Title: Tribological characterisation of SA210 Gr A1 boiler steels for different temperature applications

Authors: Adarsh Kumar; Pawan Kumar Sapra

Addresses: Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar-Kapurthala Highway, Kapurthala, Punjab, 144603, India ' College of Engineering and Management, Kapurthala, Punjab, 144601, India

Abstract: Erosion is the material degradation when the solid particle strikes with the metal with some significant velocity. Fly ash erosion is the main reason for boiler tube failure which results untimely shut down and failure of boiler tubes. Boilers and steam power plant equipments suffer severe erosion problems resulting in substantial losses. The present research work includes investigation of erosion mechanism of SA210 Gr A1 boiler steels under ambient and high temperature conditions which are similar to general application and boiler operating conditions. The experiment has been performed in two steps, first experiment is conducted at ambient temperature of 25°C and second experiment is performed at high temperature in which the air jet containing erodent is maintained at 800°C and boiler steel samples are heated to 600°C. Alumina powder of 50 micron size is used as erodent with different angles of impingement of air jet containing erodent is taken into consideration. Erosion performance at room temperature as well as elevated temperature by simulating the temperature to actual working conditions of the boilers was evaluated. The eroded samples were analysed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and EDX analysis.

Keywords: solid particle erosion; fly ash erosion; surface roughness; surface quality; tribological characterisation; tribology; boiler steels; temperature; boiler tube failure; boiler tubes; alumina powder.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSURFSE.2016.077540

International Journal of Surface Science and Engineering, 2016 Vol.10 No.4, pp.375 - 388

Received: 26 Jan 2015
Accepted: 27 Jun 2015

Published online: 05 Jul 2016 *

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