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Our company has an evacuation condensing compressor, and its surface condenser is experiencing internal leakage. This equipment is a fixed-tube-sheet heat exchanger: the tube side is filled with cooling water, while the shell side contains condensate under a negative pressure of about -80 kPa. It is possible to disconnect the tube side for maintenance, but the shell side must remain in operation at all times. If the tube side is exposed to the atmosphere, it could disrupt the vacuum level in the shell side. How can we determine which tube bundle is leaking and seal it? I can think of two methods: 1. Use an open-ended pipe filled with water, and place a section at each end of the pipe; if the water is sucked out, then there is a leak in that pipe bundle. 2. Replace the heat exchanger cover with a transparent one, close the cooling water valve, and create a pure vacuum in the tube side; if water leaks out, it indicates that there is a leak in that tube bundle. Method 1 is significantly slow; the compressor may not be able to withstand such operating conditions for long. I’m not sure if there is any transparent material that can withstand atmospheric pressure without becoming unstable. Do anyone have other methods? Anything that comes to mind can be shared.
Remove the end cap on one side of the tube side, cover it with a moist plastic film, and it will be possible to see which tube is leaking