Abstract
The use of the bainitic class of creep strength enhanced ferritic steels T/P23 and T24 has increased over the last decade in a wide range of applications including replacement headers, superheater and reheater tubing and in waterwall tubing. Many issues have been reported in one or both of these materials including hydrogen induced cracking, reheat cracking and stress corrosion cracking. To appropriately address these issues, work has been initiated that includes a literature review, development of a database of phase transformation temperatures, investigation of tempering behavior, and an analysis of the effect of phase transformation on residual stresses. Such information will be provided in the context of understanding why these two materials appear highly susceptible to these cracking mechanisms.
