Significance of Copper Deposits Associated with a Boiler Tube Failure

In the summer of 1954, several A and B row tubes failed in one boiler of an R.C.N. light cruiser based on Esquimalt, B.C. These tube failures have been described in detail in Corrosion. In brief, the chief phenomena observed were indications of overheating and intergranular cracking. A length of one of the burst tubes was forwarded to Naval Research Dockyard Laboratory, Halifax, for examination, and it was noticed that the failures were associated with considerable deposits of copper around the bursts. This paper describes the investigation conducted to determine the significance of these copper deposits, and their bearing on the failures.