Common Heat Exchanger Problems

The first most common issue within a large quantity of heat exchangers is excessive load. This can be down to a number of reasons. The first reason why you might see your heat exchanger having to take an excessive load is due to a plant increase in capacity which could lead to the exchanger having been overloaded. The other reasons why you might see your heat exchanger experience excessive load could be due to high fluid temperature differences or even due to a greater heat transfer than originally set out within the exchanger.

Many cases are caused by the outlet temperature within the exchanger which can sometimes change from the original optimum conditions set out by the engineer. Various disadvantages of using such equipment may be the continuous greater energy of interrelated equipment, high levels of capacity of sections within your heat exchanger. The other cause could be due to limited access to areas within your process plant which could also lead to to poor performance.

There are various ways in which you can look to improve the problems within heat exchanger caused by excessive load and these can be anything from improving the turbulators within the exchanger to upgrading the heat exchanger engineering design, which could include identifying the optimal process conditions for that given heat exchanger. If the problem still occurs it could lead to full upgrades of heat exchangers fitted with new turbulators to help the performance of your heat exchanger and reduce the risk of any problems which might occur.

Heat exchanger problems are usually caused by fouling which can lead to a huge reduction in the efficiency of your heat exchanger. Depending on the type of heat exchanger equipment you have installed within your process plant your exchanger might be at higher risk of having fouling build up within . The build up of fouling deposits can lead to a decrease in heat transfer which can also lead to various other heat exchanger problems.

Fouling can also create issues within the plant leading to decreased efficiency and capacity as well as affecting the energy use within the plant. This can lead to the plant or FPSO spending more money on plant operations. Heat Exchanger fouling is a huge issue within the chemical engineering industry with many engineers and scientists trying to find new ways to help reduce fouling within heat exchangers. Fouling occurs mainly in process cooling and is usually caused by huge changes in temperature differences which will increase the likelihood of fouling within heat exchangers.

There are various fouling mitigation solutions which can help reduce fouling, one of which can be to upgrade the process coolers within your heat exchanger which will lead to overall improvement and resistance to fouling within your exchanger. Other solutions which can help reduce the heat exchanger problem can be to look into various turbulator solutions including hiTRAN or twisted tape, which can keep the fluids moving within your exchanger which will drastically reduce the risk of fouling building up within your exchanger.

The design of your heat exchanger is also crucial to ensure your heat exchanger has the best chance of not blocking up as well as a good control of the velocities and temperatures within your heat exchanger. Reducing the risk of fouling can also be done by choosing the right selection of materials to use within your heat exchanger although this will depend on the type of fluids you will be processing.

Reducing the heat transfer within the exchanger can usually reduce the plant's capacity and efficiency over time although if your heat exchanger is really damaged the only real solution is a plant shut down to clean all the affected heat exchangers. At this stage chemical engineers will look at installing turbulators to help the performance later on within the exchanger. Every Process plant will try and avoid having to close down there plant as this can cost money and cause various issues within the industry which is why engineers will look at all of the fouling mitigation solutions available to help reduce any risk of fouling building up.

While heat exchanger equipment is been installed into a new plant the optimal size and selection in the exchanger engineering should have been analyzed to support efficient plant operation. A range of heat exchanger solutions and equipment will have been studied to show to very best equipment to use within that plant which would reduce energy and keep the performance going at a strong level.

Energy costs of running the plant will also be taken into consideration which will also have a huge impact on the equipment which should be used within the plant all of these aspects can help reduce the risk of problems within the exchangers. The process plant might also undergo various upgrades to help with the performance which could be anything from turbulator inserts to an overall review of the plants subsections.

This will result in higher plant production and greater stream pressure loss for heat exchangers which still use the original equipment within the exchanger. In some cases the heat exchanger might have a high pressure loss for a stream because its original design or because the plant has undergone an expansion without improving aspects of the process plant.

A lot of the time excessive steam pressure loss prevents further plant growth at higher production capacity within the process plant. To be able to gain higher capacity increase, the process plant will have to replace various pieces of heat exchanger equipment which will allow you to gain the capacity increases you might need.

Too much pressure loss can also result in significant to large amounts of energy having been used to keep your exchanger running which can become a huge problem. Many cases will see the replacement of equipment because of the energy which is been used within a plant, being economic within a process plant is a key issue for a range of process engineers. Capacity and Efficiency studies of plants can identify the heat exchangers that are most suitable for economic replacement, providing highest economic savings within plants.

Heat exchangers can fail for a range of reasons, and every time some hardware fails within an exchanger it must be analyzed to show why it failed and how it can be prevented in the future. The most common problem within heat exchanger is a tube leak where the higher pressure stream passed through the leaking tube before meeting the other stream, this can cause deteriorated thermal performance.

This issue can also lead to contamination within the exchanger and also cause serious plant capacity loss and an increase in the amount of energy which is used within the plant and exchanger. The economic issues which can be caused because of the heat exchanger can depend on a range of factors from the type of process plant to the cost of energy at the time the heat exchanger problem might occur.

Mechanical failure within heat exchangers can result in heat exchangers almost instantly being closed down which can cause the plant a huge nightmare when it comes to losing money from production. In some cases the plant can continue to operate until the problem reaches a point where the magnitude is far too high. Tube vibration is usually the most common cause of tube leaks, where tubing comes into contact with adjacent tube or wears at other supports until leak is caused within the tube.

The way around this heat exchanger problem is to use heat exchanger software which will allow you to design the exchanger to avoid tube vibration. This can be done by simply making the tube thickness and spacing between tube supports bigger which will help reduce the risk of vibration within the heat exchanger. The prediction of tube vibration damage can be due to insufficient stiffness for regions of the tube bundle under the influence of shell side fluid flow.

The most common question which all plant owners will ask is how many times can a heat exchanger be plugged before it becomes seriously damaged and reduces the performance, the best way to work this out is to stick to the rule of thumb where you do not go over 10% plugged tubes this will ensure the performance of your heat exchanger is not seriously affected.

The best solution to this issue is to usually discuss the topic with other process plants who might have also had the same issue this means you will be able to exchange information and find the very best solution to the issue without having to call in a 3rd party company for help with the heat exchanger problem.

There are also other heat exchanger problems which can occur which can result in leaks, these could be because of tube seal weld cracks or tubesheet cracks which have then lead to leaks within the exchanger. These issues can all cost the process plant allot of money to put right and sometimes the plant will have to close for a period of time to fix the issues.

Each application for heat transfer is unique and never the same, this means it can be very hard to find a generic answer to any heat transfer questions you might have as it could have been caused from a range of issues.

The most common solution to poor heat transfer is to conduct various research into the plant to determine the best performance conditions for replacement heat exchange equipment that will achieve the highest economic advantage for the particular process application.
Usually a fully modified heat exchanger design can be developed which will provide a good plant upgrade with the best possible economic recovery. Plant optimization studies during the heat exchanger engineering process can assess the economic recovery and help to provide optimal exchanger process design and the reliability of a product.

These are some of the most common heat exchanger problems and some of the ways in which engineers look at trying to solve the problems.