Creep Damage Evaluation of High-Temperature Pipeline Material for Fossil Power Plant by Frequency Spectrum Analysis Method

In boiler high-temperature pipelines such as main steam pipe, header and steam drum in fossil power plants, conventional measurement techniques(replica method, electric resistance method, and hardness test method) for measuring creep damage have such disadvantages as complex preparation and measurement procedures, too many control parameters. And also, these techniques have low practicality and applied only to component surfaces with good accessibility. It needs to apply a reliable and quantitative ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation method that can be replaced for these equipment. In this study, both artificial creep degradation test using life prediction formula and frequency analysis by ultrasonic tests for crept specimens were carried out for the purpose of nondestructive evaluation for creep damage. As a result of ultrasonic tests for crept specimens, we conformed that the high frequency side spectra decrease and central frequency components shift to low frequency band, and also their bandwidth decreases as increasing creep damage in backwall echos.