Abstract
Thermal stress assessment inside steam reactor to prevent future damage is necessary due to the high temperatures of the hot gases used for endothermic reactions. This study combined solid mechanics equations, mass, energy, and fluid flow to develop a model could describe the thermal stress and deformation inside hydrocarbon-steam reactors. The model results were validated and compared to experimental results over a range of operating temperatures with an error of less than 2%. The results show that the temperature of the inlet gas in the reactor bed decreases in the early stages of the reactor, then increases later causing simultaneous gas velocity increase proportional with the temperature. The study shows that both hot gases temperature and gas velocity could control endothermic reactions rates. Where, at T = 900 K of inlet hot gases, full propane consumption is achieved at the reformer outlet and the velocity could reach twice that of the inlet. Furthermore, at a certain temperature, the non-uniform thermal stress distribution within the steam-propane reformer unit can cause deflections, which lead to cracks.
Published Version
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