote, encourage and develop growth of “Art and
Dr. A Venugopal Reddy, Founder President Science of “Failure Analysis”.
 Stimulate interest in compilation of database for
President effective identification of root causes of failures and
Dr. S K Jha,C&MD MIDHANI, Hyderabad their mitigation.
 To serve as a common forum for individuals,
Vice Presidents organizations and industries interested to investigate
Prof. R C Prasad, PHCET, Mumbai root cause of failures.
Dr. Komal Kapoor, NFC, Hyderabad  Establish liaison with Government, academic and
Dr. R Divakar, IGCAR, Kalpakkam research institutions, commercial bodies and individuals
Dr. Jaiteerth R Joshi, DRDL, Hyderabad on methodologies of failure analysis and render help.
Dr. M Sujatha, NAL, Bengaluru  Collaborate with appropriate international organizations
Shri Biswanath Jana, RCMA (Mat), for the promotion of common objectives.
Hyderabad  Train personnel to conduct systematic failure analysis.
 Identify and recommend areas for research and
General Secretary development in the country, to prevent failures.
Dr. Niraj Nayan, VSSC, Thiruvananthapuram In order to fulfill the above objectives, the society organizes
lectures, workshops, clinics, conferences, seminars, colloquia and
Joint Secretaries courses related to failure analysis at different regional chapters
Dr. Swati Biswas, GTRE, Bengaluru spread across the country and networks with professional bodies,
Dr. Prem Kumar Mandal, DMRL, Hyderabad in addition to bringing out periodic newsletters.
For the first time, the SFA Mumbai Chapter is organizing a
Treasurer National Workshop On Root Cause Failure Analysis of Boiler
Shri Y Balaji, RCMA (Mat), Hyderabad Tubes in association with the student Chapters of AMPP &
Members: ASME . Persons desirous of participating in the workshop are
Prof. V S Raja, IIT-B, Mumbai
requested to send their names to the Convener.
Prof. Raghu Prakash, IIT-M, Chennai
Dr. S Kale, CEMILAC, Bengaluru Prof. R.C. Prasad
Dr. Chandan Mondal, DMRL, Hyderabad Convener & Vice Chairman SFA Mumbai Chapter
Dr. Rajesh Korla, IIT-H, Hyderabad
Dr. Mainak Ghosh, NML, Jamshedpur Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Prof Biswas, IIT-K, Kanpur Pillai HOC College of Engineering & Technology, Rasayani
Dr. V Karthik, IGCAR, Kalpak Email :- [email protected] / [email protected]
Mobile:9869236812
Web :- www.sfa.mes.ac.in
For further details about the society,
kindly see the web page: www.sfaindia.org.
 One Day National Workshop BTF-24

PROGRAM – ITINERARY FOR 24/09/2024

DATE TIME SPEAKER / Title of Presentation

24.9.2024 9:30 am- 10.15 am AGM SFA Mumbai Chapter

24.9.2024 10.15 am -10.30 am High Tea
Dr.R.C.Prasad,
24.9.2024 10:30 am - 11:00 am Professor PHCET, Rasayani
An overview of Root Cause Analysis of Boiler Tubes
24.9.2024 11:00 am – 11:45 pm Dr.V.S.Raja
Professor Department of MEMS IIT Bombay
Some Aspects of Corrosion Issues in Subcritical &
supercritical Boilers
Mr.Paresh Haribhakti,
11:45 pm - 12:30 pm MD, TCR Advanced Vadodara
24.9.2024 Damage Mechanisms & Remaining Life Assessment of
Boiler Tubes: Some Case Studies.
Dr.Supratik Roychowdhury
24.09.2024 12:30 pm -1:15 pm Head, Corrosion Engineering Section, Materials
Processing and Corrosion Engineering Division BARC
Mumbai
Root cause analysis: Flow Assisted Corrosion of carbon
steel and SCC of stainless Steel

24.09.2024 1:15 pm – 1:45 pm LUNCH

Dr.R.N.Singh,
24.9.2024 1:45 am -2:30 pm Outstanding Scientist & Head MMD BARC Mumbai
Internally Pressurized Tube Failures at different Length
scales
Mr.Pramod Kate, Consultant
24.09.2024 2:30 pm to 3:15 pm Boiler Accidents: their Causes & Remedies
Mr. Niraj Kumar,Senior scientist HWB, DAE Govt. of
24.09.2024 3:15 pm – 3:30pm India
Learning Opportunities for Students at HWB
24.09.2024 3:30 pm – 4:00 pm VALEDICTORY FUNCTION & CERTIFICATE
DISTRIBUTION

Fracture Control through Root Cause Failure Analysis

 Prof. R.C. Prasad
Department of Mechanical Engineering PHCET Rasayani
Power sector is one of the fastest growing sectors in India, which essentially supports
the economic growth and with the aim to provide electricity to all. Different types of
boilers are used for the generation of steam and power. Boilers are an enclosed vessel
where water is heated by application of heat to produce steam and superheated steam
under pressure. Heat is produced by burning solid, liquid, gaseous fuel in combustion
chamber. Steam so produced is also used in several process industries apart from
power generation. Utility boilers are used in thermal power plants to produce
steam/super-heated steam for power generation. Power generation fall under category
of either non-renewable energy ( coal,natural gas, oil,nuclear ) or renewable energy
like wind, solar, biomass etc. Fuels used in large utility boilers are coal, oil, natural
gas, nuclear fuels ( Ur, PU ) biomass . Coal fired boilers using pulverized coal as the
fossil fuel dominates the power industry. Tube failures are the leading cause of
availability loss in conventional fossil plants and combined cycle/heat recovery steam
generator (HRSG) plants. Based on the mode of heat transfer, boilers are classified as
water tube boilers or fire tube boilers.

In water tube boilers the hot combustion gases are circulated around large number of
water filled tubes. Water tubes are connected to steam drum at the top and mud drums
at bottom. Operational efficiency of boilers is measured by the percentage fuel input
energy that is delivered as useful heat output. Waste heat recovery steam generators
( HRSGs ) use heat from exhaust gases. Waste heat boilers are conventional water
tube boilers. In fire tube boilers combustion gas passes through tubes that are
surrounded by water. Tubes here are housed in water filled outer shell. On the tube
side there are hot combustion gases whereas on shell side there is water (tubes are
submerged in water). Fire tube boilers are used for low to medium steam pressure.
Conventional or Sub critical boilers
Here the liquid to gas transition is associated with substantial increase in volume,
because the atoms or molecule in steam are further stretched apart than in water.
Therefore when the water is converted to steam the pressure of steam formed
increases. Boilers – the steam generating unit is a heart of any thermal power plant.
It consists of combustion chamber, steam drum, heat exchangers such as water walls
and economizers. For higher boiler efficiency an economizer pre heats the feed water
using waste heat in flue gas. A mixture of water and steam is formed in water wall
tubes. The mixture then moves to steam drum located at the top of the boiler because
it has lower density than water flowing through down comers. The liquid water and
steam is separated in steam drum. The separated liquid is re circulated to water wall
tubes through down comers. The down comers and water wall tubes form two legs of
a water column. Steam collected in upper half of steam drum is separated and fed to
primary and secondary super heaters to raise the temperature and pressure. A typical
temperature and pressure of final super-heated steam is around 530-570 c. The steam
is fed through pressure turbine to drive generator which produces electricity. Steam
leaving high pressure steam turbine is re heated in the re heater tubes and sent back to
low pressure turbine for improving the thermal efficiency of the process. By the time
fuel gases exit boiler most of their energy is transferred to the boiler. Finally hot gases
are cleaned and sent to stack to control pollution.
Advanced Boiler Power Plant Technology Conventional coal fired plants operate at
low efficiency ( 35-38%), making power generation expensive. It also emits
CO2,SO3,NOx, dust that pollute the environment and contribute to climate change.
One way to increase the efficiency is to increase the pressure and temperature of
steam. This is achieved through supercritical, ultra- super critical and advanced ultra-
super critical boilers. Conventional sub critical boilers operate at max 19 MPa. Here
boiler design requires steam drum to separate steam from water before it is fed to
super heater and then to turbine. In SC the water is heated to produce super-heated
steam without boiling. Water reaches this state at a pressure of above 22.1 MPa and
temperature 374.15c. These are the critical temperature and pressure. In SC boilers
there is no steam drum. There is no circulation of water in SC boilers like the sub
critical ones. Advancement of boiler technology is focused on increasing the
efficiency by increasing the temperature and pressure of steam. In advanced USC
steam temperature is 700-760 upto 815c with efficiency of 47%.
 Tube Failures in Conventional Fossil Fired Boilers and in
Combined Cycle/HRSGs
Tube failures in both conventional and combined cycle/HRSG plants continue as the
number one problem of forced outage and availability loss in their respective plants

These mechanisms have remained essentially constant over the last 30 years. The
other disturbing aspects are that the number of repeat failures (same boiler, same
circuit, same mechanism and root cause) remain very high (above 70%), and that the
cycle chemistry influences remain high (20-50%). The under-deposit mechanisms
continue unabated with hydrogen damage occurring in close to 60% of drum units(1)
(2). In the HRSG world a similar ranking of mechanisms has been generated.
Comparison of Table 2 with Table 1 shows a similar suite of failure
mechanisms.Fatigue mechanisms play a much more important part in HRSGs because
of the very large thermal transients that can be experienced(3)(4). Also flow-
accelerated corrosion (FAC) BTF only occur at the economizer inlet header tubes in
conventional plants, but is a major HTF mechanism in low pressure economizer and
evaporator circuits of HRSGs. But even more important than the actual failures in
HRSGs is that if FAC is allowed to continue then the generation of increased iron
levels in the cycle causes concern due to increased deposits and the possibility of
under-deposit corrosion mechanisms in the HP evaporator
Circuit.
Comparison of Table 2 with Table 1 shows a similar suite of failure mechanisms.Fatigue
mechanisms play a much more important part in HRSGs because of the very large thermal
transients that can be experienced(3)(4). Also flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC) BTF only
occur at the economizer inlet header tubes in conventional plants, but is a major HTF
mechanism in low pressure economizer and evaporator circuits of HRSGs. But even more
important than the actual failures in HRSGs is that if FAC is allowed to continue then the
generation of increased iron levels in the cycle causes concern due to increased deposits and
the possibility of under-deposit corrosion mechanisms in the HP evaporator circuits.
While the suites of failure mechanisms are similar, and because the organizational approaches
being used are similar and involve
• not identifying the mechanism and root cause adequately
• mixing up the mechanism and root cause
• not addressing the root cause to kill the mechanism
• not applying known solutions and optimum approaches(5)
• not applying current best practices for remaining life for each BTF/HTF
mechanism
• not being proactive or predictive, and quite simply “waiting for the BTF/HTF to occur”
appears to be the modus operandi. For conventional boilers, the approach needs to change
from “waiting for failure” to first ensuring that the mechanism and root cause for each
possible BTF mechanism is understood, and secondly, that remaining life methodologies are
applied for each mechanism. It is equally clear that the day has passed when individuals (such
as the corporate metallurgist), specific sections (maintenance), outside consulting companies
or the OEM can provide the needed total advice and guidance. Another approach by a
number of organizations has been to aggressively reduce the mean time to repair (MTTR)
address the shorterm aspects of availability loss due to BTF, rather than to address the root
cause to achieve longterm benefits.
NDE Issues for Boiler and HRS Tubing
Non-destructive evaluation (NDE) provides a reality check on the actual condition of
plant components over time. Variations in component design, materials, and operating
conditions make it very difficult to accurately predict component life via analytical
models. Inspections are used to detect the onset of damage and to refine the remaining
life estimates of components. Accordingly, NDE is a key element in a practical life
management approach for boiler and HRSG tubing. Where utilities perform periodic
inspections of tubing and use the inspection results to refine estimates of remaining life,
such utilities are successful in avoiding in-service tube failures.
When this inspection step is skipped, the risk of repeat tube failures and
corresponding forced outages is high. Although most tubing NDE work is performed
during planned maintenance outages, it is important to note that NDE actions should
also be considered during forced outages caused by tube failures. As presented above,
the ability to identify damaged tubing early is critical in allowing the utility to avoid
future tube failures. The challenges today are to have suitable inspection techniques
available to cost-effectively detect boiler tube damage under both planned and
unplanned outage scenarios. The following sections provide a review of current NDE
issues for boiler tubing in conventional fossil plants and in heat recovery steam
generators. Where inspections are conducted and results evaluated in the context of
component remaining life, in-service boiler tube failures are avoided. A key driver
for this change is the benchmarking item for remaining life assessment of superheater
and reheater tubing. This item mandates inspections and data evaluations for these
components that are subject to creep degradation over time and that have finite
service life . Such life assessment efforts are critical to avoiding a series of inservice
failures early in life or as these tube sections approach end of life.
Additionally, low cost, digital, ultrasonic, thickness gages are becoming routine
equipment for maintenance staff and are being used during both planned and forced
outages to assess damage to tubing due to corrosion and erosion processes. Along
with visual inspection, this technology represents the most common form of tubing
inspection Detection and repair of damaged tubing provides the best short-term
assurance of reducing future tube failures. Correction of the root cause of the failure
mechanism then provides the basis for longterm reliability by eliminating future tube
damage.
An important facet of NDE is the development of more options for surveying large
areas in the boiler. These technologies generally trade-off some level of detection
accuracy for improvements in coverage by offering faster inspections or requiring less
surface preparation for inspection. Technologies such as electromagnetic acoustic
transducers (EMATs), active infrared (IR) scanning, mutual inductance bridge (MIB)
testing, and lamb wave inspections are a few of the newer options available to address
damage detection.
Finally, the inspection process is frequently limited by the difficulty in accessing the
area to be inspected. Accordingly, EPRI and others have initiated projects to develop
robotic platforms to carry inspection equipment into areas not easily accessible by
human operators. These inspection robots may be as simple as magnetic wheeled
crawlers that can transport sensors into tubing pendants or may involve more
articulated components capable of positioning NDE systems in remote or difficult
geometry areas of a boiler. Figure 1 shows a robotic device under development for
potential use on waterwall surfaces. The domed area contains a video camera, while
the left side arm holds an eddy current sensor and the right arm is a tube surface
cleaning device.
 Fig.1: Magnetic crawler for use on waterwall surfaces

The corrosion damage is generally widespread and produces micro-structural

degradation that is not easily detected by conventional inspection techniques. The
key approach to hydrogen damage is to prevent the root cause factors that cause
damage. These root cause factorsare heavy waterside deposits and acidic species in
feedwater. For hydrogen damage, the first option should be to prevent the damage
from occurring. If damage does occur, however, there are now several NDE options
for identifying suspect locations. These options do not provide accurate
determination of the through-wall extent of the hydrogen damage but do significantly
help in reducing the number of locations in which an accurate and more time
consuming technique – such as ultrasonic velocity change(28) – must be applied.
Several survey techniques are summarized in Table 4 to indicate their general
attributes and capabilities. NDE Survey Techniques for Hydrogen Table 4 to indicate
their general attributes and capabilities, NDE Survey Techniques for Hydrogen
Table 4 to indicate their general attributes and capabilities. NDE Survey Techniques
for Hydrogen Damage Sources of fuel .
The steam generating unit is a heart of any Thermal Power Generating Station and tube
failures in boiler severely affect the overall performance of the power plant.
Therefore it is incumbent upon the system designer, the manufacturer, the operators and the
focused on leading failure mechanisms, cycle chemistry, nondestructive evaluation (NDE),
remaining life, and boiler tube failure (BTF)/HRSG tube failure (HTF) reduction
programs.
Tube failures are the leading cause of availability loss in conventional fossil plants
and combined cycle/heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) plants. This conference
proceedings addresses worldwide state-of-the-art practices and techniques for
understanding and reducing tube failures. The leading causes of boiler tube failures
(BTF) in conventional fossil plants are flashy erosion, corrosion fatigue, longterm
overheating/creep, sootblower erosion, and under deposit corrosion.
• The leading causes of HRSG tube failures (HTF) are flow-accelerated corrosion,
thermal fatigue, corrosion fatigue, and under-deposit corrosion.
• Over 75% of conventional fossil plants experience corrosion-influenced BTF.
Hydrogen damage remains the most prevalent form of BTF.
• Over 80% of organizations have management-supported BTF reduction programs,
but only about 70% address BTF to the root cause level.
• The primary areas that are in need of further research are optimum approaches for
corrosion fatigue, nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques for corrosion fatigue
and hydrogen damage, and solutions for supercritical waterwall thermal fatigue
cracking.
The boiler tubes are subjected to a wide variety of failures involving one or more
mechanisms. The most prominent among these are fireside corrosion, water side
corrosion including hydrogen damage and fracture including thermal fatigue LCF,
HCF and creep rupture. Some of the major causes of failures can be classifies as
improper selection of material, improper operation including maintenance any
inadequate water treatment, design and fabrication defects. Amongst these improper
operation which includes evidence of overheating, corrosion both water/steam side,
and fireside as well as improper defective material together account for more tha:75%
of all failures. Afew typical characteristics of such failures are summarised ii the
following section:

Overheating Superheater and reheater tubes of a power plant boiler normally operate
at temperature 30°C to 85°C higher than the temperature of the steam inside the tube
Although high heat flux causes high tube wall temperature, deposits have a greate
effect on tube wall temperature and therefore on overheating
 Some Aspects of Corrosion Issues in Subcritical and Super Critical
Boilers
Professor V.S. Raja
Department of Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science,
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai 400076, India

ABSTRACT:

This lecture will cover two aspects of water-side boiler corrosion. In the first part, the
problems associated subcritical boiler will be presented. The effect of metallurgy of
the boilers (co-gen, waste-heat reboiler in petrochemical/refinery) and the associated
units on their structural integrity will be presented based on the cases the author
investigated. The second part of the lecture will highlight some recent studies on
materials oxidation behaviour in Advanced Ultra Super Critical (AUSC) conditions
which lie in the range of 710 C and 32 MPa. The second part of the lecture gains
importance due to the fact that AUSC plants are considered to reduce carbon emission
through high efficiency of coal conversion.
 Root cause analysis: FAC of carbon steel and SCC of stainless steel
Supratik Roychowdhury

Head, Corrosion Engineering Section, Materials Processing and Corrosion Engineering

Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai
Email: [email protected]
Abstract:
No industry is immune to accidents despite taking the utmost care during design, fabrication
and subsequent service. Sudden unforeseen failures of metallic components in an operating
plant result in possible prolonged downtime of the plant which is associated with severe
economic penalty, repair/replacement cost, loss of reliability and in extreme cases loss of
human life. Root cause analysis of failures is important to identify the factors responsible for
failure which helps in preventing similar failures in future. Poor design, fabrication defects,
improper storage/transportation can make a structure prone to sudden failure during service.
In addition, exposure to corrosive environment and off-normal environment conditions during
service may also be responsible for sudden failure. Corrosion degradation during service is a
common reason of sudden failure if not mitigated.
Nuclear power plants (NPPs) maintain the highest standard for operational safety which is
accorded overriding priority amongst all the activities. However, NPPs are not immune to
corrosion degradation of metallic materials. In NPPs different type of metallic materials are
exposed to harsh environmental conditions such as high temperature high pressure (HTHP)
flowing water along with radiation. In this presentation two diverse case studies of corrosion
degradation in NPPs will be covered, i) flow accelerated corrosion (FAC) of carbon steel and
ii) stress corrosion cracking (SCC) of austenitic stainless steel. The length scale over which
corrosion degradation occurs in both FAC and SCC differ by several orders of magnitude. In
carbon steel pipelines carrying HTHP water, thickness reduction occurs due to FAC over
several millimetres to centimetres resulting in final ductile failure. While in austenitic
stainless steel there is no thickness reduction due to SCC yet a brittle crack can grow due to
corrosion processes occurring over atomic dimensions. In both the cases change of material or
environment to prevent FAC and SCC is not possible/feasible in NPPs, reasons for which
will be discussed. The mitigation strategies adopted in NPPs to tackle two such diverse
degradation mechanisms will be covered in the presentation. Methodology adopted to
assess the residual life of components affected by FAC and SCC will also be discussed.

CV:
Dr. Supratik Roychowdhury is presently the Head, Corrosion Engineering Section, Materials
Processing & Corrosion Engineering Division, BARC. He completed B.E. in 1997
(Metallurgical Engg.), M.Tech. in 2005 (Materials Science) and PhD (Corrosion
Science&
Engineering) in 2011 from IIT Bombay. He was awarded the Marie Curie research grant
(COFUND scheme) for pursuing post-doctoral research in Paul Scherrer institute (PSI),
Switzerland (2013-2015).
His primary research interest is corrosion/SCC of nuclear structural materials in simulated
nuclear reactor water chemistry, hydrogen embrittlement, flow-accelerated corrosion,
providing metallurgical support (failure analysis, material selection) and delivering lectures
on corrosion related topics. In recognition to his work, he has received the “Fellow Award”
from AMPP, USA in 2023, “Excellence in corrosion science and technology” from NACE
International India Section (presently AMPP) in 2012, DAE individual and group awards and
has a number of publications in peer reviewed journal
 Internally pressurized tube failure at different length scales

R. N. Singh
Outstanding Scientist & Head, Mechanical Metallurgy Division, Modular
Laboratories,
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay, Mumbai.
Email: [email protected]
Abstract:
Zr-alloy tubes of length ~6 m and outer diameter 90 to 112 mm are used in
pressurized heavy water reactors as pressure boundary for hot coolant and are called
pressure tubes, which is subjected to slow aqueous corrosion resulting in nascent
hydrogen generation. The nascent hydrogen thus evolved either recombines to form
molecular hydrogen or is picked up by the pressure tube material. Hydrogen is soluble
to some extent in Zr-alloys. However, of the solid solubility is exceeded brittle
hydrides of plate shaped morphology forms that makes the host matrix brittle.
Hydride precipitation is associated with increase in volume called misfit strains, that
dictates the shape of the precipitate and controls the magnitude of the stresses
generated in the matrix and degree of embrittlement. A simple method to compute the
misfit strains will be described. Hydride embrittlement occurs at different length
scales. At microscopic level it can occur even when hydrogen concentration is lower
than the solid solubility limit, provided chemical potential gradient for hydrogen
exists. One of the microscopic crack growth mechanism is delayed hydride cracking
which is caused by hydrogen migration under stress gradient. The internally
pressurized tubes are designed to ensure leak before break. Delayed hydride cracking
can lead to formation of macroscopic crack in internally pressurized tubes, which may
cause leak or break depending on the crack driving force and fracture toughness of the
tube material. In this talk, failure of Zr-alloy tubes due to internal pressure and
hydride embrittlement at different length scales will be discussed.

CV:
Dr. R. N. Singh graduated from BIT Sindri in 1988 and obtained Ph.D. from IIT
Bombay in 2003. He joined Metallurgy Division of BARC, Mumbai in 1990 and had
carried out extensive work on development of fabrication route for Zr-alloy pressure
tubes and various aspects of hydride-induced degradation of mechanical and physical
properties of zirconium alloys. He has used both experimental and computational
approaches in his studies. He had contributed to the safety assessment and life
extension of the pressure tubes of Indian PHWRs.
Dr. Singh was awarded with AvHumboldt fellowship 2004-05, Marie Curie Incoming
International fellowship 2005-08 and DAE Scientific & Technical Excellence Award
2007, DAE- Scientific Research Council Award 2010, Metallurgist of the year 2017
and Homi Bhabha Science and Technology Award 2017. He is life member of Indian
Institute of Metals, Indian Nuclear Society and Materials Research Society of India.
He has published over 150 articles in peer reviewed Journals / reports / technical
papers in conference proceedings.
Presently, he is serving as Head, Mechanical Metallurgy Division, Materials Group of
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, senior professor as sociated with Homi
Bhabha National Institute and is chair-person of IIM Mumbai Chapter.
 NDE and Inspection - Trends and Advances
Dr. Shyamsunder Mandayam
Former Principal Scientist, GE Research, Bangalore
Former Senior Scientist, IGCAR, Department of Atomic Energy,
Kalpakkam Chairman, National Certification Board, ISNT
Abstract :
The engineering industry has seen an increasing adoption of composites as a material of
choice in the last few decades. Newer applications are being discovered for composites given
its attractive properties, cost, availability and the concurrent benefits. Significant strides have
been made in the development, advancement and deployment of polymer matrix composites
(PMC), ceramic matrix composites (CMC) and metal matrix composites (MMC) in industries
ranging from aerospace, automotive, oil & gas, renewable energy, healthcare, transportation,
and several others. Industry demands for increases utilization has also resulted in enabling
design of complex and larger shapes and parts as well as hybrid structures combining
composites and metallic materials. Irrespective of the type of industry using composites in
their components and structures, the primary requirement of assuring quality of the composite
part during the manufacturing and assembly stage and the subsequent step of assuring its
integrity and life during installation and in-service is a very critical pre-requisite. This is
primarily accomplished through use of several Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) and
Inspection methodologies including basic techniques like Ultrasound, Radiography, etc.
However the increasing complexity of the material and the size of the parts combined with
higher demands on capability for defect detection and characterization including incipient
damage has resulted in the development of several new inspection techniques including
Shearography, Microwave, Terahertz, micro/nano-CT, positron annihilation, Flash Infrared
imaging, Air Coupled UT, etc. The continued and increasing demand for safety, reliability
and productivity combined with the usage of newer materials and manufacturing processes,
innovative and complex designs of components and structures for higher efficiencies, has also
brought in increased adoption of automation in the industrial inspection world. This
presentation will highlight the various NDE techniques currently in extensive use for
composite inspection by the industry and highlight the trends being observed in newer and
advanced techniques including automation and use of modern approaches like Signal and
Image Processing, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning and Robotics which are showing
good promise and are being developed by R&D labs to meet the needs of industrial inspection
.
Biodata of the Speaker : Dr. Shyamsunder Mandayam is the Chairman, National
Certification Board -Indian Society of Nondestructive Testing (ISNT), worked as Principal
Scientist at GE Global Research for 20+ years and Senior Scientific Officer @IGCAR,
Kalpakkam for 16 years, Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, TRIZ Level 3 expert, ASNT
Level 3. Worked extensively in the development of new NDE / Inspection techniques, driving
the vision and prepared roadmaps for next generation technologies in NDE for metallic and
non-metallic materials (composites) related to aerospace, energy, renewables and oil and gas
industries.
Worked on Eddy current array sensors, POD, Nonlinear ultrasound, Positron annihilation,
Microwave and Terahertz NDE, Pipeline inspection, Automation, Robotics and Lifing of
components. Currently pioneering the adoption of digital transformation to NDE and
Inspection. He has 10 patents and 150+ papers in various journals, books and proceedings and
delivered 70+ invited talks. Received several prestigious awards like National NDT award for
R&D, GE India’s JRD Tata award for excellence award to name a few. He is a Honorary
Fellow of ISNT.