Cracks in Heater outlet elbow

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- November 4, 2010 at 5:05 pm #2473
  
  himesh
  Member
  
  We have a three pass heater which we online spall using BFW. It has been in service for less than three years. The first elbow out of each pass is 9 chrome base metal with stellite overlay. One of these elbows was found to have multiple cracks with one through wall. We suspect that the cause may be associated with the thermal swings that occur during spalling coupled with the stellite OL. Has anyone else had similar problems?
- February 24, 2011 at 2:48 pm #5243
  
  B P
  Participant
  
  I’m not an exert, but I think a 4-way cross piece at each pass outlet would possibly be a better approach than an elbow.
- March 1, 2011 at 8:32 am #5232
  
  Claus Graf
  Participant
  
  I have a few questions:
  1. Is this cracked elbow any different than the other two installed?
  2. Who manufactured this elbow ? Was is part of the heater supply scope? Any QA/QC records available?
  3. You said that the elbow had multiple cracks. Where? Inside or outside?
  4. Are there any attachments to the elbow such as a elbowlet/thermowell or perhaps a piping support?
  5. How does the heater coil expand? Is it fixed on the outlet side and the crossover pipes grow towards the back of the heater ? Or is it the other way around?
  
  Regards
  
  CG
- March 1, 2011 at 2:37 pm #5231
  
  Claus Graf
  Participant
  
  Here is more info, page 15:
  
  http://www.api.org/meetings/proceedings/upload/BUCHHEIM_Cladding_cracks.pdf
  
  Regards
  
  CG
- March 16, 2011 at 1:55 pm #5203
  
  Sim Romero
  Participant
  
  Good idea. A tee is frequently used in a fluid coker to avoid erosion, which is common in delayed coker spalling.
- April 17, 2012 at 5:34 pm #4647
  
  tim gaustad
  Participant
  
  The cracks in the pictures are so similar to our elbow that I would be surprised if it was not our elbow (Buchheim did the analysis work for us). The elbow was specified to have a stellite overlay but I could find no specification outlining how. Analysis indicated that there was no butter pass which resulted in the cracking.
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Cracks in Heater outlet elbow

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