Modeling of carburization and thermal stress analysis for ethylene cracking furnace tube

The ethylene cracking furnace tube is one of the most important components of an ethylene cracking furnace. Carburization of furnace tube is one of the most important causes which lead the tube to fail. In this paper, the model that describes diffusion of carbon and the precipitation of carbides was established based on Fick' law and equilibrium constant method. The finite difference method was adopted to simulate the distribution of carbon concentration. By applying the model, the distribution of carbon concentration along thickness in HP-Nb tubes was predicted for the different service times. According to the temperature distribution of furnace tube, obtained by the analysis of heat transfer, the thermal stresses of the furnace tube with various carburization extents were analyzed by using the finite element code ABAQUS for the actual heating process of an ethylene cracking furnace. The analysis results show that the maximum circumferential thermal stress exists near the inner wall of the carburized tube, which usually causes cracking of the carburized tube along the longitudinal direction.