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Failure Investigation of a Hot Blast Valve of Stove of Blast Furnace

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Abstract

Stoves are used to generate preheated blast for tuyeres of blast furnaces. Hot blast valves are placed ahead of the stoves and control the passage of the preheated blast at 1150-1250 °C. One of the valves failed prematurely after almost 1 year of service life. It was a gate-type valve with internal water cooling. A detailed failure investigation was carried out to determine the mode and reason for the failure. Pressure testing revealed the location of the crack to be at the top part of the water cooling jacket near a T-weld joint. Analysis of the outlet water flow rate showed a progressive decrease over a period of 3 months suggesting progressive crack growth. Although the fracture surface had a corroded appearance, the presence of ratchet marks and multiple fracture planes indicated that fatigue was the most likely mechanism of fracture. The refractory was found to be intact and therefore ruled out the possibility of failure due to excessive rise in temperature. Macroscopic analysis of the weld revealed the presence of porosity at the root of the weld along with large inclusions. X-ray elemental mapping confirmed these inclusions to be rich in Al, Si, O, Ca and Ti suggesting welding slag as the most likely source. Under cyclic loading, such slag inclusions and porosity would not allow effective stress transfer. Furthermore, untempered martensite was present in the heat-affected zone (HAZ) resulting in formation of a metallurgical notch at the interface of the fusion zone/HAZ. This is indicative of ineffective post-weld heat treatment and contributed to the premature fatigue failure. Recommendations are made in order to have a stringent quality assurance plan to avoid similar failures in future.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Scientific Services, Technology and New Materials Business, Tata Steel Limited, Jamshedpur, India

    Kaushal Kishore, Sanjay Kushwaha, Dheeraj Lal, Manashi Adhikary & Anup Kumar

  2. One Shared Services Technology Group, Tata Steel Limited, Jamshedpur, India

    Ankush Sharma & Anand Prabhakaran

Authors
  1. Kaushal Kishore
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  2. Sanjay Kushwaha
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  3. Dheeraj Lal
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  4. Ankush Sharma
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  5. Anand Prabhakaran
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  6. Manashi Adhikary
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  7. Anup Kumar
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Correspondence to Kaushal Kishore.

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Kishore, K., Kushwaha, S., Lal, D. et al. Failure Investigation of a Hot Blast Valve of Stove of Blast Furnace. J Fail. Anal. and Preven. 21, 1423–1433 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11668-021-01200-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11668-021-01200-z

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