ETD Consulting, Fountain House, Cleeve Road, Leatherhead, Surrey, KT22 7LX, UK

Tel: + 44 (0)1372 363 111 Fax: + 44 (0)1372 363 222 enquiries@etd-consulting.com

www.etd-consulting.com BS EN ISO 9001: 2008 Certified ETD Consulting is a trading name of European Technology Development Ltd, Registered in England No: 3553836

ETD\PPp1:Feb17

CRACKFIT – Defect Assessment Tool for Boilers/ Pressure Vessels & Turbines

TECHNICAL PROPOSAL

ETD Proposal No: 1576-tp-prop17

Proposal for a Group Sponsored Project (GSP)

Proposal by:

F Akther, Dr D Robertson

Contact Name: Dr A Shibli

Phone: + 44 1372 363 111

Fax: + 44 1372 363 222

Email: ashibli@etd-consulting.com

July 2017

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CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 3

2. OBJECTIVES ................................................................................................................. 5

3. SCOPE OF WORK ......................................................................................................... 5

4. PROJECT BENEFITS .................................................................................................... 7

5. TIMESCALE & DELIVERABLES ............................................................................... 9

6. PRICE ESTIMATE AND CONDITIONS ..................................................................... 9

7. ETD’s TEAM FOR THIS PROJECT .......................................................................... 10

8. FURTHER CONTACTS............................................................................................... 10

APPENDIX 1: ETD’S PROFILE ........................................................................................ 13

APPENDIX 2: ETD’s STAFF & EXPERTISE ...................................................................... 16

APPENDIX 3: ETD’S EXPERIENCE AND CAPABILITY ................................................. 18

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1. INTRODUCTION

Defect assessment procedures aim primarily to avoid component failure during service, avoid

early replacement and thus incur capital expenditure only when absolutely necessary.

Components operating under stress and at elevated temperatures are likely to be subject to in-

service damage, in the form of crack initiation and growth. Once found it is important to

understand how long a crack can remain safely in service.

ETD, initially as a part of the European Commission project HIDA (High-temp. Defect

Assessment) and later as a joint-industry project, has brought together various recognized

national and international defect assessment codes and practices and developed a practical

defect assessment tool named ‘CrackFit’. This tool is a software that is designed to help

engineers perform crack initiation and growth assessment both for low and high temperature

components. Crack initiation and growth for a host of components (pressure vessels, plate and

laboratory specimens) and commonly occurring crack geometries found in industrial plant are

incorporated in this software. Crackfit functioning has been checked and verified by

independent experts against hand calculations and other in-house procedures. CrackFit is

accompanied by a large material and creep and fatigue (representing various operation modes

of a flexible operation power plant/ HRSG) crack growth database. It thus represents the

cutting edge in crack and defect assessment software and is already being used by a number of

power and processing industries in Europe, North America and Asia.

This proposal is about adding to the CrackFit software (developed for boilers, pressure

vessels/ piping and lab. specimens only) cracks commonly found in power plant turbines.

2. FEATURES OF THE ‘CrackFit’ SOFTWARE

Features

A complete coverage of Crack/Defect Assessment Procedure developed specifically for

high temperature industry use.

Reliably measures crack initiation and growth using fracture mechanics concepts.

The fitness-for-service program incorporated into the software performs calculations to

determine a defect’s criticality in line with the assessment codes.

A verified procedure and software with a very useful and detailed database for the

assessment of cracks in the power, petrochemical, refining or other high temperature

plant.

Ability to expand the range of component/ defect geometries.

Carries out both deterministic and probabilistic crack assessment.

Assessment Modules

The specific modules which are incorporated in CrackFit software are: Materials, Cyclic

loading and Leak-Before-Break (LBB) modules as discussed below:

The Material module allows the user to select different materials relevant to the component to

be assessed. The material properties included are tensile strength, stress rupture, rupture

ductility, fatigue and creep crack growth data from established sources like British Standard

BSi PD5500, HIDA and ECCC (European Creep Collaborative Committee) datasheets. Two

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example materials (P91 base metal and P22 forged base metal) are already included in the

software. A number of other materials such as: martensitic steel ASME P91; traditional low

alloy steels P22 and P11, turbine rotor and casing steels such as 1CrMoV forged and cast;

austenitic steels such as 304 and 316 and a number of other materials are included in the full

database which can be purchased separately or as a part of the CRACKFIT Software, if

required. This database also contains the weld metal and HAZ data where necessary.

The Cyclic Loading module provides algorithm for the user to apply up to four scenarios of

cyclic loading of different maximum and minimum load, temperature and dwell time values for

the case of creep-fatigue interaction. The cyclic loading can be performed until the component

fails or until the maximum time specified is reached. This Remaining Life Assessment (RLA)

feature provides recommendations for run/repair/replace decisions.

The Sensitivity and Probabilistic analysis; In reality, input data required for the defect

assessment can be varied and may be obtained from well scattered data tending to produce

large deviation of the input values, hence reducing the confidence in the quality of the results.

CrackFit accommodates the two types of analyses by allowing the user to simply choose the

confidence level for different type of input data. The outcome of the evaluation (such as ‘time

to failure’, ‘cycles to failure’, ‘number of cycles required for a certain crack growth’ etc.) is

represented in CrackFit in a simple tornado or bar diagram for the sensitivity analysis case and

the ‘probability of failure versus time’ curve can be derived from the probabilistic analysis

using the Monte-Carlo Simulation.

Crack geometry

FAD Diagram shows the crack growth

Fig. 1: Example of ‘Crackfit’ features

3. PROPOSED NEW DEVELOPMENT INCORPORATING TURBINES

CrackFit is designed to be a dynamic and flexible tool. The software has been designed to

allow the expansion of its contents in terms of adding new geometries that an owner may like

to add for his specific plant.

This proposal is about the further development and expansion of the CrackFit software by

adding new geometries for power plant Turbines.

Failure assessment diagram

0.00E+00

2.00E-01

4.00E-01

6.00E-01

8.00E-01

1.00E+00

1.20E+00

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4Sr [-]

Kr

[-]

Path - Depth

Path - Surface

Initial flaw - Depth

Initial flaw - Surface

Final flaw - Depth

Final flaw - Surface

Assessment curve

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4. OBJECTIVES

The main objective of this study is to expand CrackFit software by adding geometries for

cracks in Power Plant Turbines.

The detailed project objectives are as follows:

1. Sponsors’ interest and approval on the number of new crack geometries to be added;

2. Perform analysis and prepare appropriate solutions for the specific geometries;

3. Expand CrackFit software with the addition of the new geometries;

4. Perform software test and validate it for the expanded version;

5. Submit final deliverables (‘CrackFit’ software) to the project sponsors in a CD with

installation instructions.

5. SCOPE OF WORK

The existing version of CrackFit contains a number of boiler component (straight pipe, T-piece,

nozzle and elbow), test specimens (CT & SENT) and crack geometries and configurations

(such as embedded, surface emerging etc. cracks). In total, it contains 17 geometries.

With regards to the expansion of ‘CrackFit’ to include new geometries of interest to the client

the scope of work would involve:

1. Writing the specification of the crack geometries in relation to the all required inputs

and solutions for the calculation of Stress, Stress Intensity Factor, Reference Stress and

Limit Load solutions.

2. Integration of analytical solutions into ‘CrackFit’ Software Programme.

3. Verification first by ETD and then by independent specialists using manual spreadsheet

calculations.

Proposed turbine component geometries:

As a first step ETD proposes the following four crack geometries to be added, based on

available solutions for the specific geometries.

Note: Solutions are also available for some of the other geometries of round bars – straight-

fronted flaws, semi-circular surface flaws and semi-elliptical surface flaws. The project

sponsors are welcome to choose these additional geometries or other geometries of interest to

them with additional costs that can be discussed.

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i) Quarter elliptical crack at bore corner

Fig. 2: Schematic of ‘corner flaw at hole’ geometry

ETD will apply BS7910 and FITNET (R6) defect assessment procedures for quarter and/ or

double quarter elliptical crack at bore corner to prepare the analytical solutions which will be

integrated into the software.

ii) Semi elliptical crack at bore surface

Fig. 3: Schematic of surface flaw

ETD will apply BS7910 and FITNET (R6) defect assessment procedures for semi elliptical

crack at bore surface to prepare the analytical solutions which will be integrated into the

software.

Note: This geometry assumes to be the closest geometry to the semi elliptical crack at bore

surface.

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iii) Buried elliptical crack in bore cob

Fig. 4: Schematic of embedded flaw

ETD will apply BS7910 and FITNET (R6) defect assessment procedures for buried

(embedded) elliptical crack in bore cob to prepare the analytical solutions which will be

integrated to the software.

iv) Surface semi elliptical crack at bolthole

Fig. 5: Schematic of surface flaw at bolthole

ETD will apply BS7910 and FITNET (R6) defect assessment procedures for surface semi-

elliptical crack at bolthole to prepare the analytical solutions which will be integrated into the

software.

6. PROJECT BENEFITS

Understanding of defect assessment process and procedure is important for the engineers when

designing/ modifying, installing or assessing in-service components. Use of different defect

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assessment procedures means spending longer time and carrying out laborious work and

creating solutions of many pages of spreadsheets (an example is shown in Figure 6).

Fig. 6: Example of manual calculation for defect assessment

‘CrackFit’:

Is able to assess cracks in both the low and high temperature components.

Covers a range of common component and crack geometries.

Various defect assessment codes such as SINTAP, BS7910, RCC-MR A16 can be used

in conjunction with this tool.

Is user-friendly for industry engineers who would like to carry out defect assessment

without going through different established codes or assessment practices.

Contains power plant ‘cycling’ and ‘sensitivity analysis’ modules.

Is flexible and can add new geometries for assessment.

The software is accompanied with a ‘Help’ manual that covers the Procedure in detail. Both for

the experienced and the younger engineers this manual can be a very useful tool for cross

reference, for calculation and analysis and it also makes an excellent learning tool. The

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software allows an organisation to train its staff in defect assessment - from defining a specific

geometry problem to building and validating the solutions.

Although the existing CrackFit is an excellent and very fast tool for the deterministic and

probabilistic assessment of cracks in a power plant boiler/HRSG and processing plant etc.

pressure components and piping, the addition of crack assessment solutions for turbines will be

an added advantage and benefit to the operators of power generation utilities.

Another significant advantage of CrackFit is that the calculations which used to take a week,

for example, can now be performed in half a day, thus saving valuable time and costs in terms

of early component run, repair or replacement decisions. The financial benefits in terms of

reducing the lost production can run into millions per outage.

7. TIMESCALE & DELIVERABLES

The project in regards to the further development of ‘CrackFit’ to include new geometries

proposed above, will be carried out over an estimated period of up to six months. It is

envisaged that the project will start by late 2017 or at the start of 2018 and will be completed

within six months of the starting date.

Project sponsorship/ participation is open to all, although ETD reserves the right to decline an

offer of participation. ETD aims to secure sponsors now, for the initiation of the project,

which will be on the first come first serve basis.

The principal deliverable will be the ‘CrackFit software expanded version’ and one year

technical support from the date that the software is delivered. At the end of project Month 6,

the software will be delivered to the project sponsors.

A Progress Report will be issued at the end of month 3 which will be in pdf format stating the

status of completed and remaining work.

8. PRICE ESTIMATE AND CONDITIONS

In an ETD’s GSP working model ETD is solely responsible for the execution and completion

of work and delivery of the final product. Project international sponsors may contribute their

data/ experience (if necessary) on voluntary basis for the mutual benefit of the project

sponsors. In a GSP the project costs are shared between several sponsors, where each sponsor

only pays a fraction of the total cost, but receives the full project output. ETD has

successfully delivered many such projects in the past – see Appendices 2 to 4 and ETD’s

website: www.etd-consulting.com

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Different cost categories have been set for:

a) Reduced cost for the existing sponsors (who have already purchased CrackFit for

boilers/ pressure vessels and standard laboratory fracture mechanics specimens) for

the updated and expanded software containing the boilers/PVs, lab. specimens and

turbine components.

b) Standard cost for the new sponsors (who have not previously purchased CrackFit) for

the expanded software containing the boilers/PVs, lab. specimens and turbine

components.

Other Sponsorship/ Purchase Options:

1) The existing CrackFit for the boilers/ pressure vessels and standard laboratory fracture

mechanics specimens is available for purchase by the new clients interested only in

these features and not in the turbine components.

2) There is also an option of sponsoring only the Turbine part of the work, at a lower

cost, for those not interested in the boiler/ pressure vessel crack assessment.

3) ETD has also prepared a shorter version of CrackFit for the more common crack

assessment in straight pipes only which can be purchased by the new clients at a much

reduced cost.

Materials Database:

As stated earlier, a unique benefit of CrackFit is that it can be purchased with a large materials

database for crack growth in a number of materials (as shown in Appendix 1) for high

temperature plant operating under creep and fatigue conditions. This database can be delivered

in Excel format, if required, at an additional cost, as a part of the above software or as a

separate entity.

Cost details for all of the above options will be sent upon request from the interested

sponsors/ clients.

9. ETD’s TEAM FOR THIS PROJECT

An expert team with an in-depth knowledge of power plants and understanding of defect

assessment procedures will be engaged in this project.

10. FURTHER CONTACTS

Should you require further information, please contact:

Dr Ahmed Shibli ashibli@etd-consulting.com Tel: +44 1372 363111

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APPENDIX 1: ETD Materials Database

The list of materials which are included in ETD Materials database for crack assessment

(CrackFit) is presented below:

Grade Type of Steel

C

Carbon Steel

C Semi and Si Killed*

C Si and Al killed*

C-Mn*

0.3Mo*

Cr-Mo

Cr-Mo

1¼Cr-Mo*

0.4%C-1¼Cr-Mo*

Cr-Mo-V

½Cr-½Mo-¼V*

½Cr-Mo-V

1Cr-1Mo-¼V (forged)*

1Cr-1Mo-¼V (cast)*

1Cr-Mo-V (forged)

1Cr-Mo-V (cast)

Cr-Mo-V+ 0.4%C-1¼Cr-Mo-V

Cr-Mo-V-Ti-B

P1 C-½Mo*

P9 9Cr-1Mo*

P11 1¼Cr-½Mo

P12 1Cr-½Mo

P22 2¼Cr-1Mo

P91 9Cr-1Mo-V

P91 Mod 9Cr (IC-HAZ)

P92 12Cr-1Mo-V**

P92 12Cr-Mo-V (UTS 690-840 MPa)**

E911 9Cr-1Mo-1W-Cb

304 SS Type 304 Stainless steel

304 SS AISI type 304 and 304H

304 N SS 18Cr-8Ni-N

310 SS Type 310

310 SS 25Cr-20Ni

316 SS

316 Stainless steel

316 L(N) Stainless steel

316 L Stainless steel

316 H Stainless steel

316 H SS 316H (wrought) (inc HAZ)

316 LN 18Cr-12Ni-Mo-N

321 SS Type 321H

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Grade Type of Steel

Type 321 (wrought) inc HAZ and ageing

18Cr-10Ni-Ti*

347 SS Type 347*

Alloy 800 Alloy 800**

800H Alloy 800H*

800HT Alloy 800HT*

800 HSS Alloy 800H

Ess1250 Esshete 1250*

Al Aluminium alloy RR 58

Aluminium alloy 2519 - T851

939 Alloy 939*

Cr-Ni

18Cr-12Ni-Mo*

18Cr-12Ni-Mo-B*

18Cr-12Ni-Nb*

18Cr-10Ni-Nb-N*

15Cr-10Ni-6Mn-Nb-V*

SS Austenitic steels

Ferritic Ferritic steels in marine environments

* constants for creep rupture equations (power law/ log power law) only

** constants for creep strain rate law only

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APPENDIX 2: ETD’S PROFILE

ETD Consulting is an independent company registered in England. It is an engineering and

consulting company whose expertise includes life extension and integrity assessment of power

plant (conventional steam, CCGT, HRSG, Cogen, etc.) and other industrial plant (such as waste

incineration, petrochemical, off-shore structures, etc). Engineering services, consulting, R&D

and other technical projects are undertaken for individual organisations and power plants,

government bodies (such the Department of Trade and Industry, UK) and international bodies

(such as the European Commission). ETD provides consulting services to industry worldwide

and in specific to industry in the UK, Europe, North America, Japan, Middle East and Far East.

ETD’s list of clients is very large but notably has included in the past companies such as

Kyushu Electric (Japan), CLP (Hong Kong), Electricity Supply Board (Ireland), Eskom (South

Africa), Progress Energy (Florida, USA), Bharat Heavy Electrical (India), Electricite de France,

ENGIE, utilities in Germany, Pakistan, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Thailand, Abu Dhabi,

Dubai, Italy, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Canada and so on.

ETD has carried out consultancy work for a large number of power and petrochemical plants

over many years, and thus ETD staff have extensive experience with long and short term

performance evaluation of power and petrochemical plant, particularly with issues/problems

related to component failure, life assessment, fitness-for-service assessment and probabilistic

lifing. Typical examples of projects carried out for power and petrochemical plants include:

Investigation of Pitting Damage to Compressor Vanes of GT11 and GT22 13E2 Gas

Turbines for Power Plants in Malaysia; Compressor blades failure analysis for a plant in

UAE. ETD RCA analysis has found that the GT compressor corrosion resulted from

moisture containing salts and acids collecting on the blading.

Failure Investigation and Root Cause Analysis (RCA) of Gas Turbine for an Integrated

Gas Development plant in Asia. ETD analysis found that black colour deposits were

adhered to the aerofoil surfaces of all four compressor blades – EDX analysis showed

significant amounts of oxygen, carbon, and presence of (highly corrosive) sulphur,

possibly as a result of ingested lube-oil and sulphur dioxide (product of fossil fuel

combustion / process fumes).

ETD is currently working on a multi-client or Group Sponsored Project (GSP) preparing

guidelines for: ‘Protection and Preservation of Power Plant Gas Turbine Compressors’,

ETD Project no: 1471-gsp-proj16.

Regular provision of failure analysis services to power and petrochemical plants in the

UK, Europe, North America, Asia, Far East, Middle East.

Life assessment of two branch welds on the hot reheat header of a coal-fired power plant

located in Malaysia. ETD undertook replication of all four cardinal positions of the two

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branch welds, together with hardness testing. The replicas were studied and

recommendations for appropriate inspection intervals made.

Provided FFS consultancy to INEOS oil refinery in Grangemouth, Scotland. INEOS

identified a crack defect in a critical plant component (Hydrocracker), which had grown

during service. ETD undertook API 579 Level 3 FFS assessment which concluded the

crack extension was driven by cyclic stress induced fatigue, although the defect was found

to be stable. Recommendations were provided for continued in-service operation,

regarding monitoring, inspection interval/ technique, and component design modification.

Probabilistic stress analysis and life assessment for power and petroleum/petrochemical

plants in Europe and Middle East.

Integrity and Life extension study including creep and fatigue life assessment of main

steam line piping and common header system for 12 power generating units in the Saudi

Arabia (2010 – 2013).

Development of a crack assessment tool (known as ‘CrackFit’) for deterministic and

probabilistic crack assessment in high temperature components.

Reliability studies, including creep/ fatigue life assessments, of critical HRSG

components for power generating units (operating in cyclic mode) belonging to utilities in

the Middle East (2003, 2005).

Provision of specialist materials and corrosion consultancy services to Mott-MacDonald

Ltd, which involved examination of turbine bypass valve weld failures in two plants

located in the UAE (2008).

Root cause failure investigations, including thermal-mechanical fatigue failures in

superheaters/ reheaters and economisers – carried out for power and petrochemical plants

in the UK, Europe, Middle East and in the Far East.

Development of a large (1160 page) and comprehensive state-of-the-art Lifing Procedure

and associated software (known as ‘e-Lifing’) – specially developed for the assessment of

conventional power plant components, as well as HRSGs in combined cycle plants. The

project was funded by international industry stakeholders, including: Eskom (South

Africa), TransAlta (Canada and Australia), Electrabel (Belgium), and E.ON (Germany).

ETD also leads and runs a number of collaborative and international industry-supported study

programmes known as Group Sponsored Projects (GSPs). Recent examples include:

- Preservation Guidelines for CCGT & Conventional Power Plant during Short- and Long-

Term Shutdowns (2013)

- Development of Inspection, Monitoring & Life Assessment Techniques & Guidelines for

welded P91-P92 in-service Components (Continue)

- Procedure and Guidelines for the assessment of HRSG safe remaining life (2015)

15

- Damage to Power Plant Due to Cyclic Operation – Operational, Technical & Cost Issues

(2002 and 2009).

- Damage to CCGTs Due to Cyclic Operation – Operational, Technical & Cost Issues

(2003 and 2010).

- Survey of Advanced Inspection Techniques for Plants & Recommendations for Best

Practices (2008)

- Survey of On-Line Monitoring Techniques for Plants & Recommendations for Best

Practices (2007)

- Guidelines for Inspection, Maintenance, Monitoring and Repair of HRSGs (2006).

As ETD carries out both plant services/ consulting and international industry collaborative

R&D projects, the company can draw on the expertise of its R&D staff to provide best advice

and innovative solutions to industrial problems when providing plant services consultancy.

Further details may be found at the company website: www.etd-consulting.com

16

APPENDIX 3: ETD’s STAFF & EXPERTISE

ETD’s staff and dedicated consultants (listed below) include experts in both GT and ST,

boiler and HRSG plant performance modelling (reliability), operation and maintenance,

defect assessment, plant and component design and life assessment, materials and welding

issues, corrosion and water chemistry. This experience gives the company a broad

understanding of the potential damage mechanisms and at-risk areas in conventional boiler

and CCGT/ HRSG plant under various operating conditions. Apart from the knowledgebase of

these staff and consultant’s ETD has good links with plant designers and manufacturers and

can thus draw on their experience when needed. Indeed, some of the staff of these design

and manufacturing organisations and the plant operators regularly lecture at the ETD

organised training courses on power plants in particular the components’ defect assessment

procedures, codes & standards, plant technical & cost performance, life assessment &

extension, cyclic capability study etc.

The profile of some of the ETD technical staff and consultants is provided below to show its

background in power plant boiler and HRSG issues.

Dr David Robertson: Dr Robertson gained his qualifications in metallurgy and materials at

Imperial College, University of London. He has over fifteen years’ experience of materials

used in the power, petrochemical, defence and aerospace industries. At ETD Dr Robertson

has been working on projects related to high temperature plant integrity, materials and

welding, and maintenance issues. Dr Robertson also has experience in the investigation of in-

service failures and manufacturing defects (in steels and non-ferrous alloys). Recently, he

has performed root cause analysis of failures in HRSG tubes/welds (superheater/ reheater,

economiser and evaporator), turbine bypass valves and superheater drain components. Dr

Robertson co-ordinated ETD’s group-sponsored project on Cyclic Operation of CCGTs, and

also led an ETD project on the development of a new state-of-the-art Lifing Procedure for

boilers (including HRSGs), turbines, electrical components and auxiliary equipment. Prior

to joining ETD, Dr Robertson worked for eight years in the Plant Integrity Department at

another plant life assessment service provider in the UK. He has delivered courses on

HRSG maintenance in London, Malaysia and Canada.

Dr Sarinova Simandjuntak: Dr Simandjuntak gained her qualifications in metallurgy and

materials, and corrosion engineering, at Imperial College, London. Dr Simandjuntak has

extensive experience in materials and mechanical engineering aspects of high temperature plant

and is one of ETD’s well recognized consultants (previously ETD’s full-time employee) in

defect assessment, Risk Based Inspection and Maintenance (RBMI), on-line monitoring of

power plants, FE analysis, probabilistic assessment, life assessment and component stress

analysis in general. Dr Simandjuntak was involved in the development of ETD’s procedures &

software for crack assessment for high temperature plant components, and also contributed to

the development of ETD’s new Remaining Life Assessment Procedure for boilers and turbines,

which will incorporate both deterministic and probabilistic life assessment. She was involved in

ETD’s risk based maintenance (RBM) study for a waste-to-energy power plant in the UK. She

was involved in developing ETD’s RBM procedure called ‘Riskfit’ and has led ETD’s power

company ‘workers’ and ‘management’ workshops on risk management in their plant. Dr

Simandjuntak has also been involved and indeed led some of the European power utilities’

projects in enterprise-wise risk studies.

Dr James Pullen: James gained his Doctorate from the University of Brighton and he also

holds a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Sheffield. Prior to

17

joining ETD as a project engineer, he worked for E.ON UK. AT ETD, Dr Pullen has been

involved in defect assessment using ETD’s Crackfit software, component failure analysis and

life assessment projects (e.g. for P91 and T91), piping system stress analysis using Caesar II, as

well as various Remaining Life Assessment, asset management/ improvement projects. At

E.ON, Dr Pullen worked on asset management and consultancy projects related to engineering

of gas turbine combustion systems, emissions control, legislative compliance, and fuel quality

issues. He performed routine condition monitoring of GE 9FA gas turbines, and completed a

secondment at Connah’s Quay Power Station (1420MW CCGT, with 3x GE 9FAs), where he

completed efficiency improvement studies, evaluating technology upgrades to the inlet air

filtration system and the compressor wash systems, which involved costs versus benefits

analysis.

Ms F Akther: Ms Akther gained her qualifications in metallurgy and materials and has

completed her master’s degree at Queen Mary, University of London. At ETD, she has been

working on defect assessment, life assessment, condition assessment, risk based maintenance &

inspection, fitness for service assessment and root cause failure analysis of power plant

components. She has completed several projects which were involved in performing detailed

plant survey, critical data review, analysis and preparation of report including

recommendations. Recently she has completed a project in component defect assessment using

ETD’s Crackfit software for a power plant in Asia. She is also involved in some of ETD’s

international industry funded projects related to defect assessment, plant integrity and condition

assessment. She was involved in the development of ETD’s project ‘eAtlas - A compendium of

replicas and microstructures for life estimation of Ageing Power and Petrochemical Plant’. She

has also worked on cycling power plant technical and costs issues and RBM study of power

plant components etc.

Mr Tony Callagy: A Chartered and a Euro Engineer, Mr Callagy has 25 years of experience

with the Electricity Supply Board of Ireland both in the conventional plant and with the

CCGTs. His most recent experience was working as a Business Manager carrying out studies

on the refurbishment/ repowering requirements of aging power stations coupled with the cost

benefit analysis of upgrading and uprating. He further has worked in failure analysis of

mechanical plant and in design improvements. In addition, he has been involved in the

designing of the water/ steam cycle for new CHPs to replace an existing power station. Mr

Callagy has been responsible for the mechanical integrity of the company’s power generation

equipment, including steam lines and turbines, failure analysis of mechanical plant and

design improvements of plants in the USA, Turkey and Pakistan.

18

APPENDIX 4: ETD’S EXPERIENCE AND CAPABILITY

The following provide information about some of the projects that ETD has carried out in the

field of defect assessment, power plant performance and cost analysis, as well as life

assessment & extension. A number of different projects are shown as examples of ETD’s

diverse experience in power plant and related areas and ETD’s leadership in the field of power

plant technical performance.

Provide Analytical Software, Laboratory Services, Consultation, Training on Creep Crack

Growth Testing, Data Analysis and Defect Assessment [ETD Project No: 1403-tp-proj15]

This project has been completed for a client in Malaysia in 2015. The project aim was to

provide consultation and training to client’s staff and providing appropriate tools (analytical

software, literature, data etc) with the objective of developing capabilities in the prediction of

Creep Crack Growth initiation and growth in boiler components especially in P91 welded

joints. Creep crack growth testing for P91 samples was performed for the prediction of crack

growth initiation and growth. As a part of the project, the client has also purchased ETD’s

Crackfit software with boiler components. Appropriate training on use of Crackfit software and

the defect assessment procedures was provided to the client’s selected staff.

Creep Rupture Strength of ‘Abnormal P91’ Materials and Welds [ETD project no: 1338-

gsp-proj14]

This is a Group Sponsored Project (GSP) ETD has started recently for its various sponsors.

Many utilities and plants have been discovering ‘abnormal’ (or ‘aberrant’) P91 base metal and

welded joints in their plants. Although it is now well known that heat treatment is critical in

achieving full strength in high Cr martensitic steels, it is clear that for various reasons many

materials suppliers, manufacturers or welding companies have failed to realize this criticality.

As a result, there is a worldwide problem with P9 1 base metals and/or whole welded joints that

have not been heat treated to specifications and/or best practices, resulting in hardness below

the acceptable limit and/or the microstructure is not in the correct, fully martensitic condition.

There is an urgent need to obtain creep rupture data that can be used to estimate the long-term

strength of abnormal P91 materials and welds found in plant. There could be considerable

variation in the strength level of different materials/welds as a result of the different ways in

which heat treatment of base metal and/or welds may deviate from specification requirements.

The objective of this project is to carry out stress rupture testing of abnormal P91 base metals

and welds, which have been incorrectly heat-treated to produce a number of abnormal

conditions (over-tempered, etc).

Development of Inspection, Monitoring and Life Assessment Technologies & Guidelines

for P91 & P92 In-service Components [ETD Project No: 1265-gsp-proj13]

This about to be completed multi-client Group Sponsored Project (GSP) is of three years

duration and involved development of new inspection and monitoring techniques for detecting

early stage creep cavitation damage in P91 and P92 type martensitic steel components and

pressure vessels. The techniques studied were magnetic resonance and resistance of in-service

components and change in these values with the evolution of creep damage;

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Impact of Cyclic Operation on Maintenance Programs [ETD project no: 1348-tp-prop14]

Maintenance strategy is crucial to the safe, reliable and economic performance of all types of

high temperature plants operating under cycling regime. Identification of appropriate

methodologies for assessing the impact of change in operating mode (from base load to

cyclic), is essential, to provide the basis for optimization of inspection and maintenance

programs and to identify modifications that are required to the existing programs. This study

identified modifications to maintenance programs that address the consequences of cyclic

operation – on plant equipment performance and its asset management.

Reliability and performance issues with Combustion Turbines [ETD project no: 1349-tp-

prop14]

This project identified operational issues with combustion turbines (both simple cycle and

combined cycle), by completing a survey of the most prominent reliability and performance

problems, and ways to address them. ETD evaluated the prominence of technical issues that

impact the performance of combustion turbines, under varying operating conditions (base

load, cyclic operation and rapid start-ups). The work identified specific performance issues,

their causes and appropriate resolutions.

Benchmarking of Conventional Power & Gas Turbine Plants [ETD project no: 1186-gsp-

proj11]

This project involved in the assessment of Technical and Cost performance for utilities in

North America, Europe, Australasia and Asia. This study dealt with analysis of the power

plant performance using benchmarking techniques. The number of plants included in ETD’s

database was ~ 100 plants consisting of 39% of conventional power plants, 37% of combined

cycle gas turbines, 16% of cogeneration and 8% of open cycle gas turbine. The analysis was

performed for gas turbines, steam turbines, boilers & HRSGs, generators etc. The performance

in terms of production, financial cost and O&M strategies were analysed and compared to peer

groups. This was an ongoing project since 2010; a second project started in Jan 2011

exclusively for a European utility comprising of 11 power plants with different GT frames

such as Siemens, General Electric and Alstom machines.

Impact of Cycling/ Two Shift Damage on the O&M Cost and Reliability of Natural Gas-

Fired Combined Cycle (NGCC) Power Plants [ETD project no: 1228-tp-proj12]

The objective of this project, conducted for the North American Thermal Generation Interest

Group, was to determine the economic/ cost and reliability impact of increasing number of load

cycles and two shift operations on NGCC (CCGT) power plants caused by the increasing

penetration of non-dispatchable renewable, like solar, hydro and wind generators, and other

factors. Another objective was to provide guidance on methods to reduce the impact of cycling

on damage accumulation in major components.

Impact of Cycling on the Operation and Maintenance Cost of Conventional and Combined

Cycle Power Plant [ETD project no: 1229-tp-proj12]

The objective of this project, conducted for American and European utilities, was to create

awareness in the project members about the effect of plant cycling on the Operation &

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Maintenance (O&M) cost due to increased damage, related inspection, repair, maintenance,

plant modification etc. Furthermore, the project also discussed the requirement of increased

plant cycling due to future introduction of renewable energy source. The study also provided

guidance on methods to reduce the impact of cycling on damage accumulation in major

components of conventional and CCGT plants.

Cogeneration Plant Performance Assessment using Benchmarking Approach [ETD project

no: 1109-gsp-proj09]

The project involved in assessment of operational and maintenance performance of

cogeneration plants using benchmarking approach. Twelve plants located in America, Canada,

France, The Netherlands and Spain was included in this study. The ETD database of

worldwide plant operational and maintenance (O&M) performance including cost was used to

benchmark the participated plants. The data were selected from units with similarities to

cogen plants (known as the peer group) with respect to the type/size of Gas Turbine (GT)

frame, type of Steam Generator (e.g. HRSG), type of operation, size/ capacity, and age.

This included performance data from over 100 units of similar GT frames and Steam

Generators and over 30 Cogen plants (excluding projects’ participated plants). The O&M

performance such as lifetime generation, availability, outages and finance of individual plant

were assessed and compared amongst the participated plants and also against the

performance of the selected units from the ETD database.

Database of Conventional Power and Gas Turbine Plants – Technical & Cost Analysis

[ETD project no: 1109-gsp-proj08]

This study involved in the analysis of 43 conventional, 38 combined cycle, 20 open-cycle and

2 combined heat and power plants. The project was carried out for one of the largest European

utility. The main objective of this study was to analyse the overall plant performance focusing

the generation level, operation issues (including damage and consequent component repair or

replacement), maintenance, inspection, financial investment etc.

Replacement of Components in Aging Power Plant Boilers & HRSGs – Technical and

Material Issues [ETD project no: 1107-gsp-proj10]

The project dealt with Technical and Material Issues involving utilities from North

America and Europe. The study involved in analysing various materials, components design,

replacement strategies and impact on the plant overall performance. The power plants

involved in this study were of different output capacities and ages (2011).

Boiler Tube Failure Prevention & Management [ETD project no: 1230-gsp-proj12]

The objective of this ETD group sponsored project was to provide participants/sponsors with

practical guidelines for boiler tube failure prevention including examples of case studies of

boiler tube failures from a number of worldwide power plants. Typical questions were

prepared by ETD experts to collect all relevant information. These typical questions were

illustrative of questions with similar format that may be asked for this project. The Risk Based

Inspection (RBI) approach has also been introduced to predict the lifetime of tubes for the case

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when tube failures will not lead to catastrophic or fatal consequence to the integrity and safety

of the structure/plant.

CCGT/HRSG Cyclic Operation Capability Studies for Prai Power Plant, Malaysia [ETD

project no: 1142-tp-proj10-a]

ETD has performed cyclic operation capability study for Prai Power Plant (PPSB) in 2010.

The project objective was to carry out cyclic operations capability studies for the PPSB Power

Plant. The study involved in analysing overall CCGT plant design issues and HRSG design

issues, and the capability to operate with (daily) load swings between the minimum load of

210 MW and base load of 350 MW, and with specified numbers of hot/warm/cold starts per

year. This study has been performed in order to evaluate the possible consequences of cyclic

operation at PPSB power plant and its effect on the life-time of critical HRSG components

involving measurement, interpretation and analysis of heat rate readings collected during plant

operation by thermocouples installed in specific locations advised by ETD and DCS data.

Risk Based Management (RBM) Study for London Waste’s Power Generating unit [ETD

project no: 1119-tp-proj09]

This project involved in carrying out a Risk Based Management (RBM) study on the boiler

units and one control system for London Waste Limited (LWL), the UK’s largest plant

generating power from waste. The main objective of the study was to undertake the risk based

management study for the selected critical components by implementation of ETD’s RBMI

procedure ‘RiskFit’. The study involved identification and management of risk in order to

ensure safe operation, as well as optimized maintenance and inspection activities, whilst not

affecting plant availability and/or personnel safety.

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