RESIDUAL LIFE ASSESSMENT OF INCONEL TUBES POST SOLUTION ANNEALING FOR AMMONIA CRACKER USING NEUBAUER CLASSIFICATION & VGB GUIDELINES
Keywords:
Ammonia Cracker, Solution Annealing, Nuclear Grade Heavy Water, Non-Destructive Testing (NDT), Creep Damage AssessmentAbstract
This research paper aims to calculate the residual life of ammonia cracker post solution annealing for production of nuclear grade heavy water to be used in the PHWR based Nuclear Power Plants. The components have seen an operational life of more than 40 years at an elevated temperature of 650 degree Celsius and is an important part of Heavy Water production facility since it’s supply feeds to the Enrichment Tower. To ensure the integrity of the component for future operations, solution annealing was done and post health assessment of various parts of cracker was carried out using NDT Technique in order to calculate the residual life of the plant and superheater viz., Hair pin, Pig Tail Inlet and collecting Header and Main Cracker. Various NDT techniques like Hardness, Thickness mapping, UT Volumetric, Jig drop Test and microstructural examination were performed at thee critical locations based on the temperature profiles. Life assessment evaluation considering Creep as design basis was performed. Based on Microstructural Assessment (Neubauer Classifications) & Classification based on VGB guidelines Creep damage and expended life fraction was calculated for the critical locations.
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