The performance of alloy 625 in the high temperature application of Heavy Water Plants

Wrought and centrifugally cast alloy 625 tubes are used in the cracker units of ammonia based Heavy Water Plants (HWP). During the service of about 100,000 h, the ammonia cracker tubes, predictably, have been exposed to temperatures below 600degC to above 765degC and have undergone several hundreds of start-shutdown cycles, producing several ordered phases in the alloy. To understand the effect of the ordered phases on the structure properties, Alloy 625 samples were aged at 540degC, 700degC and 850degC temperatures, for duration up to 1200 h. Results were compared with that of cast and wrought Alloy 625 samples, which aged during the service of 100,000 h and that failed during the service after about 24,000 h along with that of aged samples, which were resolutionised at 1170degC for 2h. (author)