A cupronickel heat exchanger failed after 10 years of service. The cooling heat exchanger was in service in a marine environment, with water flowing along shellside and natural gas along tubeside. Many tubes showed leakages during a regular maintenance test. A comprehensive failure analysis of the heat exchanger revealed the de-nickelification process on the external side of the damaged tubes (shellside). The de-nickelification originated from a large deposit of sea water scale, over tube lengths, which completely covered the area just outside the internal portion of the tubesheet, and occurred because of a failure of the regular cleaning operation. Stagnant water and possible hot spot formations on the tubes probably caused the phenomenon
A metal container used for food packaging must
preserve the food’s edibility characteristics for a long period
of time. Lacquered tinplate is suitable for canning food
provided that the cans are airtight.This article details a root
cause failure analysis that was conducted utilizing a sample
of tuna cans taken from an affected batch of one million
units. Several examinations were carried out to identify the
failure’s root cause: visual examination, SEM fractography,
micro-hardness measurement, and microstructural characterization.
The cracks are located in the HAZ of the welded
zone. As a result of the examinations carried out, the authors
were able to identify the cause of the primary failure. The
identified fracture mechanism is that of stress corrosion
cracking (SCC), due to both the aggressive environment
(high water content in the oil) and the low lacquer adhesion
caused by superficial welding irregularities
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