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70971

Failure analysis of heat exchanger tubes of Ni-200 alloy in a titanium tetrachloride vaporizer

Article

Last updated: 04 Jan 2025

Subjects

-

Tags

Corrosion and Protection of Metals

Abstract

This paper presents a metallurgical analysis of damage occurred in heat exchanger tubes of nickel alloy (Ni-200) used for vaporizing titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4). The tubes had undergone a dual environmental condition with heating water steam inside and liquidous TiCl4 outside. Several investigations were conducted to identify the potential failure mechanism. Such investigations included visual examination and microstructural characterization via optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy dispersive X-ray analyzer (EDX). Investigations extended also to the mechanical characterization of the tube materials through hardness and tensile testing. The results of hardness and tensile tests showed that the bent tubes had sustained strain hardening, which can act as potential sites of corrosion. SEM and EDX investigations revealed that the damaged sections had corrosion product layers rich in sulfur. However, Cavitation corrosion was found to be the main corrosion form shown in the damaged tubes. It is recommended to keep TiCl4 liquid at high pressure values so that the vapor bubbles are not formed. Also, the sulfur content in the TiCl4 must be kept at very low levels.

DOI

10.21608/jpme.2020.22711.1023

Keywords

Failure analysis, Corrosion, Heat exchanger, Nickel, Titanium tetrachloride

Authors

First Name

Ashraf

Last Name

Bakkar

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department, Faculty of Petroleum and Mining Engineering, Suez University, 43721 Suez, Egypt. - Department of Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering at Al-Lith, Umm Al-Qura University, Saudi Arabia.

Email

ashrafbakkar@yahoo.com

City

Suez

Orcid

-

First Name

Sabbah

Last Name

Ataya

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department, Faculty of Petroleum and Mining Engineering, Suez University, 43721 Suez, Egypt - Department of Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering at Al-Lith, Umm Al-Qura University, Saudi Arabia.

Email

sabbah.ataya@suezuniv.edu.eg

City

-

Orcid

-

First Name

Osama

Last Name

Badr

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Cristal Global, KSA

Email

ossama.badr@cristal.com

City

-

Orcid

-

Volume

22

Article Issue

1

Related Issue

14105

Issue Date

2020-06-01

Receive Date

2020-01-19

Publish Date

2020-06-01

Page Start

21

Page End

25

Print ISSN

1110-6506

Online ISSN

2682-3292

Link

https://jpme.journals.ekb.eg/article_70971.html

Detail API

https://jpme.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=70971

Order

4

Type

Original Article

Type Code

805

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Journal of Petroleum and Mining Engineering

Publication Link

https://jpme.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Failure analysis of heat exchanger tubes of Ni-200 alloy in a titanium tetrachloride vaporizer

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023