The heat exchanger was put into use after being idle for 4 months, and leakage began to occur after 2 months of use
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In July, our company had 4 vertical falling film heaters; the tube bundle was made of 316L material, while the shell was made of Q245R material. The shell side operating temperature is 80°C, and the operating pressure is 0.08 MPaG ； The tube bank operating temperature is 90°C, and the operating pressure is -0.03 MPaG. It is used as a condenser during operation, with a shell-side operating temperature of 100 degrees Celsius, and the working medium is hot water ； The tube medium contains acetic acid. It was placed in the factory and put into use after four months; after two months of use, it was found that 2/3 of the tube bundles were leaking through tiny pores in the upper half of the tubes, and the lower halves were repaired to stop the leaks. Intergranular corrosion is suspected. Could everyone please help analyze the cause of the leak?
This post was last edited by li*nji on 2016-2-19 at 16:35. Although 316L can resist acetic acid corrosion at room temperature, what about at 100 degrees? It is recommended to conduct coupon testing. Also, there are too many stainless steel manufacturers these days, and most of them produce products of poor quality; Micro dew might be caused by this, though I can’t be sure of the reason.
The cause of the corrosion has been identified: the user installed the heat exchanger upside down, causing the vent pipe that was originally on the shell to end up at the bottom, while the original drain port on the shell ended up at the top. Moreover, the user removed the drain port as well. As a result, a gas-liquid mixed phase was formed inside the shell; upon opening the shell, it was found that all the heat exchange tubes above the water inlet interface of the shell were corroded.
May I ask if there are any manufacturers that produce falling film heaters? If there is any, please contact me at 0757-63903399. Thank you
It was produced by our company; you can contact Engineer Xu at 13093022738 for details