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Degradation and reduction of small punch creep life of service-exposed Super304H steel

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Abstract

To ensure the safety and structural integrity of a power boiler in thermal power plants, residual life management of superheater tubes at elevated temperature is needed. Over the decades, small punch (SP) creep testing has been widely used as an effective method for measuring creep life and creep properties of the boiler tube materials. In this study, a series of SP creep tests were performed at 650 °C with virgin and service-exposed Super304H stainless steels. The service period was 54750 h and 68550 h, respectively. The residual creep rupture life of the 68550 h serviced Super304H material decreased significantly when it was compared with the virgin and 54750 h serviced materials. Coarsening of the M23C6 precipitates along the grain boundaries made the adjacent region Cr-depleted, which could accelerate the formation of creep cavities at the grain boundaries. These microstructural degradations reduced the creep rupture life of the service-exposed materials. The Larson–Miller curve and the Monkman–Grant relationship were applied to predict the creep rupture life of service-exposed Super304H steels from the measured short creep rupture data.

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Abbreviations

Ā :

Small punch creep coefficient

n̄ :

Small punch creep exponent

B :

Monkman Grant constant

C :

Larson Miller constant

LMP :

Larson Miller parameter

P :

Small punch load

t r :

Time to rupture (in hours)

T :

Temperature (in Kelvin)

δ̇min :

Minimum punch-displacement rate

α :

Monkman-Grant exponent for small punch creep

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) [grant number 2014 1010101850] funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE). This study was also supported by a KETEP [grant number 2016 1110100090] funded by the MOTIE.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, 06974, Korea

    Thi Giang Le & Tae Min Jeong

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, 06974, Korea

    Kee Bong Yoon

Authors
  1. Thi Giang Le
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  3. Tae Min Jeong
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kee Bong Yoon.

Additional information

Recommended by Editor Chongdu Cho

Thi Giang Le received her B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering from Hanoi University of Science and Technology. She received the M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Chung-Ang University. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Chung-Ang University. Her research interest is creep behavior and aging characteristics of high temperature alloy materials.

Kee Bong Yoon received his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from KAIST and Ph.D. from Georgia Institute of Technology. He is currently a Professor at Chung-Ang University. His research interests are high temperature fracture and risk based management of energy plants. He is extending research to fracture of additive manufactured materials.

Tae Min Jeong received his B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Chung-Ang University. He conducted research on creep behavior and fracture of the high temperature materials. He is also interested in the life and integrity assessment of plant facilities. He is currently working on the team of NAND package front technology of SK Hynix Inc.

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Le, T.G., Yoon, K.B. & Jeong, T.M. Degradation and reduction of small punch creep life of service-exposed Super304H steel. J Mech Sci Technol 33, 5243–5250 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-019-1014-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-019-1014-6

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