Pressure testing of the tube side in a double-shell and plate heat exchanger
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Hello, dear sea friends. Recently we built a double-tube-sheet heat exchanger, and the testing of its tube side posed a challenge for me. I would appreciate it if you could help me think of solutions – let’s discuss this together.
Hello, this is the welding area between the front tube sheet and the heat exchange tubes; we don’t know how to conduct a pressure test to check for leaks.
In conventional shell-and-tube heat exchangers with a single tube sheet, pressure testing is carried out in the tube side by applying pressure to the shell side in order to detect leaks; however, this becomes more complicated in cases with a double tube sheet
A member from the marine community said helium testing can be used for leak detection, but we are a small factory and don’t have the facilities for that.
A pressure testing ring can be placed between the two tube sheets, allowing for airtightness to be checked inside
We wanted to use this method from the start, because 35 units is too many; with such a large number, the efficiency of this method is low
This post was last edited by wanlirn on 2022-3-22 08:33. You’re overthinking it; our company uses double-walled tubes like this every year, which are welded automatically. Then the tube joints are colored or inspected carefully using magnetic particle testing – so how could there be any leaks?
Do you mean that just PT/MT tests are sufficient, and pressure testing isn’t needed?
This post was last edited by wanlirn on 2022-3-23 08:23. Pressure testing is of course carried out, just to show it to the inspectors; what I mean is that the current automated process for tube sheets is already very mature. Our company produces over 300 heat exchangers per year, and none of them have leaks at the tube sheet joints. Of course, I’m not trying to promote self-welding for tube sheet joints; I’m just surprised that container manufacturers these days don’t have equipment for automatic welding of tube sheet joints – it’s quite outdated. Moreover, such equipment isn’t expensive at all.