Regarding a type of oil cooler
Thread Content
Hello everyone. I am currently dealing with an oil cooler in which the operating pressure in the shell and tube sides is 0.8 MPa, and the temperature is around 40–50 degrees. The medium flowing in the shell side is washing oil, while the medium in the tube side is circulating water. Its tube sheet extends into the cylinder and is welded directly to it; this design does not conform to GB151 standards. I wonder if there are anyone with experience in this type of design – could you please advise on the issues that need to be taken into account, especially regarding sealing and how to ensure its effectiveness? This post was last edited by jia717 on 2009-4-10 18:37.]
This structure is generally used in situations where thermal stress is low; with a secure weld, sealing will naturally not be an issue； The core cannot be cleaned or replaced
This type of heat exchanger with thin tube sheets is specified in GB151. There’s no problem with the sealing. The trouble is cleaning. According to the moderator’s opinion, the model is: BEN. This post was last edited by daidongjie on 2009-4-14 at 14:09.]
It seems to be an oil cooler used in ordinary mechanical equipment; if it doesn’t work well or is difficult to clean, it is recommended to replace it with a plate heat exchanger.
The heat exchange tubes in oil coolers are usually made of red copper, and they can generally remain uncleaned for 2 to 3 years.
Too many of the heat exchangers used in oil coolers do not comply with GB151 standards; especially for some small products, they are not designed in accordance with those standards. I have designed many such products, and for them the design approach is to determine the structural format based on the operating conditions. For heat exchangers with low operating temperatures and small temperature difference ranges, a fixed-type design is generally used, and the structure you mentioned also falls under the fixed-type category. A few months ago I designed a heater with a structure similar to this; the difference is that I used forgings for the tube sheet, which was connected to both the shell and the tube bank in accordance with the design of 151. This approach helps to save a lot of costs, as there are no tube bank flanges or shell flanges in the entire device – everything is joined by welding. Your situation is likely similar to this: the tube sheet is inserted into the cylinder and welded there, after which the cylinder is connected to the tube bank. Since it’s a welded connection, as long as the quality of the welds is good and the pressure testing is successful, there should be no problems. In fact, this type of structure can withstand very high pressures. The design pressure for the shell side of the heater I designed last time was 10.6 MPa; however, the diameter of my cylinder is very small, at DN80. Last edited by vivo1314 on 2009-4-11 14:58.]
This type of oil cooler is not a pressure vessel and does not need to comply with GB151
There isn’t much of an issue with sealing; the medium temperature is not high, so there are no problems with using it； It’s probably just a bit more troublesome to clean and maintain it