The wall thickness issue of heat exchangers
Thread Content
Regarding the wall thickness of the heat exchanger: heat exchange tubes with OD19 X 2.41 are selected, made of MONEL material； The pressure used for testing the heat exchanger is 26 MPa; according to theoretical calculations, the testing pressure for the heat exchange tubes should be 25 MPa, but testing was not carried out due to limitations in the equipment available at the material factory. Is there any risk involved?
What is the allowable stress of MONEL material at the test temperature? Around 86 MPa?
If there is no pressure testing or if the test pressure does not reach the operating pressure, there is definitely a risk. Also, you need to specify whether it is the tube side or the shell side – 26 MPa of pressure on the tube side seems too high in my opinion
Don’t worry; you can have the heat exchange tube manufacturer conduct pressure testing using the test pressure specified for your equipment, provided that you first check whether the stress on those heat exchange tubes is within acceptable limits. If it is, then you can confidently ask them to carry out pressure testing on each tube individually
The manufacturer’s pressure testing capacity is only 8MPA
Don’t you think 26MPa is scary?
Don’t you think 26MPa is scary?
8 definitely won’t work. The test pressure, which must be calculated as required, shall be tested for each pipe individually
There is definitely a risk without a hydrostatic test, but the problem can be detected during the equipment testing, making repairs troublesome. Add eddy current testing for the heat exchange tubes.