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CRACKING OF RECOVERY BOILER COMPOSITE TUBES THERMAL FATIGUE OR STRESS CORROSION CRACKING?

Hannu Hnninen1 *), Pekka Pohjanne2), Pekka Saarinen1) and Timo Kiesi1) Helsinki University of Technology Laboratory of Engineering Materials P.O. Box 4200 FIN-02015 HUT
2) 1)

VTT Manufacturing Technology P.O. Box 1704 FIN-02044 VTT Finland

ABSTRACT
In the composite tubes of black liquor recovery boilers cracking and corrosion attack has been observed, especially in the floor tubes. Cracks typically initiate in the stainless steel cladding and penetrate through the cladding to the stainless steel/low alloy steel interface, where the cracks normally propagate along the interface and do not penetrate to the low alloy steel. Cracking occurs also on lower walls, smelt spout openings and air ports and sometimes penetration to low alloy steel base metal has also occurred. The cracking mechanism has been suggested to be either stress corrosion cracking or thermal fatigue. A special case of cracking has been the situation where cracks are present on the inner surface of the tubes, when cracking is also starting from the water side. The environmental, thermal, mechanical and metallurgical effects on these cracking phenomena are evaluated based on these two different mechanisms of cracking. Special attention is paid to the possible methods for mitigation of the recovery boiler cracking failures, e.g. by operating procedures or materials selection.

*On leave at Institute for Advanced Materials, Joint Research Centre Petten

Site, P.O. Box 2 - 1755 ZG Petten, The Netherlands

1. INTRODUCTION
Black Liquor Recovery Boilers (BLRB) are an essential and critical component in pulp mills. Because of the aggressive boiler atmosphere, composite tubing of stainless steel on carbon steel are used in the critical areas of lower boiler furnace. The composite tubes are typically made by hot co-extrusion followed by cold rolling, annealing and straightening. Recently, the corrosion resistant overlay is also applied to the carbon steel tube by welding. In boiler manufacturing the tubes are welded to panels, which are adjusted and welded to parts of the boilers. The boilers have built-in residual stresses from manufacturing. Additional stresses arise from in-service loading due to high and often fluctuating operating temperature and internal tube pressure. Cracking and corrosion of AISI 304L austenitic stainless steel cladding of composite floor tubes including the wall-tube bends underneath the smelt bed have been a problem for more than 10 years, which has increased the maintenance costs and lowered the BLRB availability [1-10]. This kind of corrosion problem exists also in air ports, smelt spout openings and recently in wall tubes between floor and primary air port level being of great concern to pulp mills because of potential tube failure in the lower furnace that may result in a serious smelt-water explosion. Over 50% of the Finnish recovery boilers having composite furnace floor tubes have experienced cracks in the furnace floor area to some extent. Typical for the floor tube cracking is that cracks can be found over the whole floor surface and it is not possible to find any special areas where they are concentrated. Cracks have been observed in old as well as in new BLRBs and no correlation has been observed between different manufacturers. 25% of the boilers have experienced pitting and wastage corrosion in the same areas [4]. Recent findings from North America suggest that in the sloped-floor boilers the most common areas for cracking are adjacent to the spout wall and in the smelt run areas adjacent to the side walls. Whereas in decanting-floor boilers cracking is more often randomly distributed over the floor [8]. This paper summarises the main ideas and approaches concerning cracking and corrosion mechanisms in BLRBs by characterising the cracking of composite boiler tubes, determining the environments and residual as well as thermal stresses and evaluates the suitability of some new alternate materials for use in the lower furnace of the BLRBs. The second aim is to provide practical information about durability of materials in different operating conditions and situations that occur in BLRBs. Furthermore, purpose is to give material and manufacturing solutions as well as recommendations for safe operating procedures to improve the maintenance of BLRBs.

2. CRACKING MECHANISMS
Floor tube cracks appear typically in the crown of the tube, on the sides of the tube and close to or along the toe of the tube-to-fin welds, Figs 1a, b. Cracks initiate in the stainless steel cladding and penetrate transgranularly the cladding with little branching to the stainless steel/low alloy steel interface, where the cracks normally end with a corrosion pit (contains mainly S) or grow along the interface, but do not penetrate into the low alloy steel, Fig. 1c,d. Cracks propagating along the interface impede heat transfer and produce a crevice where corrosion can be enhanced. In the worst case delamination and spalling of stainless steel layer can occur resulting in exposure of the carbon steel to the boiler atmosphere. In some cases (e.g., transverse cracking at primary air ports) cracks may continue past the stainless steel/carbon steel interface into the carbon steel (Fig. 1e, [11]) and then tubes typically show severe overheating and in some cases cracking exists also on the inner water-side surfaces of the tubes, Fig. 1f. In addition, typically transverse cracking is observed in the AISI 304 type steel fins penetrating the solid fins. These common cracking patterns and orientations reflect the stress states at the surface of the tubes at the time cracks form (perpendicular to the tensile main stresses). In part of the cases cracking clearly relates to thermal fatigue (clear indications of overheating and in the worst case cracking on the inner water-side surface of the tubes [9]). But in many of the cases cracking seems to be environment assisted cracking (EAC) and has features typical of transgranular stress corrosion cracking (TGSCC) of austenitic stainless steels [1,3,4,6]. Since no clear consensus has been achieved on the cracking mechanism, laboratory studies have been performed to identify the conditions under which SCC and thermal fatigue occur on composite tubes.

2.1 Thermal fatigue


Thermal fatigue is a damage mechanism, which occurs at stresses over the yield strength of a material. These stresses are developed when the free expansion or contraction by cyclic heating or cooling is restricted. Most often it is the surrounding material that restricts the expansion or contraction. Thermal fatigue resistance is noticed to be better when the elastic modulus and the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) are small, and when the yield strength, toughness and thermal conductivity are high. High strength and toughness are desired material properties, but they very rarely exist at the same time. Normally carbon steel and stainless steel, which have different CTEs, are joined together in a composite tube. When the temperature of the composite tube increases, for example, due to steam

blanketing inside the tube, the tube materials tend to expand according to their CTEs. When the materials are joined together, the free expansion is restricted, and thus, thermal stresses are developed. Thermal fatigue has been considered as one reason for cracking of recovery boiler composite tubes. The conditions where composite tubes operate are not constant but can vary very much. The solidified layer of smelt against the recovery boiler floor tubes can temporarily melt for chemical reasons or crack mechanically, e.g. due to falling salt cakes from the convective section of the boiler, causing high temperature liquid smelt to touch the floor tubes or steam blanketing to occur inside the tubes. Temperature excursions produce thermal gradients, which create thermal stresses in the composite tubes. When the temperature spikes are high enough and are repeated many times, cracks may finally form in the cladding of a composite tube in the aggressive environment of BLRBs. Temperature measurements of a number of boiler floors indicate that short (<3 min) temperature spikes significantly (100300 C) above the normal operating temperature (300 C), especially near the crown of the floor tubes, really take place. This has not been considered to be the sole cause of cracking, because on the basis of the in-situ temperature measurements no direct relationship between floor tube cracking locations and thermal spike frequency has been obtained. An insufficient number of high enough thermal cycles for thermal fatigue cracking to occur on the floor tubes takes place as compared to appropriate ASME Section III design curve for isothermal fatigue at 427 C [12]. The existing thermal fatigue data seems to fall within the S-N curve regardless of the peak temperature of the test cycle (<650 C max). There is, however, no real thermal fatigue data obtained in BLRB environmental conditions. Often also TEM analyses of the dislocation structures are made to evaluate the fatigue damage based on the cellular dislocation structure [5,6]. However, recent studies showed that the thermal fatigue laboratory test samples and cracked tubes from boilers have similar dislocation structures (moderate dislocation density with even distribution showing tangled structure because of high amount of dislocation loops and small lattice defects pinning the dislocations) [9,13]. Cellular dislocation structures can be found only in very severe cases of cracking including marked overheating and possible cracking also on the inner surface of the tubes. Thus, this microstructural feature can not be considered to be a reliable indication of the presence of thermal fatigue.

2.2 Stress corrosion cracking


Stress corrosion cracking takes place when certain aggressive environment exists above a critical temperature at the same time with sufficiently high tensile stress in the material. Stresses causing TGSCC failure of the stainless steel cladding can be residual stresses from

fabrication or stresses having their origin in the difference of CTE of austenitic stainless steel cladding and carbon steel core. It has been postulated that SCC during shut-down startup cycle combined with water washing is one possible mechanism, because aggressive solutions form by reactions of water and the solidified smelt [1,3,4,6]. AISI 304L type austenitic cladding has high tensile stresses after the shut-down, because of different CTEs of the carbon steel and the austenitic stainless steel. Stress analyses show that, when composite floor tubes are cooling from the normal operation temperatures (about 300 oC) tensile stresses in AISI 304L type austenitic stainless steel cladding exceed the yield stress of the material at about 220 oC and remain during the whole outage period [8,14]. It is nowadays well known that AISI 304 type steels can crack very rapidly at a low stress level (above 1/3 of yield stress) when exposed to a solution containing sodium sulphide (Na2Sx9H2O) or to a concentrated aqueous solution of smelt at temperatures of 150200 C [8,10,15]. Pure anhydrous Na2S is hygroscopic and in solution it is highly alkaline. Cracking is able to occur in the solutions of Na2S alone (essential chemical compound for cracking) or combined with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and/or sodium carbonate (Na2CO3), i.e., in chemicals of which the smelt consists (NaOH can form by oxidation of Na2S during water wash in smelt solution, by hydrolysis of Na2S or dissolution of Na2CO3 in water [15]). These smelt solutions have high dry-out temperature (180 C), and solubility of Na2S in water increases with temperature. The dry-out temperature is still increased with NaOH (hygroscopic and prevents dehydratation of Na2S) up to 250 C. In a highly concentrated and saturated solution of Na2S and NaOH SCC has been demonstrated at temperatures as low as 60 C in SSRT tests [8,10]. Therefore, if the smelt bed is not completely removed during the water wash, the smelt solution may become concentrated and further enrich in Na2S as the temperature increases in boiler start-up. The hydrated smelt is able to cause cracking in the temperature range below 200 C (cracking may not be expected below 150 C). In addition, stress analyses and on-line material temperature measurements of floor tubes show that high tensile stresses may be locally present in the cladding also during operation [4,10,14]. A short-term material temperature transient with a peak temperature of 400 oC is enough to cause tensile stresses that equal the yield stress of AISI 304L type austenitic stainless steel cladding at a typical floor tube operating temperature of 300 oC [14]. Therefore, SCC may also be a possible cracking mechanism during operation, provided that some kind of liquid and/or gas phase, specific to TGSCC of austenitic stainless steels, is stable and adjacent to the floor tubes during operation.

Chemical enrichment of K, S and Cl close to the tubes may lead to a molten smelt and create conditions for SCC in boiler operating conditions, since these elements lower the melting temperature of the smelt [16, 17]. This makes the frozen layer thinner and easier for the smelt to penetrate. These elements decrease also the viscosity of the smelt enhancing its flow. Therefore, conditions for SCC to occur may exist also during normal operation conditions of the boiler. However, there is some experience available that no cracking has been observed in composite tube floors, which have not been exposed to water washing during outages.

4. THERMAL FATIGUE STUDIES


Thermal fatigue tests for composite tubes have been carried out with a testing device based on high frequency (150-200 kHz) induction heating, which heats and cools the tube repeatedly, without dwell times, in order to produce temperature gradients to the composite tubes. The test piece of 120 mm long composite tube was located inside the heating coil during the heating. The temperature of the composite tube during the test was monitored with thermocouples to simulate the thermal cycles measured from real boiler floors. When the surface of the tube reached the desired temperature it was immediately automatically transferred to water spray cooling. After cooling to a certain temperature, the tube was transferred back to the heating position. Because the induction heating affected the cladding as well as the carbon steel, the inside surface of the carbon steel tube was continuously cooled by pressurized air. Without the air cooling, the temperature of the inner surface would have increased to a high value. This would have resulted in internal cracking of low alloy steel of the sample, which is sometimes also observed in severe cracking cases in real boiler floor tubes [13]. The temperature in the inner surface changed in the same phase with the temperature in the outer surface, but the temperature range in the inner surface was much smaller in the tests. In the real boilers steam blanketing can result in smaller thermal gradients across the tube wall and cracking in the inner water-side surface of the tubes can also take place. The purpose of the tests was to heat and cool the cladding surface of the tube in the temperature range of 300700 C. The stresses/strains in the short composite tube samples after the tests at room temperature were, however, different from the residual stresses in the real BLRB composite floor tubes after the operation of a boiler, which are highly tensile. AISI 309 weld overlay contained rather large cracks after thermal fatigue test similar to AISI 304L (Fig. 2a). Alloy 825 weld overlay exhibited rather small cracks after the test (2000 cycles, 300700 C). Alloy 625 weld overlay contained the smallest cracks among

the welded as-fabricated overlays. In annealed alloy 625 weld overlay cladding, the cracks were the smallest of all of the tested materials. However, the number of small cracks in the annealed material was higher than in the as-fabricated welded alloy 625. Co-extruded 3R12 and Sanicro 38 materials contained cracks which proceeded straight to the half thickness of the cladding. Sanicro 63 material exhibited the smallest cracks among all as-fabricated coextruded composite tubes. The cracks were slightly smaller than in the as-fabricated weld overlay 625 material, but the number of cracks was clearly higher in Sanicro 63. Sanicro 65 material, on the other hand, contained large cracks, which proceeded mainly transgranularly straight from the surface to the half thickness of the cladding. Composite tube 3RE28 exhibited the largest cracks among all materials. The largest crack proceeded transgranularly through the whole cladding to the interface and continued to the carbon steel (Fig. 2b). The chromized tube contained quite large cracks, which proceeded from the surface of the tube to the base material. The cracks in carbon steel (St 45.8 III) proceeded from the surface of the tube towards the inner surface, but they were not so large as in many composite tubes. The crack depths of all materials were compared to each other. The numbers of cracks of certain size after thermal cycling (300700 C) of 2000 cycles are shown in Fig. 3 exhibiting the distribution of cracks in each material.

5. STRESS CORROSION CRACKING


SCC of composite tube materials in shut-down conditions, i.e., when the boiler is water washed, or especially during the start-up, when the floor is not completely cleaned from solidified hydrated smelt after washing, was investigated with SCC tests in different types of hydrated Na2S Na2CO3 salts. Hydrated salt mixtures were chosen, because recent studies have shown that an aggressive alkaline sulphide containing environment, capable to cause SCC in stainless steel at elevated temperatures, can form on boiler floor during washing, when the washing water reacts with the solidified smelt [8,15]. The test results show that SCC risk during start-up cycle should not be under-estimated if hydrated solidified smelt or smelt chunks and washing water are left on the floor after washing. The start-up was simulated by heating the hydrated salt mixtures from room temperature up to 150...250 oC. During tests the crystal water was allowed to be released and the salt mixtures to dry. AISI 304 type stainless steel was susceptible to SCC in various sodium sulphide (Na2Sx9H2O), sodium carbonate (Na2CO3), sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and sodium sulphate (Na2SO4) salt mixtures, Tables 1 and 2 [18]. Cracking did not occur when

sulphide content was low or the carbonate-based salt contained no sulphide. Tests indicated also that the nickel-base Alloy 625 has the best resistance against SCC in hot moist sodium sulphide containing salts of the new alternative composite tube materials. The second best composite tube material was Alloy 825. It was susceptible to SCC in pure sulphide and in sulphide salt mixtures containing sodium hydroxide, but it was resistant in Na2S-Na2CO3 salt mixture, that is closer to the real boiler environment, e.g. than the pure sulphide. The plain carbon steel (pressure vessel steel TStE 355, DIN 17102) was resistant to SCC in Na2S and Na2S-Na2CO3 salt mixtures, where both AISI 304 and Alloy 825 cracked. This is a beneficial result considering the composite tube structure, i.e., if the corrosion resistant cladding fails by SCC it does not necessarily mean that the cracks proceed into the pressure carrying C-steel. In boilers this may be an indication of the mechanism of cracking, i.e. SCC cracks stop at or grow along the interface, but thermal fatigue cracks are able to continue past the interface. Table 1. Summary of the SCC tests performed in various hydrated salt mixtures in simulated start-up conditions. All water originates from hydrated Na2S x9H2O. (U-bend specimens, test duration 20...25 h, temperature from 25 to 200oC)
Salt mixture - percentage from dry solids Na2S Na2CO3 NaOH Na2SO4 Conc. [%] [%] [%] [%] [g/lH2O] 100 480 20 80 2400 33.3 33.3 33.3 1445 12 53 12 23 4090 *) **) Small cracks and Incipient cracks AISI 304 SCC SCC SCC SCC Results Alloy Alloy 825 625 *) SCC No SCC No SCC --*) SCC --**) SCC --C-steel No SCC -------

Table 2. Effect of sodium sulphide content and moisture to SCC behaviour in simulated start-up conditions. (U-bend specimens, test duration 5...6 h, temperature from 25 to 230...270oC)
Salt mixture Percentage from dry solids Na2CO3 [%] 100 90 80
A)

Results AISI 304 No SCC No SCC SCC Alloy 825 No SCC ----Alloy 625 No SCC ----C-steel No SCC -----

Na2S [%] 0 10 20

Conc. [g/lH2O] 590A) 4827B) 2407B)

Na2CO3 x10H2O and B) Na2S x9H2O

SCC of composite floor tubes may occur during operation after thermal cycling (tensile stress state present at operating conditions) due to some aggressive sulphur species present on the floor tubes. Slow strain rate tests (SSRT) performed with plate materials in some alkali-polysulphide-alkali chloride melts at 300 oC showed that AISI 304L type austenitic stainless steel was slightly susceptible to SCC when exposed to alkali polysulphide-alkali chloride mixtures under argon atmosphere with or without chlorides. In the same environments Alloy 825 was resistant to SCC. [17,18]

7. SUMMARY
There is plenty of evidence that floor tube cracks can initiate and form very rapidly by stress corrosion cracking mechanism in hydrated smelt or concentrated water wash solutions of Na2S and NaOH or Na2CO3. In boiler operation cracking occurs when tensile stresses are present and boiler floor tubes are sufficiently hot (>150 C). This susceptibility window for cracking should be considered very carefully in the boiler operating procedures for water washing, dry-out fires or start-up when the floor is heated above 150 C while in contact with hydrated smelt or concentrated washing water. For avoiding SCC of floor tubes in water wash solutions under the frozen smelt, i.e. saturated hydrated Na2S solutions, or in contact with moist smelt, the critical temperature range (150200 C) should be avoided and water wash should be started below 150 C tube temperature, before start-up floor should be clean of moist hydrated smelt and drying should be made below 150 C. At present, the critical temperature of 150 C for AISI 304 type steel floor tubes is still not well defined and confirmed.

Thermal cycling of floor tubes causes tensile stresses at operating temperature, but at the moment there is only preliminary evidence of SCC in the operating environments, i.e. in the smelts possibly enriched of S, K or Cl. If enough thermal transients of more than 100 C exist in the same area of the floor in the aggressive floor environmental conditions, thermal fatigue is certainly possible and its presence is especially evident from the thermal degradation of the carbon steel tube parts and in some cases from cracks on the inner waterside surface of the tubes. A number of new alternative composite tube materials, having higher yield strength than that of AISI 304 type steel and a CTE value more closely matched to that of carbon steel base metal, are more resistant (but not immune) both to SCC and thermal fatigue cracking than the conventional AISI 304L type composite tubes. Alloy 825 can be a good choice for floor tubes, although it is not completely resistant to SCC in simulated boiler shut-down start-up tests its resistance is much better than that of AISI 304 steel. And the filed experience shows no incidence of cracking of Sanicro 38/Alloy 825 at the moment. In general, weld overlay Alloy 625 and co-extruded Sanicro 63 have turned out to be the most resistant materials. Thus, they may be considered in places where Alloy 825 is not applicable.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
TEKES, Finnish Recovery Boiler Committee, Andritz-Ahlstrom Oy, Kvaerner Pulping Oy, Savcor Oy and VTT Manufacturing Technology, which is gratefully acknowledged, have funded this study. The authors want also to thank to the steering committee of SOMA project for useful discussions and Sandvik AB and Welding Services Inc. for supplying test materials.

REFERENCES
1. Pohjanne, P., Hnninen, H., Mkip, M. & Ehrnsten, U., TAPPI 7th Int. Symposium on Corrosion in the Pulp & Paper Industry, Orlando, FL, November 16-20, 1992, pp. 259265. 2. Ingevald, S. & Kiessling, L., ibid., pp. 285-297. 3. Hnninen, H., 30 Years Recovery Boiler Co-operation in Finland, Finnish Recovery Boiler Committee, Helsinki, Finland, 1994, pp. 121-132.

4. Hnninen, H., Pohjanne, P. & Nieminen, P., Proceedings of International Symposium on Plant Ageing and Life Predictions of Corrodible Structures. Sapporo, Japan, May 15-18, 1995, pp. 529-539. 5. Mkip, M., Salonen, J., Nenonen, P. & Hakkarainen, T., TAPPI 8th Int. Symposium on Corrosion in the Pulp & Paper Industry, Stockholm, Sweden, 1995, pp. 189-197. 6. Keiser, J., Taljat, B., Wang, X-L., Maziasz, P.J., Singbeil, D.L. & Prescott, R., Proceedings of the TAPPI 1996 Engineering Conference, TAPPI Press, Atlanta, GA, U.S.A., 1996, pp. 693-705. 7. Singbeil, D., Prescott, R., Keiser, J. & Swindeman, B., Proceedings of the 1997 TAPPI Engineering Conference, TAPPI Press, Atlanta, GA, U.S.A., 1997, pp. 1001-1023. 8. Keiser, J.R., Sarma, G.B., Wang X.-L., Hubbard, C.R., Swindeman, R.W., Singbeil, D.L. & Singh, P.M., Proceedings of the 2000 TAPPI Engineering Conference, TAPPI Press, Atlanta, GA, U.S.A., 2000, 11 p. 9. Saarinen, P., Hnninen, H., Tuiremo, J. & Salmi, K., Proceedings of the 2000 TAPPI Engineering Conference, TAPPI Press, Atlanta, GA, U.S.A., 2000, 13 p. 10. Keiser, J.R., Taljat, B., Wang X.-L., Swindeman, R.W., Maziasz, P.J., Meyers, L.E., Thomas, R.L., Elliott, S.T., Singbeil, D.L., Prescott, R. & Gorog, J.P., Pulp & Paper Canada, Vol. 101, No. 4, 2000, pp. 20-26. 11. Oldestam, T. 1987 Kraft Recovery Operations Seminar, Orlando, FL, U.S.A., 1987, 12 p. 12. Swindeman, R.W., Keiser, J.R., Maziasz, P.J. & Singbeil, D.L., 9th Int. Symposium on Corrosion in the Pulp & Paper Industry, Ottawa, Canada, 1998, pp. 209-212. 13. Saarinen, P., Hnninen, H. & Nenonen, P., Proceedings of the 2000 TAPPI Engineering Conference, TAPPI Press, Atlanta, GA, U.S.A., 2000, 17 p. 14. Taljat, B., Zacharia, T., Keiser, J. R. and Wang, W-L., Tappi J., Vol. 82. No. 12, 1999, pp. 99-108. 15. Prescott, R., Eng, P. & Singbeil, D.L. 9th Int. Symposium on Corrosion in the Pulp & Paper Industry, Ottawa, Canada, 1998, pp. 185-188. 16. Klarin, A., Tappi J., Vol. 76, No. 12, 1993, pp. 183-188. 17. Mkip, M., Oksa, M. & Pohjanne, P. Proceedings of the 2000 TAPPI Engineering Conference, TAPPI Press, Atlanta, GA, U.S.A., 2000, 11 p. 18. Pohjanne, P., Saarinen, P., Mkip, M., Oksa, M. & Hnninen, H., VTT Symposium BALTICA V, 6-8 June, 2001, 12 p.

a)

b)

c)

d)

e)

f) Figure 1. Cracking in AISI 304L composite floor tubes. Transverse (a) and craze (mosaic) (b) cracking patterns in austenitic AISI 304L, transgranular cracks stop at or grow along the interface of cladding (c, d) as well as can continue past the interface to low alloy steel (e). (f) Cracking on the inner water-side surface of the tube in the region where extensive cracking is also present in the cladding (signs of overheating were also present based on widening of the decarburised zone).

a) b) Figure 2. Cracks in the cladding of a) AISI 309 weld overlay and b) co-extruded austenitic stainless steel (3RE28) after thermal fatigue testing (300-700 oC, 2000 cycles).

Depth distribution of cracks (300-700 C, 2000 cycles)

180 160 140

Number of cracks

120 100 80 60 40 20 0 -20 20-40 40-60 60-80 80-100 100-200 200-300 300-500

625/2 (weld overlay, annealed) San63/1 625/1 (weld overlay) 825/1 (weld overlay) St45,8 III 309/1 (weld overlay) San38 San65/1 3R12 Cr-tube 3RE28

3RE28 3R12 San38 St45,8 III 625/1 (weld overlay) 625/2 (weld overlay, annealed)

500-1000

1000-2000

Crack depth (m)

Figure 3. The summary of crack depths in the composite tube materials examined after thermal fatigue cycling.

2000-

a)

b)

Figure 4. Cracking of AISI 304 U-Bend specimens after SCC tests in hydrated Na2S. (Heating from 20 oC to 220 oC, test duration 25 hours of which 19 hours above 180oC)

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