Influence of the Shrinkage of the Inner Layer of Steel Tubes on Permissible Thermal Load

This paper presents the results of numerical simulations of heat transfer in a tube with a protective chromium layer on the inner surface made of steel, with different shrinkage temperatures. Shrinkage in the steel is an unfavorable phenomenon because it causes cracks in the chrome coating. The cracks contribute to the peeling of the protective material on the inner surface of the tube. Wear and damage to the chrome layer significantly shortens the tube’s service life. The influence of the type of steel with medium carbon content on heat transfer for a sequence of ten, thirty, and sixty heat impulses was examined. Simulations were carried out for two selected steels with clearly different shrinkage temperatures, i.e., 30HN2MFA and X37CrMoV5-1 (1.2343). In 30HN2MFA steel, the shrinkage effect occurred at a temperature of approx. 750 °C, while in X37CrMoV5-1 steel it occurred at a temperature of approx. 870 °C. In the computational model, 30 cross-sections of the three-meter-long tube were analyzed. A time-dependent heat transfer coefficient was calculated in each zone. Heat transfer simulations were carried out using COMSOL version 6.1 software. This paper shows that for X37CrMoV5-1 steel, the shrinkage temperature on the inner surface of the tube was reached after approx. 60 heat impulses, while for 30HN2MFA steel, it was reached after approx. 30. The greatest differences in the number of impulses occurred for a pipe with a 200 µm thick chrome layer.