During the use of the water cooler tube bundle, attention should be paid to changes in the quality of the circulating water

Thread Content

During the use of water cooler tubes, attention must be paid to changes in the quality of the circulating water. In one refinery, leaks were detected in the tubes of the water coolers after less than half a year of use; upon inspection, it was found that the inner walls of the heat exchange tubes – through which the circulating water flowed – had suffered from pitting corrosion due to poor water quality. As shown in Figures 1–3, it was this pitting corrosion that led to the failure of one of the heat exchange tubes. A heat exchanger has nearly 400 heat exchange tubes, and this time it was found that a dozen of them were leaking, all suffering from pitting corrosion. Although the blind plugs are used to seal the pipes, it cannot be guaranteed that there will be no other pitting corrosion. Therefore, this heat exchanger tube bundle can only be used for about 1 year before it needs to be discarded. It is designed to last for over 5 years, but the equipment’s service life has been reduced due to poor management. That’s why similar devices are most vulnerable to pitting corrosion.