Stress-Assisted Corrosion in Boiler Tubes

A number of industrial boilers, including in the pulp and paper industry, needed to replace their lower furnace tubes or decommission many recovery boilers due to stress-assisted corrosion (SAC) on the waterside of boiler tubes. More than half of the power and recovery boilers that have been inspected reveal SAC damage, which portends significant energy and economic impacts. The goal of this project was to clarify the mechanism of stress-assisted corrosion (SAC) of boiler tubes for the purpose of determining key parameters in its mitigation and control. To accomplish this in-situ strain measurements on boiler tubes were made. Boiler water environment was simulated in the laboratory and effects of water chemistry on SAC initiation and growth were evaluated in terms of industrial operations. Results from this project have shown that the dissolved oxygen is single most important factor in SAC initiation on carbon steel samples. Control of dissolved oxygen can be used to mitigate SAC in industrial boilers. Results have also shown that sharp corrosion fatigue and bulbous SAC cracks have similar mechanism but the morphology is different due to availability of oxygen during boiler shutdown conditions. Results are described in the final technical report