Investigation of tubing failure of super-heater boiler from Kuwait Desalination Electrical Power Plant Original Research Article

This paper presents the results of an investigation into the failure of steel tubes in a super heater boiler used at one of Kuwait Electrical and Power plant. The material of the tubes has suffered localized overheating, probably as a result of local heat flux impingement phenomenon, caused by gas or oil burners. This phenomenon gave rise to a rapid steam formation causing steam blanketing. It also prevented the accessibility of the water to the tube materials and consequently local, prolong, overheating took place, in which the temperature rose up to 700°C in a frequent manner for long time. The investigation has indicated that the failure attributed to the formation of thick scale of magnetite at the inner surface of the tube wall.