Browsing by Author "Dsilva, P.C."

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Annealing Behavior of Cold-Rolled Inconel 601
(Springer, 2024) Dsilva, P.C.; Padasale, B.; Vasavada, J.; Mishra, S.; Hegde, S.R.
Present study investigates isothermal annealing behavior of prior cold-worked Inconel 601 (aka, IN 601) sheets. The study comprehensively covers the annealing response of the material over wide cold-reduction and temperature ranges. Using structural characterization and mechanical testing, the study tracks strain-hardening, strain-aging, recovery, and recrystallization stages of IN 601 sheets as a function of degree of cold-reduction and annealing temperature. Using X-Ray diffraction analysis, hardness measurements, and tensile tests, the study reveals that prior cold-worked IN 601, irrespective of the degree of cold-reduction, consistently exhibits strain-aging during low-temperature (~ 0.4Tm) annealing. The investigation establishes that the ‘recovery stage’ is preceded by ‘strain-aging-stage’ during which the alloy exhibits superior strength and hardness than the strain-hardened and recovered states. Based on the thermomechanical experimental results, the current work proposes a recrystallization map that integrates the ‘strain-hardening’ and ‘strain-aging’ stages with the recovery and recrystallization stages. Additionally, microstructural analysis and SEM-EBSD analysis presented in this work indicate that, by suitably controlling strain-hardening and the recrystallization annealing, a refined microstructure comprising high aspect-ratio grains having high-angle grain-boundaries can be obtained that may improve both fatigue and creep properties of IN 601 sheets. © ASM International 2023.
Catastrophic failure of urea prill-tower fan
(Elsevier Ltd, 2021) Hegde, S.R.; Rakshan Kumar, J.K.; Sondar, P.R.; Dsilva, P.C.
This work presents failure investigation of a prill-tower fan that was in service for about 20 years in a urea plant. All the fan-blades and the plummer blocks fractured catastrophically during the plant-operation, shocked the plant personnel, and caused a huge shutdown loss. Standard failure analysis procedure involving: site visit, visual inspection, microstructural analysis, fracture analysis, analytical stress calculation and FEM analysis was followed. The investigation confirms that the fan-blades having numerous dents and nicks were operating in a mild corrosive atmosphere of ammonium hydroxide. The fracture analysis suggests that a pre-existing dent on the trailing edge of a blade corroded to form a pre-crack that aligned perpendicular to the long axis of the blade. When the pre-crack grew to a critical size, a small chunk of the blade fractured from the vicinity and ejected towards the blade-tip by centrifugal force. Because of confined space around the fan and limited blade-tip clearance, this triggered a chain reaction of blade fracture and rattled the entire array of fan-blades. The analysis establishes that the plummer blocks failed due to mechanical imbalance of the fan-shaft caused by the blade failure. The investigation concludes that presence of dents and nicks on the fan-blades is the root-cause for this catastrophic failure. Grinding-off of the surface defects to eliminate stress raisers is recommended for averting such a failure in future. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd
Failure Analysis of Reciprocating CO2 Compressor
(Springer, 2021) Dsilva, P.C.; Shetty, P.; Sondar, P.R.; Ganesh Kumar, B.; Hegde, S.R.
This work presents failure analysis of a heavy-duty, four-stage, double-action, reciprocating CO2 compressor, which resulted in the shutdown of an ammonia plant. The failure occurred in the fourth stage of the compressor, during which the piston rod, piston rings, a suction valve, and associated valve cage are found fractured. The failure analysis includes details of site visit, visual inspection, dye penetrant test, fractography, and microstructural analysis. Furthermore, Xanthoproteic test was conducted on the extracts of the failed piston rings that confirmed the presence of bacterial cellular protein. When the morphology of the failed piston ring was studied using a scanning electron microscope, unique degradation features and the presence of bacterial metabolic products were observed conforming to the growth of bacteria. In-service biodegradation of the piston ring material (polyether ether ketone composite) is adjudged as the root cause for the compressor failure. © 2021, ASM International.
Failure of a Cooling Water Pump Shaft
(Springer, 2021) Sondar, P.R.; Kumar, J.K.R.; Chawla, S.; Dsilva, P.C.; Hegde, S.R.
This study investigates the failure of an industrial cooling water pump which experienced a drive shaft failure. As per the fail-safe design, during adverse loading of the shaft, key should fail by shear. The key, if fails, can be easily replaced to resume the operation of the pump. However, this investigation reveals that both the key and the shaft failed due to materials processing issues. A detailed failure analysis was carried out including design calculations, visual inspection, dye penetrant inspection, magnetic particle inspection, hardness test, microstructural analysis, and fractography. The study found that the hardness of the shaft varied radially from the core to the surface. The subsurface of the shaft near the keyway, happened to be significantly softer than the key. During operation, the keyway widened by plastic deformation and caused rattling of the key. Due to rattling and vibration, the key developed numerous fatigue cracks and eventually failed by crack linkages. The shaft eventually failed by torsional shear near the midpoint of the keyway. The analysis adjudged hardness variation in the shaft due to materials processing issues as the root cause of the failure. © ASM International 2020.
Failure of Soap Extruder Bolt Assembly
(Springer, 2023) Kumar, J.K.R.; Mogra, N.; Padasale, B.; Dsilva, P.C.; Sondar, P.; Hegde, S.R.
Present work investigates failure of EN8 steel bolt in a bolt–pin assembly that was used as a fastener in an industrial soap extruder. Unexpectedly, EN19 steel pin that is supposedly the sacrificial element in the assembly remained intact. The investigation follows standard failure-analysis procedure comprising, site-visit, visual inspection, metallography, mechanical-testing, design-analysis, numerical stress-analysis, and fractography. The design-analysis finds that the materials of construction were mistakenly swapped between the pin and the bolt that caused plastic-deformation, necking, and eventual failure of the bolt during operational peak-loading condition. The numerical stress analysis illustrates that the bolts failed at the thread-root region that acted as the stress-raiser. Additionally, the investigation finds that poor-quality machining left-behind jagged thread-root profile that increased the stress-concentration furthermore. The metallography and the fractography indicate that a transverse crack that was initiated at poorly machined thread-root led to the brittle fracture of the bolt. The investigation illustrates how human errors can cause recurring failure of critical components leading to production losses and makes suitable recommendations to prevent such failures in the future. © 2023, ASM International.
Premature failure of superheater tubes in a fertilizer plant
(Elsevier Ltd, 2021) Dsilva, P.C.; Bhat, S.; Banappanavar, J.; Kodancha, K.G.; Hegde, S.R.
This work presents an unique premature failure of steam superheater tubes in a fertilizer plant. The heat exchanger tube bundle made of SA 213 grade T11 steel suffered from wall thinning in the vicinity of baffles causing reduction in wall thickness of the tubes leading to perforation and leakage of steam from the tube-side into the shell-side during service. The work presents details of metallurgical failure analysis involving: site inspection, visual inspection, chemical analysis, X-Ray diffraction, microstructural analysis, and computational fluid dynamics analysis. The qualitative and quantitative chemical analyses and X-Ray diffraction carried out on superheater residue followed by microstructural analysis of failed tubes confirmed that the tubes suffered from aggressive corrosion attack at certain locations due to hot flue gas carrying alkaline salts and refractory fines. To understand the mechanism of thinning and the reasons for the tube bundle failure only at certain locations, a detailed CFD analysis was carried out on model of the heat exchanger which simulated the flow pattern of the hot gas. The analysis comprehensively demonstrates that the hot gas carrying both corrosive and erosive species caused erosion-corrosion of the tubes in the vicinity of tube-baffle junction that lead to wall thinning and subsequent failure of the tube bundle. Suitable remedial measures are suggested to minimize such failures in future. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd
Role of δ-phase on recrystallisation behaviour of Inconel 718
(SAGE Publications Inc., 2024) Padasale, B.; Potphode, L.; Dsilva, P.C.; Hegde, S.R.
The present work investigates the annealing behaviour of prior-coldworked Inconel 718 (IN718) sheets over wide reduction and temperature ranges by performing cold-rolling and isothermal annealing, followed by mechanical testing and structural characterisation. The study reveals that, with increasing annealing temperature, the prior-coldworked alloy shows non-monotonic M-Type variation with double peak-hardening at 0.3Tm and 0.6Tm. The study discovers that the first peak is due to the ‘static–strain–aging phenomenon’ that precedes recovery-softening. The second peak-hardening is due to precipitation-hardening, following which, the alloy softens due to recrystallisation. Supported by SEM, electron back-scattered diffraction and X-Ray diffraction results, the investigation suggests that the precipitation of fine rod-shaped δ-phase creates numerous nucleation sites at the shear bands that cause recrystallisation-burst at 0.75Tm. However, above 0.75Tm absence of the δ-phase activates grain-boundary migration resulting in rapid grain-coarsening. © The Author(s) 2024.