Experimental and Computational Investigation of Platen Superheater Failure in 320MW Power Plant

Superheater tubes are the most critical components of the power plant’s boiler. These tubes are subject to degradation such as creep and overheating, due to the hard operating conditions (exposure to high temperature and pressure for a long period). Therefore, it is important to diagnose and prevent these failures. The failure report in a 320-megawatt power plant indicates that most tube ruptures are concentrated in a particular region of the platen superheater (radiative superheater). The investigation of broken tubes shows that the temperature of the tubes in this area is higher than the other platen superheater’s regions. Three methods of metallography, oxide layer thickness measurement and thermal analysis using computational fluid dynamics were used to prove the existence of higher temperatures at the point of breakdown. All three methods provide the same results. The results of surveys confirm this significant temperature difference and show that the increase in the local temperature in the damaged tubes is due to the longer length of these tubes, which results in lower vapor mass flow rate, and absorb more heat due to the higher thermal surfaces of them.