China Petroleum Processing & Petrochemical Technology ›› 2022, Vol. 24 ›› Issue (4): 151-162.

• Simulation and Optimization • Previous Articles    

Experimental and Numerical Investigation on Erosion Corrosion of the Air Cooler Tube Bundle in a Residue Hydrotreating Unit

Jin Haozhe1; Yu Chenyang1; Gu Youjie2; Qian Guangwei2; Liu Xiaofei1; Ou Guofu1; Jia Yongna3   

  1. 1. Institute of Flow-Induced Corrosion, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou 310018, China;
    2. Institute of Flow-Induced Corrosion and Intelligent Prevention and Control, Changzhou University, Changzhou 213164, China;
    3. Intelligent Interconnection Department, Jiangsu Branch of China Academy of Machinery Science and Technology Group Co., Ltd., Changzhou 213164, China
  • Received:2022-02-06 Revised:2022-04-26 Online:2022-12-30 Published:2022-12-30

PDF (PC)

37

Abstract: Corrosion leakage occurred in the 14th tube bundle of the first row in residual oil hydrotreating air cooler after operating for two years. The failure location was 0.5m away from the outlet header box. In this paper, the erosion-corrosion of the air cooler tube bundle was investigated by experimental and numerical method. Visual inspection, SEM and XRD test were performed, and the failure morphology and material composition proved the damage was caused by erosion-corrosion. SST k-w turbulence model was used to investigate the flow and erosion-corrosion characteristic combined with mass transfer, corrosion rate and ionization equilibrium model. Numerical simulation results show that the increase of water phase volume fraction result in the mass flow rate and concentration of hydrogen sulfide in the process of flow and heat transfer. The mass transfer coefficient and corrosion rate is an important parameter to characterize, and the local concentration of wall shear stress rises the risk of erosion-corrosion. The predicted high-risk area is consistent with the actual failure area, which proved that this failure incident is attributed to the erosion-corrosion in the water phase.

Key words: Erosion-corrosion, air cooler tube bundle (ACTB), residual oil, pit type thinning, Hydrogen sulfide concentration