Power station condensers their design and failure modes

Abstract

The steam condenser plays an essential part in conventional and nuclear power generation. It is often neglected, by not being inspected regularly, by not maintaining tubes in a clean condition and not ensuring the cooling water is in a suitable chemical state to preserve tube cleanliness. Consequently, its efficiency suffers and if tubes begin to fail then an expensive episode of repairs and unreliability becomes apparent. This paper explains the role that the condenser plays and describes some of the damage mechanisms that affect the entire condenser. Those mechanisms will continue to cause leaks until the root causes of the failures are identified and changes made to materials, water treatment, or plant operations to eliminate them. This article describes some of the more common condenser tube failure mechanisms and provides a brief discussion of how they might be prevented.