No abstract

The increasing demands for efficiency and flexibility result in more severe operating conditions for the materials used in critical components of biomass power plants. These operating conditions involve higher temperature ranges, more pronounced environmental effects and cyclic operations. Austenitic stainless steels have shown to possess promising high temperature properties which makes them suitable as candidates for critical components in biomass power plant. However, their behaviour under such conditions is not yet fully understood. This work investigates three commercial austenitic alloys: Esshete 1250, Sanicro 25 and Sanicro 31HT. The alloys were subjected to in-phase (IP) thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) testing under strain-control in the temperature range of 100 • C to 800 • C. Both virgin and pre-aged TMF specimens were tested in order to simulate service degradation resulting from long-term usage. The results show that the pre-aged specimens suffered shorter TMF-life compared to the virgin specimens. The scanning electron microscopy methods electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) were used to analyse and discuss active failure and deformation mechanisms. The difference in TMF-life produced by the two testing conditions was attributed to an embrittling effect by precipitation, reduced creep properties and oxidation assisted cracking.

Abstract. This work includes an investigation of two commercial austenitic steels: UNS S21500 (Esshete 1250) and UNS S31035 (Sandvik Sanicro TM 25). The materials were exposed to isothermal strain controlled fatigue with load controlled dwell time at maximum strain. The testing temperature used was 700°C and the test cycles were performed in tension. Mechanical test data were obtained and analysed in order to define creep-fatigue damage diagrams at failure for the investigated austenitic alloys. During the given conditions, Sanicro 25 showed superior creep-fatigue life, suffered less amount of creep elongation for the same amount of strain amplitude and dwell times compared to Esshete 1250. Both alloys showed creep-fatigue interaction damage for specific test configurations.

No abstract

The global energy consumption is increasing and together with global warming from greenhouse gas emission, create the need for more environmental friendly energy production processes. Higher efficiency of biomass power plants can be achieved by increasing temperature and pressure in the boiler section and this would increase the generation of electricity along with the reduction in emission of greenhouse gases e.g. CO 2. The power generation must also be flexible to be able to follow the demands of the energy market, this results in a need for cyclic operating conditions with alternating output and multiple start-ups and shutdowns. Because of the demands of flexibility, higher temperature and higher pressure in the boiler section of future biomass power plants, the demands on improved mechanical properties of the materials of these components are also increased. Properties like creep strength, thermomechanical fatigue resistance and high temperature corrosion resistance are critical for materials used in the next generation biomass power plants. Austenitic stainless steels are known to possess such good high temperature properties and are relatively cheap compared to the nickel-base alloys, which are already operating at high temperature cyclic conditions in other applications. The behaviour of austenitic stainless steels during these widened operating conditions are not yet fully understood. The aim of this licentiate thesis is to increase the knowledge of the mechanical behaviour at high temperature cyclic conditions for austenitic stainless steels. This is done by the use of thermomechanical fatigue-and creepfatigue testing at elevated temperatures. For safety reasons, the effect of prolonged service degradation is investigated by pre-ageing before mechanical testing. Microscopy is used to investigate the microstructural development and resulting damage behaviour of the austenitic stainless steels after testing. The results show that creep-fatigue interaction damage, creep damage and oxidation assisted cracking are present at high temperature cyclic conditions. In addition, simulated service degradation resulted in a detrimental embrittling effect due to the deterioration by the microstructural evolution.