Corrosion Behavior of Thermal Seamless Carbon Steel Boiler Pipes

Abstract

The current study was absorbed on corrosion of ASTM A106 grade B -02 seamless carbon steel boiler pipes. Beyond corrosion experiments in corrosive medium with varying pH values, the weight lost in addition to corrosion rate (m.p.y) values were computed. The weight loss of boiler tube specimens exposed to corrosive liquid was shown to rise as the exposure period of the specimens increased. The results of the microstructure imaging showed that a de-carburized film of 240 µm thickness was shaped on the fireside of the pipe boiler, with ferrite and a few phases of pearlite. On the water lateral side, it was revealed that boiler pipe failure begins with small rust particles that expand to greater sizes and form scales that are displaced from the boiler pipe's surface. On the surfaces of the boiler pipe water side, several pits with crevice corrosion were observed. The corrosion amounts were discovered to decrease when the specimens' exposure time to corrosive environments and hydrogen ion concentration contents increased (pH). The findings of mechanical characteristic values such as hardness, yield strength, and tensile strength revealed that the waterside had higher values than the fireside, while the middle of the pipe had reasonable values. The findings also demonstrated that at low pH values, a tiny size of rust was created on the boiler tube specimen surface. However, at high pH values of corrosive medium, big sizes of corrosion rust were observed on the specimen surfaces.