Consulting Engineers and Nondestructive Examination

As heat exchanger tubes age, their failure rate becomes exponential.   Excessive forced outage time is the consequential result of tube failures becoming so excessive that, e.g. entire strings of feedwater heaters must be valved out of service for months until a new feedwater heater can be specified, purchased, delivered and installed.

Consequently, high priority should be given to performing condition assessments and monitoring. The results provide early warning of impending or existing problems. Therefore, appropriate corrective action(s) can be taken prior to the occurrence of an adversely significant impact on availability and/or plant performance. Furthermore, the utility staff gains assurance that the heat exchangers will be maintained in the non-exponential approach portion of the tube failure rate usage curve.

The distant advantage of starting such a program early in plant life is clear. However, implementation and timely corrective action (repair, retube, rebundle or replace) at any stage of a plant's life will provide beneficial in meeting life extension goals.

HES assisted EPRI in formulating the three level approach method we employ. We believe this method provides an essential means to obtaining long term, cost effective plant operation. It encompasses discreet increments of effort and outage requirements and allows a condition assessment to be concluded as soon as the desired level of confidence in heat exchanger assessment is achieved.

Use of this three level approach promotes coherent planning since the need for potentially expensive and time consuming inspections can be determined in advance. That information permits integration of heat exchanger life management requirements - including inspection, repair and replacement - with cash flow planning input to minimize budget impact. Moreover, this can be accomplished within the normal unit outage time frame.

Level I

The Level I assessment utilizes:

(a) original heat exchanger, design data, (b) unit historical data, (c) minimal visual inspection, (d) industry experience to determine the most likely damage mechanisms and (f) the extent of probable damage experienced throughout the operating history of the unit.

Level I results, coupled with the current and expected future operating modes of the unit, permits experienced engineers to estimate the length of time the component may be operated before failure is likely to occur (remaining life). Con-sequently, these results permit a Level II examination to be scheduled at a convenient time, before failure is expected.

Level II

The Level II assessment involves performance of detailed nondestructive examination (NDE) of the heat exchanger to refine the Level I remaining life estimate.   The Level 2 effort is more expensive and time consuming than Level I. But, it is often necessary because the available data is often insufficient to obtain an accurate condition assessment.

Level III

The Level III assessment is used less frequently. It involves more invasive techniques, e.g. performance of corrosion failure analysis, in-stallation of corrosion monitoring equipment, etc..

Experience has shown that the three level approach is cost effective. It provides a means to achieve excellent integration of component life assessment into normal utility planning, operating and maintenance practices.

For additional information please contact:  Robert J. Bell at (781) 337-9400  or send email to:   rjbell@heatexsys.com.