Abstract
The titanium condenser has been in operation for 24 years at Amager unit 3 power plant. In February 2012, the plant was contaminated by seawater due to a failed condenser tube and some tubes were plugged. A month later, the plant tripped again. Small leaks were found again and finally approx. 200 tubes were plugged before the condenser was in service again. A series of inspections, NDT, and destructive examinations were conducted to try and understand the cause of failure in the tubes within the condenser. After such investigations, degradation mechanisms such as inner fouling, steam impingement, and fretting/erosion around the supports could be discounted. Ductile cracks were found in the tube within the tubesheet. From circumstantial evidence, it was concluded that failure was caused by a semi-filled condenser which led to a mismatch in expansion coefficients of filled tubes and unfilled tubes during a plant trip. In addition, small amounts of titanium hydride were revealed to be present in the tubes within the tubesheet indicating that the carbon steel tubesheet was corroding due to ingress of salt water. Although this was not the reason for the failure, it indicated the need for repair of the epoxy coating in the waterbox.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
A. Al-Meshari, M. Diab, S. Al-Enazi, Investigation: failure of a surface condenser titanium tube. Hydrocarbon Process. 90(4), 55–58 (2011)
D.G. Daniels, Taming condenser tube leaks part I and II, www.powermag.com Sep/Oct 2010
O. Andersen, K. Sjølstad, Titanium tube failures in Helifin Heat Exchangers. Presented at Stainless Steel World 2009—Reproduced from Statoils website. http://www.kcicms.com/pdf/factfiles/titanium/ssw09ce_titanium_statoil.pdf?resourceId=130. Accessed 3 July 2014
D. Fan, W.C. Fort, R. Horvath, Experience with Titanium Heat Exchangers in Refinery Services, NACE Proceedings 2000, Paper 00691, 2000
Z.G. Yang, Y. Gong, J.Z. Yuan, Failure analysis of leakage on titanium tubes within heat exchangers in a nuclear power plant. Part I: electrochemical corrosion. Mater. Corros. 63, 7–17 (2012)
Y. Gong, Z.G. Yang, J.Z. Yuan, Failure analysis of leakage on titanium tubes within heat exchangers in a nuclear power plant. Part II: mechanical degradation. Mater. Corros. 63, 18–28 (2012)
C.H. Hsu, Fatigue cracking of titanium tubes in an industrial heat exchanger. J. Mater. Eng. 10, 57–60 (1988)
C.H. Hsu, The failure of titanium clad tube sheet in heat exchanger by fatigue cracking and corrosion. Proceedings Industrial Heat Exchanger Technology, (Pittsburg, PA 6–8 Nov, Ed ASM 1985) pp. 281–284
Q.L. Ma, H. Xu, Z.W. Wang, F. Hou, L.Y. Xu, Failure analysis and critical manufacturing technology research on titanium condensers. Eng. Fail. Anal. 12, 432–439 (2005)
K. Onishi, M. Yano, T. Hoshika, T. Haruna, Results of an Investigation into the localised hydrogen embrittlement of titanium heat exchanger tubes in a wastewater environment. Proceedings of NACE Corrosion Conference 2007, Paper 07200, 2007
H.M. Shalaby, H. Al-Mazeedi, H. Gopal, N. Tanoli, Failure of titanium condenser tube. Eng. Fail. Anal. 18, 1990–1997 (2011)
D.J. Schumerth, T. Demers, Hydrogen Embrittlement in Titanium and Superferritic Stainless Steel Steam Surface Condensing Tube. Proceedings NACE Corrosion 2013, Paper 2078
W.H. Hartt, L. Liu, Fatigue properties of hydrided titanium condenser tubes. Corrosion 48, 172–176 (1992)
R.W. Schutz, Corrosion of Titanium and Titanium Alloys Corrosion: Materials, vol 13B (ASM Handbook, ASM International, 2005), pp. 252–299
C.F. Briant, Z.F. Wang, N. Chollocoop, Hydrogen embrittlement of commercial purity titanium. Corros. Sci. 44, 1875–1888 (2002)
K. Thomsen, Handling a serious seawater contamination of the water-steam circuit of a once-through boiler at amagerværket power plant. Power Plant Chem. 15(3), 168–182 (2013)
Acknowledgments
The authors thank HOFOR for constructive discussions and allowing the publication of this paper. Thanks also go to DTU-Mekanik for help with metallurgical analysis and discussions.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Montgomery, M., Enemark, A. & Hangaard, A. Failure of Titanium Condenser Tubes After 24 Years Power Plant Service. J Fail. Anal. and Preven. 14, 554–563 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11668-014-9862-y
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11668-014-9862-y