MONTHLY TECHNICAL ARTICLE

AMCO-TA-13
June 2017

Materials for Advanced High

Performance Power Plants

FOREWORD
AMCO Saudi Arabia is an autonomous and independent Consulting Company with the objectives of best Metallurgical
and Lifting Equipment Services to Saudi Arabian Oil and Gas, Petrochemical, Power Generations, Fertilizers,
Refineries, Manufacturing, Construction, Manufacturing, Defense and Automobile Industries.

Our specialization is: Plant Life Assessment /Extension, Failure Investigation, Asset Integrity Management, Boiler
Inspection, Boiler Tube Condition Assessment, Tube Failure Analysis, RCM Studies, RAM Studies, Single Point of
Failure(SPOF) Studies, Plant Cycling, Cost Analysis, Plant Benchmarking, Crack Assessment, Risk Based
Inspection/Maintenance, Probabilistic Assessment, Fitness-for-Service Assessment, Conditional Assessment, Plan
Reliability Studies, Vibration Analysis, Condition Monitoring, Stress Analysis, Support and guidance in Plant Operation
and Maintenance, Advice in weld repairs, Support with Materials, Inspection and Monitoring; Corrosion and oxidation
issues, Technology Development, Finite Element Analysis, Stress Analysis, P91 Steel Assessment, Metallography,
SEM/EDS Analysis, Contamination Analysis, Plant Mechanical Improvement Studies with years’ experience around the
globe. The AMCO Monthly Article area offered within the following areas:

i. Plant Life Management

ii. Lifting Inspection
iii. Fitness for Service
iv. Risk Based Inspection/ Maintenance
v. Advance Materials
vi. Reliability Engineering
vii. Qualification, Quality and Safety Methodology
viii. Materials Technology
ix. Pipelines and Risers
x. Asset Operation
xi. Quality Control/Assurance
xii. Corrosion and Erosion
xiii. Inspection and NDT testing
xiv. Microstructures and damage mechanisms
xv. Operations and Maintenance
xvi. Vibration and Condition Monitoring

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About the Authors

Eng. Abdullah-Al-Shammari

Mr. Abdullah is leading the Axis Corporation in Middle East and MENA region
and serving as current President of the company. He entrains a widespread
experience in Inspection and Asset Integrity His experience marks over 25 years
in the world leading Oil and Gas exploration Companies.

He has in depth and practical experience of conventional and advanced Non-

Destructive Inspection Techniques. He worked with several contractors in the
field of corrosion and inspection activities. He is the co-author of this article,
providing the valuable information on the power plants material selection and
integrity enhancement.

Eng. Mohammad Hussain Turi

Lead strategist and authority figure in charge of asset integrity & reliability
management, life assessment, inspection activities, failure investigation, risk
management, and continuous process improvement studies for plant operators. In
order to achieve client requirements, my team works on undertaking
improvement initiatives in terms of technology, strategies, and other initiatives
with regards to material selection, RBI, corrosion monitoring and control
activities amongst others in the Operations and maintenance side of business.
Mentor, direct and lead a team of 50 direct and indirect reports. Have a deep
understanding of mechanical issues in a plant and can discuss and agree on solutions to prevent re-
occurrence in the future. He has actively participated in ongoing improvement of equipment health and
extension of component lives through the use of engineered solutions, current and developing
technologies and integrated computerized maintenance systems

Materials for Advanced High Performance Power

Plants
INTRODUCTION

The operating environments for components within power plants are a result of the fuels used, the power
plant design and the component operating conditions. Most current large scale power plants contain a
steam generating system that drives a steam turbine, either on its own (a Rankine cycle) or in combination
with a gas turbine (as part of a combined
cycle).For heat recovery steam generators
located downstream from gas turbines in combined
cycles, the environments are usually relatively
benign as their gas stream inlet temperatures are
generally limited by the gas turbine
exhaust temperatures and the
contaminant levels in these gases are
low (to meet the strict limits placed on
gas turbine operating conditions).
However, power systems that rely
entirely on heat exchange from a hot gas
stream to a water/steam system can have much more aggressive environments around the fireside surfaces
in their hot gas paths. In such systems, the hot gas streams can be produced by the combustion of a wide
variety of fuels (solid, liquid or gaseous), which can contain a range of different impurities. As these hot
combusted gas streams pass through the boilers and the various heat exchange surfaces, as well as
transferring heat to the water/steam system they can interact to produce deposition, erosion and/or
corrosion on the heat exchanger surfaces.

Figure 1.0 Schematic for the materials in USC Power plants

Materials for Super critical Boilers

The capability of a boiler is limited by the properties of

the materials used in the construction of those parts
subjected to the most onerous conditions of stress and temperature. In effect it is the ability of the final
superheater tubing and associated headers and pipework to cope with these severe conditions that governs
the boiler operating parameters of temperature and pressure. The development of materials is therefore
focused primarily on the improvement of creep strength and on the resistance to high temperature
corrosion and, as will be shown later, this has led to the evolution from low alloy steels, through
martensitic steels to 'super' austenitic steels and will eventually arrive at nickel-base alloys for these high
temperature components. One other area of the boiler has also benefited from material developments and
this is the water walls, where, for supercritical boilers, there is the need to operate at temperatures much
higher than with sub critical units (e.g. up to 550°C compared with 360°C).

To achieve economic manufacture and operation of the boiler, the materials selected for use in the water
walls, superheat and reheat tubing, and pipe and header sections must satisfy six main requirements

Sufficient creep-rupture strength to resist deformation from high mechanical and thermal
stresses when generating high-pressure, high-temperature steam.
Low cycle-fatigue strength to avoid cracking due to thermal cycling when steam
temperatures vary with load.
Thermal expansion coefficients matching those of other boiler materials to minimize
stresses generated at material transitions (dissimilar metal welds for example) during
startups and shutdowns.
High resistance to fire-side corrosion and steam-side oxidation/exfoliation to minimize
forced outages and maintenance costs.
Mechanical properties that allow successful fabrication and repair of components, for
example bending, forging, machining, and welding.
Provide a cost-effective choice for the duty required. Due to the large amounts of tubing
and piping required, material costs affect the cost of the boiler significantly.

Creep Resistant Martensitic Steels

Creep-resistant steel is integral for the engineering and construction of power plants and is investigated in
three areas of scientific research:

Design of the chemical composition and optimization of specific characteristics;

Steel selection and forging of the structural elements;
Operations, in terms of degradation, material integrity, and long-term durability.

Although the operational temperature of the steam is not the only factor that contributes to degradation
and instability in structural elements, it is the most important factor. For years, this temperature has not
exceeded 540 8C under pressures of up to ca. 20MPa in conventional boilers. The steady trend towards
increased efficiency, reduced emissions of harmful pollutants into the atmosphere (mainly CO2, NOx,
and SO2), and fuel conservation has led to significant increases in the operational steam temperatures
(565–620 8C) and pressures (24–30MPa). This increase is noted in the operation of new boilers already in
use, as well as in boilers that have been built to withstand supercritical conditions (which are 40% more
efficient).
Following the success of its adoption at Drakelow C, Grade 91 has been used for replacement headers and
also for the production of superheater tubing. It is also in use as a replacement for lower alloy materials,
where thermal fatigue problems had caused ligament cracking in
service. Since the higher creep strength of Grade 91 allows the
construction of much thinner headers, this reduces the impact of
thermal cycling during service. Martensitic 9–12% Cr steels are used
for the hottest parts in steam boilers, ie, main steam and hot reheat
lines, outlet headers, and superheaters. Their high tensile and creep
strength, good corrosion and oxidation resistance, high thermal
conductivity, and low thermal expansion in combination with
relatively low cost make them ideal for this application. The creep
strength of these alloys sets a physical limitation on the achievable
thermal efficiency of steam power plants.

This material property defines the maximum steam pressure and

temperature at which highly stressed pressurized components can be designed with a wall thickness low
enough to allow fast temperature changes during boiler start up and load changes. The gradual
development toward more and more complicated alloy compositions
is clear. It is also clear that the improvements of strength have
mainly been achieved through minor alloy additions.

The superior mechanical properties arise from martensitic

transformation with precipitation of finely dispersed carbo-nitrides
achieved by carefully controlled tempering. Any subsequent
heating alters the microstructure and degrades the material
properties unless heat treated appropriately. In the case of welding,
preheating to approximately 200 ° C (400 ° F) is required with post-
weld heating to approximately 760 ° C (1400 ° F). In addition, the
filler material must be carefully selected and temperatures limited
during the welding process.

These essential and more involved procedures are now well

understood and allow satisfactory welds to be made with confidence but the increase production times
and costs. The weldment, however, remains weaker than the base metal and creep failures have occurred
when high stresses were applied to the heat-affected zone.

Weldability

The martensitic steels were for long considered not

to be weld able in thick sections. Since these steels
air-harden to martensite, constrained welds in thick-
section components may crack when cooled to
room temperature either directly after welding or
after post-weld heat treatment. This prevented the
use of thick-section 12% CrMoV steels for steam pipes until the problem was solved for the steel
X20CrMoV121 in 1957 [6]. The martensitic transformation of the X20 steel with 0.2wt%C takes place in
the range Ms–Mf ≈ 270°C–50°C upon air cooling of components with thicknesses up to ≈100 mm. By
preheating to 250°C and keeping the inter pass temperature above this level, martensitic transformation
during welding can be prevented, and the martensitic transformation takes place during cooling after
welding. It is important to cool below 150°C to transform >90% of the weld to martensite. Otherwise,
untransformed martensite (austenite) can survive the post-weld heat treatment, and the martensitic
transformation will take place during cooling after post-weld hea t treatment with risk of crack formation.

T
able 1.1 Materials used for different sections of the boiler

The 9%Cr martensitic steel P91 has now been in use in the power generation industry for over 20 years.
Over this time there has been a number of incidents of cracking and failure in components made from this
steel. Thick section component failures have generally been caused by Type IV cracking at welds. Many
of the Type IV failures have been associated with materials that are relatively weak as a result of possible
chemical composition effects (Al:N ratio) and/or incorrect heat treatment (e.g. over-tempering).

Although the 9–12%Cr martensitic steels are expected to be less vulnerable to thermo mechanical fatigue
damage (as a result of reduced component thickness and therefore lower through thickness temperature
gradients), there is some evidence that the effect of creep–fatigue interaction could be more severe for the
P9 weldments as a result of the low ductility associated with Type IV failure in this material [1].
Consequently, for cycling plant, there is a need to observe closely the casts with a tendency to show a
larger drop in creep ductility with service duration.

Austenitic and advanced austenitic stainless steels

These alloyed steels have an austenitic microstructure that provides

high creep strength and high resistance to fi re-side corrosion and
steam-side oxidation. They have a minimum content of 16%
chromium, which provides the corrosion resistance, and 8% nickel,
which stabilizes the austenitic phase.

They also have good welding characteristics but are prone to

sensitization, a mode of inter-granular corrosion resulting from the
precipitation of chromium carbide in the grain boundaries. This
depletes the surrounding areas of chromium making them more
susceptible to corrosion. Sensitization can be prevented by lowering the carbon content of the steel or
stabilizing it with elements such as niobium and titanium that form carbides more stable than those of
chromium.

Other than the cost of austenitic alloys, the main disadvantage for their use is the high coefficient of
expansion and low thermal diffusivity, ie, thermal fatigue and high residual stresses in dissimilar metal
welds (DMW). Other considerations include alloy sensitization, stress corrosion cracking, stress relief
cracking, secondary hardening, and strain-induced precipitation hardening (SIPH). For the rest of this
chapter, we will examine some of these disadvantages to see how they manifest themselves in service or
during component manufacture.

Figure 2.0 SA-213 TP304H Bottom left shows a re-solution microstructure and bottom
right carbide-decorated grain boundaries
.
 Figure 3.0 Relaxation cracking along neutral zone of a 347H tube

Nickel-based alloys

Only nickel-based alloys have the necessary strength and corrosion resistance to operate above 680 ° C
(1250 ° F) 4 and they are not yet fully developed for commercial A-USC boiler applications, although
several are available as tubing. The nickel-based alloys also have an austenitic microstructure so
preventative measures are used similar to those for austenitic stainless steels. Heat treatment is generally
less onerous than for CSEF steels. Both forms of nickel-based alloy can be welded satisfactorily although
in some cases the weld is weaker than the base metal and the design needs to include weld-strength
reduction factors. 8 Currently weld deposition is relatively slow, 9 increasing fabrication and installation
costs, but ways to improve welding procedures are being pursued.

Asset Integrity through microstructural monitoring

The observation of microstructural damage is widely used in inspection, condition monitoring and
support of life management in high temperature low alloy ferritic steels. The damage evolution is material
dependent and requires confirmation from inspection data. For most low alloy steels, compilation of
inspection data has been carried out to establish guidelines for this purpose. Useful experience of in-
service damage is less easily available for the relatively newer P91 steel. It is well known that the
microstructure and precipitation in the 9–12%Cr martensitic steels are influenced by the chemical
composition details and heat treatment parameters. For the determination of microstructural parameters
specific methods are required. For monitoring and component assessment a detailed knowledge of the
interaction between the load parameters and microstructure is necessary.

References

1. Viswanathan, R., et.al., “U.S. Program on Materials Technology for Ultrasupercritical Coal-Fired
Boilers,” in Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Advances in Materials
2. Technology for Fossil Power Plants, ASM International, (2008). Rao, K.R., (ed.), Energy and Power
Generation Handbook, ASME, (New York, 2011),Chapter 17.
3. Bennett, A.J., Weitzel P.S., Boiler Materials for Ultrasupercritical Coal Power Plants – Task
1B,Conceptual Design, Babcock & Wilcox Approach, USC T-3, Topical Report, DOE DE-FG26-
01NT41175 & OCDO D-0020, (February 2003).
4. Weitzel, P.S., “Steam Generator for Advanced Ultra-Supercritical Power Plants 700 to760C”, ASME
Power 2011, Denver, CO, 2011.
5. Weitzel, P.S., et al., “Advanced Ultra-Supercritical Power Plant (700 to 760C) Design for Indian Coal”,
Power Gen Asia, Bangkok, Thailand, October 2011.
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