Proceedings of the ASME 2012 Pressure Vessels & Piping Conference

PVP2012
July 15-19, 2012, Toronto, Ontario, CANADA

PVP2012-78589

FITNESS FOR SERVICE OF DEGRADED GRADE 91 PIPE

Marvin J. Cohn, P.E
Intertek APTECH
601 W. California Ave.
Sunnyvale, CA 94086-4831 USA
Steve R. Paterson
Intertek APTECH
601 W. California Ave.
Sunnyvale, CA 94086-4831 USA

ABSTRACT
The use of creep strength enhanced ferritic alloys such
as Grade 91 in fossil power plants has become popular for
high temperature piping 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 piping 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 non-optimal weldment
microstructure. In this case study, Brinell hardness tests of
an ASME A182 Grade F91 (F91) wye block, including
upstream and downstream F91 spools, revealed several
readings of soft material, as low as 168HB. A study of
creep rupture tests of degraded Grade 91 specimens
revealed that the lower bound creep rupture curve of the
degraded Grade 91 material is above the average creep
rupture curve of Grade 22 material for the range of the
specific piping operating stresses.
Based on the empirical evidence that the average
Grade 22 material creep rupture curve is conservative for
the creep rupture of degraded Grade 91 material, a life
consumption evaluation was performed for the degraded
Grade 91 weldments using Grade 22 creep rupture
properties.
A life fraction analysis was performed
considering the redistributed maximum principal stresses,
based on simulation of piping displacements obtained from
the hot and cold walkdowns. This study also considered
the recent history of the specific piping system operating
pressures and temperatures.

This study also considered dissimilar metal welds,

from ASME A182 Grade F91 (F91) to ASME A335 Grade
P22 (P22) materials. It was determined that the Grades
F91-to-F91 weldments had about 30% life consumption
and the remaining lives were at least 7 years. The Grades
F91-to-P22 weldments had less than 40% life consumption
and the remaining lives were at least 15 years.
Keywords: Fitness for Service, Grade 91, Grade 22,
degraded piping, high energy piping
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this paper are strictly
those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of
his affiliated corporation.
INTRODUCTION
This study is an evaluation of degraded Grade 91
piping material in a main steam (MS) piping system. The
piping system began operation prior to 1980 and has
accumulated more than 200,000 operating hours.
Prior to 1994, girth weld cracks were found on the
supply side and outlet legs of the wye block. After 12
years of service (i.e., in 1992) a through-wall crack was
discovered in the ASTM A182 Grade F11 wye block to
west outlet connection girth weld.
In 1994, the original ASTM A182 Grade F11 wye
block was replaced with a significantly thinner
ASTM A182 Grade F91 wye block, including
ASTM A182 Grade F91 spools welded to the upstream and
downstream wye block connections. In addition, an
ASTM A369 Grade FP22 transition spool was added to the
upstream leg and an ASTM A369 Grade FP 22 transition

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spool was added to each of the downstream legs of the wye

block. An illustration of the wye block and adjacent welds
is provided in Figure 1.
After an additional 4 years in service (in May 1998),
indications were revealed at Weld 15 (the west leg
Grade F91 wye block to F91 pup spool). A comprehensive
root cause investigation that included monitoring the local
pipe temperatures during shutdown and startup transients
revealed that the cracking was driven by a combination of
1) quenching of the wye block from forced cooling of the
boiler when necessary for maintenance (the rapid cooling
of the steam in the superheater tubes would condense,
migrate, and quench the MS wye block) and 2) increased
sustained load stresses due to malfunctioning piping
supports.
Corrective actions included 1) changes to shutdown
operations using a bypass system to minimize quenching
from condensate migration, 2) verification that quenching
was
not
occurring
through
the
use
of
diagnostic/troubleshooting thermocouples that were
installed on the supply and outlet legs of the wye block,
3) piping support adjustments to restore the spring hangers
into their normal operating range, and 4) weld repairs of
the west leg pipe from Girth Weld 15 through Girth
Weld 21.
In 2000, all weldments from the superheat outlet
header (SHOH) to the two throttle valve connections were
examined using advanced ultrasonic and magnetic particle
examinations to detect any significant fabrication and
inservice flaws. The examination of the west leg welds
revealed isolated and aligned fabrication-like indications.
In 2001, an 11-inch long by 5/8-inch deep crack on the
downstream side of Weld 15 was revealed. Subsequently,
Weld 15 (on the west leg) and Weld 16 (on the east leg)
were excavated, welded, post weld heat treated, and
reexamined.
In April 2009, 15 lead-the-fleet locations with higher
inservice stresses were examined.
No crack-like
indications were revealed. Girth Welds 13, 15, 16, 17, 18,
20, and 21 had lack of fusion (LOF) indications within the
weld volume. Girth Weld 14 had indications of stacked
slag, inclusions, and LOF indications of the weld volume.
Hardness readings indicated that non-optimal weld metal
microstructure may exist in Girth Weld 14. As a result,
Girth Weld 14 was excavated part way through the wall
thickness and repaired during the scheduled outage.
As of December 2011, the unit has operated somewhat
more than 100,000 hours since the 1994 wye fitting
replacement. In 2011 wet fluorescent magnetic particle
examinations (WFMT) were performed on Girth Welds 13
through 18 and there were no reportable indications. The
phased array ultrasonic examinations (PAUT) of Girth
Welds 13 through 18 revealed that Girth Weld 14 had an
elongated linear midwall reflector, Girth Weld 16 had a
0.5-inch long midwall reflector, Girth Weld 17 had a 0.5-

inch long midwall reflector, and Girth Weld 18 had two

0.5-inch long midwall reflectors.
In 2011, hardness testing was performed using a
Telebrinell portable system with a 200 HB calibration bar.
The hardness results indicated 17 locations of relatively
low hardness (ranging from 168 to 189 HB) on the
ASTM A182 Grade F91 material.
In 2011, metallurgical replicas were performed on
Girth Welds 13 through 18.
Examination of the
Grades F91-F91 replicas (Girth Welds 14 through 16)
revealed very subtle carbide denuded regions adjacent to
the weld fusion line, typically in the range of 3 to 5 mils
wide. These zones were formed by diffusion during post
weld heat treatment and are an indication of excessive
temperature exposure. The lack of observed creep cavities
was evaluated with the understanding that in Grade 91
material, the creep cavities evolve by growing in size, but
do not become aligned or oriented until a large fraction of
creep life (typically 95% or more) has been consumed [1].
In addition, the creep void density at the pipe outer surface
is usually considerably less than at subsurface locations.
STRESS EVALUATION OF SOFT VS NORMAL
GRADE 91 MATERIALS
Grade 91 base metal creep rupture data from a variety
of sources was compiled for creep rupture tests in the
temperature range of 932F to 1292F (500C to 700C).
As a second step, Grade 91 creep rupture data were also
compiled from technical papers by Kong, Shingledecker,
Brett, and Ryu [2-5] for specimens with base metal and
weldment anomalies (e.g., low hardness, high hardness,
and low N with high Al). The multiple sets of creep
rupture data are presented in Figure 2, considering log
stress vs LMP (using a constant coefficient of 30). A
conversion of hardness scales [6] for this figure is provided
in Table 1.
This figure indicates that the API 579 Grade 91
minimum curve [7] is reasonable for the basic set of
Grade 91 base metal creep rupture data, but the added
Grade 91 anomaly creep rupture properties fall
significantly below the API 579 Grade 91 minimum curve.
At temperatures in the range where creep and stress
rupture strength govern the ASME selection of stresses, the
maximum allowable stress value of Grade 91 material
(1050F to 1200F (566C to 649C)) is the minimum
value of the following three criteria:
(1) 100% of the average stress to produce a creep rate
of 0.01%/1,000 hours,
(2) 2/3 of the average stress to cause rupture at the
end of 100,000 hours
(3) 80% of the minimum stress to cause rupture at the
end of 100,000 hours
Below 1050F, the ASME allowable stress is the
ultimate tensile strength/3.5. With the understanding that
the ASME B31.1 Code (Code) [8] does not provide time-

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dependent design stress allowables, we may determine

where the Code Grade P91, Grade P22, and Grade P9
stress allowables are at a time snapshot of 100,000 hours
with regards to Figure 2. As a simplified comparison, the
log stress versus LMP Grade P91, Grade P22, and Grade
P9 stress allowables are illustrated in Figure 3 at 100,000
operating hours.
This figure reveals that at 100,000 operating hours, the
Code Grade 91 stress allowable curve captures all of the
basic base metal data and most of the anomaly data.
At 100,000 operating hours, the simplified comparison
reveals that the Code Grade 22 stress allowable curve is
significantly below all of the Grade 91 creep rupture data
and the Code Grade 9 stress allowable curve is below the
Grade 22 curve.
However, it is not the intent of the Code that the Code
stress allowables be used for creep life estimates. For this
project, a Grade 22 average base metal creep rupture curve,
based on a large set of well-characterized NRIM data [9],
is illustrated in Figure 4. The average Grade 22 curve falls
below all of the Grade 91 data, but is not as conservative as
the illustrative ASME B31.1 Grade 22 stress allowables.
Furthermore, it appears that the Grade 22 average creep
rupture curve becomes more conservative at longer times
and higher temperatures.

8.1 ksi (45 MPa to 56 MPa). In addition, the MS piping

system materials are subject to creep during normal
operation. It is well documented that the time-dependent
creep phenomenon results in redistributed stresses and
degraded material properties (e.g., ultimate tensile strength,
yield strength, and creep rupture strength). At Girth Welds
15 and 16, the redistributed inelastic Tresca stresses in the
base metal at the outside surface of the pipe were about
10.8 ksi (74.5 MPa). To account for the weldments having
lower creep rupture properties than the adjacent base
metal, time dependent weld performance factors (greater
than a 20% increase) were applied to the base metal
stresses. Consequently, the effective weldment inelastic
Tresca stresses were about 90% greater than the initial asdesigned Code sustained load stresses.
The SHOH has a design pressure of 2,170 psig
(14.96 MPa) and a design temperature of 1005F (541C).
A review of the plant information data indicated that the
truncated average operating pressure is about 1,890 psig
(13.03 MPa) and the maximum operating temperature is
about 1005F.
The unit is operated about 50% of the time at about
60% of the truncated average operating pressure. During
this time operating at significantly lower pressures, the life
consumption fraction is negligible.
Using the above information and degraded Grade 91
creep rupture properties (i.e., average Grade 22 creep
rupture
properties),
incremental
weldment
life
consumption evaluations were performed from the time
Girth Welds 15 and 16 were excavated and replaced in
2001 (about 30,000 operating hours). Note that Girth
Weld 14 was excavated and repaired in 2009. The
integrated weldment life consumption evaluation indicated
that less than 30% life had been consumed at each of the
Grades F91-to-F91 weldments and the remaining lives
were at least 7 years if the unit is operated in the future as
it had been operated in the past.
The Grades F91-to-P22 weldments had been operating
as long as 108,000 hours. Using average Grade 22 base
metal creep rupture properties and weld performance
factors, the integrated weldment life consumption
evaluations indicated that less than 40% life had been
consumed and the remaining lives are at least 15 years.

WELDMENT LIFE CONSUMPTION

A weldment life consumption evaluation was
performed for the degraded Grade 91 weldments. First, an
as-designed piping stress analysis consistent with the Code
was performed. An as-designed piping displacement
profile (PDP) diagram was developed for the 15 spring
hangers on the MS piping system. The as-designed PDP
diagram, presented in Figure 5, revealed that the actual
piping thermal displacements were significantly different
than the design predictions at Supports MS-2, MS-4E, MS4W, MS-6E, MS-6W, MS-31, and MS-7.
It was
determined that the as-designed sustained load stresses
(longitudinal pressure, dead weight, and external loads)
were in the range of 6.5 ksi to 7.5 ksi (45 MPa to 52 MPa)
at the Grade 91 weldments.
An as-found piping stress analysis was performed,
simulating observed displacements at each of the support
locations and at selected movement indicator locations.
The as-found PDP diagram of the simulated thermal
displacements vs observed piping displacements at each of
the support locations is presented in Figure 6. This
diagram indicates that the as-found piping stress analysis
thermal displacements at each of the supports correlate
much better with the observed cold-to-hot displacements,
especially for the pipe thermal displacements at
Supports MS-2, MS-4E, MS-4W, MS-6E, MS-6W,
MS-31, and MS-7.
Due to malfunctioning supports, the as-found
sustained load stresses were in the range of 6.5 ksi to

CONCLUSIONS
This paper provides a life consumption study on the
evaluation of degraded Grade 91 weldments. This study
indicates that API 579 and ASME B31.1 Grade 91 creep
rupture properties are not conservative for the worst
Grade 91 creep rupture data anomalies. It was determined
that the creep rupture properties of degraded Grade 91
weldments can be conservatively evaluated using Grade 22
average base metal creep rupture properties.
The life consumption evaluations for the Grades F91to-F91 weldments indicated that less than 30% life had

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been consumed at each of the weldments and the

remaining lives are at least 7 years if the unit is operated in
the future as it has been operated in the past. The life
consumption evaluations for the Grades F91-to-P22
weldments indicated that less than 40% life had been
consumed at each of the weldments and the remaining
lives are at least 15 years.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The support of Intertek
appreciated and acknowledged.

APTECH

is

[9]

NRIM, 1997, Data Sheets on the Elevated

Temperature Properties of Normalized and Tempered
2-1/4Cr-1Mo Steel Plates for Boilers and Pressure
Vessels (SCMV 4 NT), NRIM Data Sheet No. 11B,
National Research Institute for Metals, Tokyo, Japan.

Table 1

greatly

Conversion of Hardness Scales

(From BS 860/1967)

REFERENCES
[1] Isamu Nonaka, Takuya Ito, Fumio Takemasa,
Kensuke Saitou, Yoshikazu Miyachi, Akigo Fujita,
2007, Full Size Internal Pressure Creep Test for
Welded P91 Hot Reheat Elbow, International
Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping, Volume 84,
pp. 97-103.
[2] Kong, B.O., Kin, J.T., Lee, Y.S., and Ryu, S.H.,
2007, Thermal Histories Causing Low Hardness and
the Minimum Hardness Replacement in a
Mod.9Cr1Mo Steel for Boiler, EPRI International
Conference on Boiler Tube and HRSG Tube Failures
and Inspections, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
(October 16-18, 2007).
[3] Shingledecker, J. P., Santella, M. L., and Kleuh, R.
L.,
2007,
Evaluation
of
Heat-Treatment
Temperatures and Corresponding Properties of
Improperly Heat-Treated Grade 91, Proceedings of
Industry and Research Experience in the Use of P/T
91 and Other New Steels, European Technology
Development (ETD), London, UK (June 20-21,
2007).
[4] Brett, S. J., Bates, J. S., and Thomson, R. C., 2004,
Aluminum Nitride Precipitation in Low Strength
Grade 91 Power Plant Steels, Proceedings to the
Fourth International Conference on Advances in
Materials Technology for Fossil Power Plants,
Hilton Head, SC (October 25-28, 2004). ASMInternational, Materials Park, OH, 2005. 1183-1197.
[5] Ryu, S. H., Lee, Y. S., Kong, B. O., and Kim, J. T.,
2002, A Study on the Variation of the Hardness and
the Creep Rupture Strength with Thermal Histories in
a Mod. 9Cr-1Mo Steel, First Int. Conference on
Advanced Structural Steels (ICASS2002,) Organized
by NIMS, Tsukuba, Japan (May 22-24, 2002).
[6] B.S. 860, 1967, Tables for Comparison of Hardness
Scales, British Standards Institute.
[7] API 579-1/ASME FFS-1, 2007,Second Edition, June
2007, Table F.31.
[8] ASME, 2010, ASME B31.1-2010 Edition, Power
Piping, ASME Code for Pressure Piping, B31, An
American National Standard, The American Society
of Mechanical Engineers, New York., NY.

Diamond
Pyramid Scale
HV10 HV30

Brinell Standard
Ball (HB)

421
400
263
214
195
189
180
175
162
155

400
380
250
200
186
180
172
167
155
148

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Figure 1. Illustration of the Replaced Wye Fitting and Adjacent Welds

Figure 2. Soft vs Normal Grade 91 Materials

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Figure 3. Soft vs Normal Grade 91 Materials with

ASME B31.1 Grades P91, P9 and P22 Stress Allowables

Figure 4. Soft vs Normal Grade 91 Materials

ASME B31.1 Grades P91, P9, and P22 Stress Allowables
Grade P22 Average Material Creep Rupture Curve

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1.0

Support Number
0.0
1NE

1SW

12

4E

4W

6E

6W

31

10E

10W

11E

11W

-1.0

Displacement (Inches)

-2.0
-3.0
-4.0
-5.0
-6.0

Observed

-7.0

Design
-8.0
-9.0

Figure 5. As-Designed Piping Displacement Profile Diagram

1.0

Support Number
0.0

Displacement (inches)

1NE

1SW

12

4E

4W

6E

6W

31

10E

10W

11E

11W

-1.0

-2.0

-3.0

-4.0

Observed
Simulated

-5.0

-6.0

Figure 6. As-Found Piping Displacement Profile Diagram

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