Metallurgical Failure Investigation of a Pipe Connector Fracture of an Expansion Vessel

Abstract

Abstract A pipe connector of an expansion vessel of a safety heat exchanger was torn off in a test facility's natural gas compressor. From a material point of view, the cause of the damage is a fatigue fracture induced by pulsating bending stress. The fatigue fracture originated from both, the pipe's outer surface as well as from its inner surface, which is consistent with the given stress situation (pulsating bending stress). Material defects or welding-induced flaws were not observed. Corrosion, wear, or thermal overload which may have promoted the damage, were not observed either. The primary cause was a major design error. Cases of dynamic load were obviously not duly taken into account during designing, so that the free-swinging mass of the expansion vessel which was mounted to a pipe of a diameter of only half an inch and, furthermore, installed in an angle of 45° (additional static preload!), could cause the fatigue failure induced by pulsating bending stress in the zone of highest stresses at the transition of the expansion vessel and the the pipe connector due to dynamic operating loads which always occur in plants like these.