Analysis of the stress-deformed state of a tube bundle at different values of partition thicknesses and their deviations from verticality

Abstract

Shell and tube heat exchangers of hazardous industrial facilities are used to heat or cool working media and represent a rather complex individual design, which can consist of several structural elements, such as a body, bonnets, heat exchange tubes, tube sheets, partitions, etc. The failure of one element contributes to the failure of the entire heat exchanger. In the process of assembling or installing elements of the heat exchanger, the formation of various geometric deviations from design solutions is possible, which may be associated with violations of the technology of the assembly process, installation, etc. The presence of such deviations can negatively affect the reliable and trouble-free operation of the apparatus, serve as a scenario for the formation of places of increased stresses, leading to the initiation of defects in these zones and premature failure. One such deviation may be a change in thickness values and deviations from the vertical design of the transverse baffles of the tube bundle as supports for the heat exchange tubes. In the existing methods, the transverse partitions of the tube bundle do not pay attention and do not take into account their possible impact upon deflection on the stress-deformed state of the apparatus as a whole. In this work, the relationship of the effect of thicknesses, values and directions of deviation from the vertical location according to the design of transverse partitions of the pipe bundle on maximum equivalent stresses is investigated.