Creep damage prediction of the steam pipelines with high temperature and high pressure

Creep is the significant factor that caused failure of steam pipelines with high temperature and high pressure in the period of long-term service. In this paper, the creep tests were performed at serviced temperature of 520 °C for 1.25Cr–0.5Mo pipe material, and the creep and fracture constants were obtained by fitting the creep test data. Based on the modified Karchanov–Rabotnov constitutive equation, compiled the user subroutine computing the damage of the pipe element or 3D solid element, the creep damage prediction was carried out by finite element methods using ABAQUS codes for the steam pipelines with high temperature and high pressure, which serviced in a petro-chemical plant, the damage distribution and maximum damage location of the pipelines were obtained, which is testified by metallographic examination result. Furthermore, the local creep damage analysis of a tapered pipe serviced for 100,000 h was also carried out because tapered pipes used in the main steam pipeline is one of weakness in the piping system. Damage distribution and evolution in the analyzed tapered pipe were obtained. The location with the maximum damage value was determined, which is coincident with cracking position of the actual tapered pipe.