Failure of steam-side oxide scales in high temperature components of boilers such as superheater and reheater tubes has significant effect on the safety of thermal power plants. Taking into account the influence that temperature has on physical properties of metal substrate and oxide scale, transient heat transfer model as well as multi-layered hollow cylinder stress model is successively developed in this work. Employing the Advanced Oxide Scale Failure Diagram (AOSFD) as failure criterion, a systematic analysis model for the failure behavior of steam-side oxide scales in T92 superheater tubes during unsteady thermal processes is established. Focusing on different steam temperature variation processes, the effects of steam-side oxide scale thickness as well as different steam temperature variation modes and variation durations on oxide scale failure issues have been analyzed. Besides, critical steam temperature drops leading to failure of oxide scales when steam temperature decreases linearly have also been investigated. Based on the analysis results, feasible measures such as selecting reasonable steam temperature variation mode and appropriately lengthening variation duration are subsequently proposed. The analysis results as well as the suggested measures in this work can provide valuable guidance for the solution of steam-side oxide scale failure issues in thermal power plants. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.