Abstract
Reducing emissions and increasing economic competitiveness require more efficient steam power plants that utilize fossil fuels. One of the major challenges in designing these plants is the availability of materials that can stand the supercritical and ultra-supercritical steam conditions at a competitive cost. There are several programs around the world developing new ferritic and austenitic steels for superheater and reheater tubes exposed to the advanced steam conditions. The new steels must possess properties better than current steels in terms of creep strength, steamside oxidation resistance, fireside corrosion resistance, and thermal fatigue resistance. This paper introduces a series of experimental 9%Cr steels containing Cu, Co, and Ti. Stability of the phases in the new steels is discussed and compared to the phases in the commercially available materials. The steels were tested under both the dry and moist conditions at 650°C for their cyclical oxidation resistance. Results of oxidation tests are presented. Under the moist conditions, the experimental steels exhibited significantly less mass gain compared to the commercial P91 steel. Microstructural characterization of the scale revealed different oxide compositions.
