Optimization of Life Time Expectance for Heat Exchangers with Special Requirements

A Cryogenic Test Rig for Dynamically Operated Plate‐Fin Heat Exchangers

“…100) for steady-state operation and mostly limited to maintenance and service shutdowns, this number increases significantly (up to 1000-10 000) if the ASU is operated flexibly. Load changes may lead to additional thermal stress on the main heat exchanger and eventually cause fatigue damage if the number of events is too high [6,7].…”

“…This is why a method of assessing the thermal stress caused by transient operating conditions has been developed [8]. The method consists of a thermo-fluid dynamic simulation and a subsequent finite elements analysis, and is described in [6,[9][10][11] in more detail. The method has already been validated against heat exchangers in the field [6] and experimental thermal fatigue tests using comparatively small PFHEs [12].…”

“…The method consists of a thermo-fluid dynamic simulation and a subsequent finite elements analysis, and is described in [6,[9][10][11] in more detail. The method has already been validated against heat exchangers in the field [6] and experimental thermal fatigue tests using comparatively small PFHEs [12]. However, damage symptoms for these small PFHEs differ from fatigue damages experienced in commercial plants [13].…”

Distributed Temperature and Strain Measurements at a Cryogenic Plate‐Fin Heat Exchanger Test Rig

“…The recorded data is essential for improving and validating a three‐dimensional thermo‐fluid simulation model 13 and computational lifetime estimation tools 14. This paper builds on foregoing work concerning the expected lifetime and fatigue in PFHEs at Linde Engineering, including experiments using smaller PFHE specimens 12 and simulation tools 14–16. After the test rig and applied measurement methods have been described in 7, this paper provides results from temperature and strain measurements of the highly dynamic test scenario.…”