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Investigations on the breakdown of a heat recovery steam generator during the initial operation run
(2014)
Several years ago, in 2003, an industrial heat recovery steam generator in charge of generating process steam in a petrochemical refinery was installed and prepared for initial operation. The steam generator enclosed an evaporator section and a superheater section consisting mainly of bundles of tubes with the longest up to several metres in length. During initial operation test runs severe leakages in the evaporator and superheater modules became noticeable. The test runs were stopped and after disassembly, through-wall cracks in several tube bends were found. BAM was commissioned to carry out the investigations in order to find out the reasons for the failure of the tubes. During on-site inspection a number of relevant damaged components and parts were selected and taken away to the laboratories for detailed inspection. Planned analyses were to comprise metallographic as well as fractographic investigations, mechanical fatigue testing and experimental as well as finite element vibration analyses on specimens and components. Soon, the fracture mechanism was found to be mechanical fatigue due to the fact that the examined fracture surfaces showed the very characteristic beachmarks and colouring patterns. To identify the particular loading and time at which crack initiation and crack propagation took place, experimental and numerical vibration analyses of specific tubes as well as mechanical fatigue tests on tube bends were carried out. Thus it was possible to identify the eigenfrequencies of individual tubes, to estimate the dynamic response as well as the nominal stresses and, hence, experimentally characterise the in-service fatigue strength of the components. Mechanical and thermal comparative tests on tube bends were performed simulating the conditions during the initial test run in order to get crack surfaces comparable to that of the originally damaged components. Thereby it became obvious that the fatigue cracks were initiated by vibrations the tube bundles were exposed to during rail transport from the manufacturers site to the place of installation. Based on these results, the damaged components could be repaired or exchanged without modification of the construction, but the rules relating packaging and securing for shipping had to be revised.
Although fatigue crack propagation and fracture cause a large part of failure events in industrial practice, fracture mechanics in failure analysis seems to be still a side issue. Starting from an introduction into important basic questions of failure analysis and fracture mechanics, the authors specify what kind of questions in failure analysis can be effectively solved by fracture mechanics (and which can't). They illustrate their discussion with a number of 13 case studies from the literature. Much more pronounced than in the design stage the benefit of fracture mechanics in failure analysis depends on its accuracy. This is limited by both, intrinsic factors of the method and the availability and quality of the input information. The authors discuss the various aspects and provide the reader with some background information which, as they believe, will be helpful for better understanding the prospects and limitations of fracture mechanics in failure analysis and the conditions of its application.