Fabrication, Construction, and Operation Problems for Grade 91 Fossil Power Components

The use of creep strength enhanced ferritic alloys, such as Grade 91, in fossil power plants has become popular for high temperature applications. Since Grade 91 has higher stress allowables than Grade 22, a designer can specify thinner component wall thicknesses, resulting in lower through-wall thermal stresses during transient events and lower material and pipe support costs. During the past two decades, Grade 91 has been used successfully in fossil power plants. However, this alloy has had some incidents of premature failures. Case histories discuss such factors as excessively hard material, extremely soft material, overheating failures, and improper mill processing. This compilation also discusses likely root causes and solutions to avoid these potential Grade 91 problems.