Boiler Tube Failure Analysis
Boiler tube failure reduction and tube failure analysis services and programs help avoid costly outages, and improve power plant reliability.
Boiler tube failures are the number one cause of unplanned, forced outages in fossil-fuel fired power plants. The tube failure decisions confronting power plant managers and operators are complicated, Intertek can help.
Potential Tube Failure Problems include:
- Unexpected tube failures in superheaters or reheaters, occurring with increased frequency. During the resulting forced outages, do you replace only the damaged tubes, or do you also replace adjacent material that may be on the verge of failure?
- A visual examination and wall thickness survey during an outage show severe erosion and wall thinning, but no obviously failed tubes. How long before this damage begins causing tube ruptures?
- Everything looks good and few, if any, tube failures have occurred. How long will this good fortune continue?
- Chemical cleaning of the waterwall tubes is required to avoid undesirable conditions in the boiler. Deposit samples are required to determine the appropriate chemical cleaning. What is the most cost-effective method of determining where the thickest deposits exist?
A comprehensive boiler tube failure reduction program will provide the answers to these questions. A comprehensive boiler tube failure reduction program involves both in situ and laboratory analysis of tubes to determine the condition of the tubes.
Intertek provides support for your boiler tube failure reduction program:
- Boiler Tube Remaining Life System - This service is based on our proven remaining useful life (RUL) analysis technique. It is the only one of its kind sponsored by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).
- Analysis of Failed and Non-Failed Tubes - NDE results may be verified by tube samples taken from select locations. These samples allow us to check for scale separation and exfoliation and to verify material composition.
- Remaining Useful Life Analysis Technique – Analysis technique used in conjunction with NDE data to determine RUL.
- Remaining Useful Life Analysis Software – Proprietary RUL software developed by Intertek.
- TubeMod - TubeAlert results may also be used to determine time averaged tube temperatures both across the boiler and through the superheater or reheater tube bank. This information can be used in conjunction with TubeMod to extend the life of your superheater or reheater.
- Waterwall Deposit Measurement System – Nondestructive method to determine current internal deposit thicknesses in waterwall tubing.
Contact us to see how Intertek can help your organization with Boiler Tube Failure Analysis.