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Received: February 10, 2022; Revised: February 10, 2022; Accepted: February 10, 2022
Abstract: In this work, the degradation of high-pressure superheater tubes exposed to the flame of a duct burner in a heat recovery steam generator of a district heating system was evaluated. To assess the deterioration of the used superheater tube, the microstructure, microhardness, and tensile properties were investigated by comparison to an unused tube. The study found that a fin bound at the outer surface of the used tube became fragile only in the location facing the flame. This indicates that the tube was directly exposed to the flame from the duct burner or underwent abnormal overheating. While the unused tube showed a uniform value in hardness and equiaxial grain structure, the used tube revealed a decrease in hardness up to 105 HV and an increase in grain size with a plate-like morphology in the location facing the flame. The coarsening of the grain structure by the flame weakened the mechanical properties of yield strength, tensile strength, and elongation.