Failure Analysis on Heat Exchanger Tube Bundle Leakage

Heat exchanger is one of important equipments used in industry nowadays, especially in
petrochemical plant. It is functioned to cool down or rise up the temperature of medium
which flow through it by using two different medium. During internship period at
Petrochemical Plant in Terengganu, author had an opportunity to face a real case study,
which is regarding the Heat Exchanger Tube leakage. During shut down in November
2010, it is found that one of the heat exchanger tube bundles available in the plant was
leak. The affected heat exchanger used to cool down ethylene gas after it being
compressed by the compressor. The ethylene gas is the main gas used in the plant as it
will be processed to become Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE). Heat exchanger tube
leak is one of the problems in petrochemical plant that keep reoccurring although
appropriate action had been taken before. The objectives of this project were to perform
failure analysis on the heat exchanger tube bundle and to suggest possible solutions so
that this problem will not keep reoccurring in the future. In this project, author focused
on the failure analysis methodology to reduce the risk of heat exchanger to fail again in
the future. Methodology of this project was based on the standard and study performed
by the author. The fmdings of this project were High TDS from cooling water caused by
filter media break through from the side stream filter, accumulation of solids leading to
deposition/pitting at the U-bend portion of the heat exchanger, drain port available but
no drain line installed, damage/peeled of coating due to mechanical method of cleaning
and Low inter-baffie shell side velocity, which lead to several recommendation to
improve the performance of heat exchanger in the future.