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

The increase of the temperature is clearly shown in the microstructure of the tube at the stress rupture site, where ferrite matrix with spheroidized carbide particles were presented rather than only ferrite matrix with pearlites structure. Consequently, the properties of the materials of the tube have changed from its original values with respect to the design values of the tube due to the effect of the localized prolong overheating. Therefore, the original design values are no longer valid and the materials of the tube failed in a premature manner, at less than 250,000 hours.