Steam reboiler leakage situation
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In our daily work, have you noticed that the tubes of steam reboilers tend to leak easily? After being sealed for a while, a leak occurred again – could this be caused by the coexistence of gas and liquid phases? What do you all think might be the reasons for this? :dizzy:
The sealing wasn’t done properly; it was operating under pressure from the start
I didn’t make it clear; I’m not talking about leaks that reoccur after being blocked, but rather new leak points that are discovered again.
Usually, this is due to the formation of crystals at the vapor-liquid interface inside the reboiler, which leads to underscale corrosion. We can talk about the medium, operating conditions, and process, and then analyze further.
The poster should first explain the medium, operating conditions, process parameters, as well as the material of the equipment; it’s also necessary to determine whether the leakage occurs at the tube sheet or in the tubes, before proceeding with further analysis.
It needs to be clarified whether it is a leak on the tube sheet surface or a leak inside the tube bundle If there is a leak on the tube sheet surface, then it needs to be analyzed: is it caused by the material? Was it because I didn’t check carefully last time? Was it caused by the welding done to seal the leak last time? Is it a problem with the equipment upon arrival at the factory? If it’s a tube bundle leak, it’s basically due to material issues or steam erosion? It is generally rarely caused by operational errors. By analyzing the location of the leakage points, reflecting on the operation process, and comparing with other heat exchangers under similar conditions, it should be possible to identify the root cause of the problem.
The tube side operates with 1.2 MPa steam, while the shell side uses material of extremely high purity (99.80%), which does not cause corrosion. The relevant operating parameters have been checked, and the operating conditions meet the design specifications of the heat exchanger. The leakage is in the tube bundle, not in the tube sheet. Initially, it is suspected that steam erosion is the cause; it seems that there might be some issues with the quality of equipment manufacturing. Has anyone encountered a similar situation?
In general, leaks in heat exchangers are caused by perforations in the tube bundle; the situation is somewhat better with steam, but corrosive fluids cause faster damage. The solution is to use higher-quality materials.