EROSION OF TUBULAR HEAT EXCHANGERS

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an erosion study of a tubular heat exchanger operating on a railroad sleepersaturation processing line. The object of the study is a DN 800 oil condenser cooling the creosote oil vaporsflowing through the condenser tubes, fixed in the sieve plate of the upper and lower condenser bottom.Subject to the erosion are the upper part of the tubes and the weld connecting the tubes to the upper sieveplate. This resulted in unsealing of the connection, which led to the contamination of the cooling medium.The key problem, therefore, is to protect the entire condenser bottom from erosion. Since only the centralpart of the surface of the top sieve plate was eroded, the conclusion is that the velocity of the vapor streamover the inlet to the condenser tubes in the central part and beyond is varied. This thesis was confirmed bythe correspondence of the actual eroded area with the cavitation area resulting from a simulated flow inAutodesk CFD 2019 Ultimate software after increasing the height of the upper condenser bottom, placinga stream dispersing element between the liquid vapor inlet to the condenser and the upper sieve plate, andafter applying a protective sieve plate. Flow simulation studies for each of these variants, or a combinationof them, made it possible to evaluate the tested solutions in terms of protection against erosion, includingcavitation erosion, of the upper sieve plate of the condenser.