Case Studies on Field Repairs of Stainless Steel Components in Refinery

摘要

Stainless steels (SS) possess excellent corrosion, creep and high temperature oxidation resistance and are invariably used in refinery for construction of heater tubes, tube supports, Heat exchanger bundles, piping and internal lining of pressure vessels. Ferritic stainless steel type 405 is used for column strip-lining, martensitic stainless steel type 410 is used for column trays and heater tubes and austenitic stainless steel family is used very extensively for lining, piping, heat exchanger, heater tubes and tube supports. On-stream and turnaround condition monitoring of plant and equipment are carried out for health assessment and mitigation of premature failure. However, catastrophic failures of stainless steel due to stress corrosion cracking, thermal fatigue and stress relaxation cracking are encountered in addition to bulging and cracking of strip-lining. Field repairs of these components are required to be done.