Corrosion‐erosion damage of heat exchanger tubes by desalted crude oil flowing at shell side

Abstract

AbstractHeat exchanger tubes were locally heavily damaged by desalted crude forming a shell side stream under the pressure of 2.6 MPa and at the temperature of 385–395 K. Boiler steel tube temperature was 97 K higher compared to that of the crude oil at its inlet to the exchanger. Two types of segmental baffles effected cross vortex type flow that was lowered nearly to a standstill at locations where the highest damage occurred. Close to the baffles where the damage was the highest the flow was completely different from that of the window flow. These were found from analyses of the flow and of locations of perforations. Most of the tube surface was with no damage and was covered with protective organic‐inorganic deposit. Electrochemical investigation proved a cathodic character of the deposited film against bare steel. Metallography examination of the steel showed typical structures that could not affect much the damage. The crude with low water content was not found aggressive when a corrosion test was performed at elevated temperature. The tests excluded the possibility for high rate of electrochemical corrosion at the surfaces with removed protective layers. The only reason of the damage may be cavitation corrosion at the ways of crude slow vortex flow at which temperature was high enough to allow explosions of low volatile components [1].