Rupture of heat exchanger tubes
Thread Content
The heat exchanger for methanol synthesis that we newly installed developed tube failures in less than a week – please experts analyze the reasons! The temperature of the methanol vapor in the concentrated tube side is 120 degrees, with a pressure of 89 kilograms; the temperature of the heating water on the shell side is 90 degrees, with a pressure of 4 kilograms.
Could the tube with dimensions φ19*2 provided by the design institute have an excessively thin wall?
You can calculate the pressure-bearing capacity of the pipe; it should not have insufficient strength!
The thinner the tube, the better its pressure resistance, but the wall thickness for the two tubes needs to be calculated
We have encountered this situation before; in 90% of cases, it’s due to a problem with the quality of the pipe itself. The wall thickness is sufficient, but there is an issue with a negative deviation here; metallography is required for the other aspects
It’s probably a problem with the material of the pipe; its actual bearing capacity may be lower than the stress required during design.
A wall thickness of 2.0 for the tubes is the standard thickness for heat exchange tubes, so it’s not a major issue; analysis should be conducted from other aspects. If it failed within just one week, it’s likely due to a quality problem.
It must be a quality issue; 2mm should be able to handle 9 MPa without any problems
1. Material issue 2. Quality issue 3. Welded pipe or repaired by welding