One of the purpose of effective quality control program is to determine the suitability of a given base metal or a weld to perform its intended service.

– macroscopic & microscopic examinations
– bend test
– tension test
– hardness test
– charpy vee notch test
– Izod test
– crack tip open displacement test
– nick break test
– chemical test

o Macro Test:
To see the penetration inside the parent material, and to qualify welder & welding procedure, generally a chemical etching is done on the weld specimen, see the image below.

Macro Specimen

o Bend Test :

There are two different bend testing methods:

• Guided bend test
• Free bend test

 o. Guided Bend Test

After bending, the welds are examined for the presence of discontinuities. Many welding standards and specifications consider that a bend specimen has failed if on examination of the convex surface after bending there is a crack or open defect exceeding 3mm (1/8 in.).  


Passed Bend Specimen

 

Failed Bend Specimen



  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are three types of guided bend tests:

1. Root bend tests
2. Face bend tests
3. Side bend tests

Bend Test Limitations
The same weakness that tensile tests suffer from also affects bend tests. Nonuniform properties along the length of the specimen can cause nonuniform bending. Bend testing is sensitive to the relative strengths of the weld metal, the heat-affected zone, and the base metal.

Many problems can develop in transverse bend tests such as an overmatching weld strength may prevent the weld zone from conforming exactly to the bending die radius, and thus may force the base metal to deform to a smaller radius. This will not produce the desired elongation in the weld. Alternatively, with an under matching weld strength, the specimen may bend in the weld to a radius smaller than the bending die. In this case failure may result when the weld metal ductility is exceeded, and not because the weld metal contained a defect.

These problems with weld strength mismatch can be avoided by using longitudinal bend specimens which have the bend axis perpendicular to the weld axis. In this case all zones of the welded joint (weld, heat affected zone, and base metal ) are strained equally and simultaneously. This test is usually used for the evaluation of joints in dissimilar metals.

Weld discontinuities in longitudinal bend tests that are oriented parallel to the weld axis such as incomplete fusion, inadequate joint penetration, or undercut are only moderately strained and may not cause failure.

o TENSION TEST
Tension tests are performed for the following reasons:

– Test results are used in selecting materials for engineering applications
– Tensile properties are frequently included in the material specifications to ensure quality
– often tensile properties are measured during the development of new materials and processes so that different materials and processes can be compared.
– Tensile properties are often used to predict the behavior of a material under different forms of loading, other than uniaxial tension.   The strength and ductility of metals are generally obtained from a simple uniaxial tension test in which a machined specimen is subjected to an increasing load while simultaneous observations of extension are made. If the loading is continued the specimen will eventually break. A typical stress-strain curve that is produced from a tension test is shown in the diagram.

In a welding application, tension tests involve applying a load to the ends of a standard test specimen and recording the point at which the specimen fails by permanent shape change (yielding) and by fracture. A number of mechanical properties can be determined from a tension test, including the following which are of particular significance in welding:
– yield strength ( the stress at which permanent deformation occurs)
– ultimate strength (the highest stress the material is able to withstand)
– breaking or fracture strength(the stress at which the material fails by breaking)
– ductility (the percentage of elongation or reduction of area of a defined segment of the specimen)

Two specific types of tension test specimens are used extensively in testing welding materials and welded joints. One of these uses specimens taken from the weld material only (all weld metal tests), and the other uses specimens taken across the weld(reduced section tension specimens). The latter specimens are machined so that the smallest dimension of width is in the weld area (reduced section tension test).
– All Weld Metal Test
This test is used to determine the tensile properties of a specimen that consists entirely of weld metal. The test specimen is oriented parallel to the weld axis, and is machined entirely from the weld metal. There are two reasons for performing an all weld metal test:
– to qualify a filler metal or
– determine the properties of the weld metal in a particular weldment.
To qualify a filler metal the melting of the base metal is minimized when making a test weld. This procedure is described in the various filler metal standards. If the purpose of the test is to determine weld metal properties in a particular weldment, then the welding process and procedure used in the actual fabrication should be employed to make the test weld. The following are typically properties that are measured and reported in an all weld metal tension test.
– tensile strength
– yield strength
– elongation

Transverse weld tension test specimen

– reduction of area



All weld metal test specimen



Longitudinal weld tension test

o HARDNESS TESTING

Hardness can be described as the ability of a material to resist permanent or plastic deformation, and is usually measured by its resistance to indentation by an indenter of a standard shape and size.

The hardness test is by far one of the most valuable and the most widely used mechanical test for evaluating the properties of metals as well as certain other materials. In general, an indenter is pressed into the surface of the metal to be tested under a specific load for a definite time interval, and a measurement is made of the size or depth of the indentation.

The main purpose of the hardness test is to determine the suitability of a material, or the particular treatment to which the material has been subjected to.

Hardness testing may be used alone or to complement other test methods. This is what makes the hardness method so popular because of the relationship that exists between hardness and other properties of the material. For instance, both the hardness test and the tension test measure the resistance of a metal to plastic flow. Such correlations are approximate and must be used with caution when applied to welded joints or any metal with a heterogeneous structure.

It should be noted that hardness is not a fundamental property of a material and a hardness value is an arbitrary number. There are no absolute standards of hardness and it has no quantitative value, except in terms of a given load applied in a specified manner for a specified duration and a specified penetrator shape.

Measurements of hardness can provide information about the metallurgical changes caused by welding. For example, in alloy steels a high hardness could indicate the presence of untempered martensite in the weld heat-affected zone, while a low hardness may indicate an over-tempered condition. In cold-worked or age-hardened metal, welding may result in significantly lower heat-affected zone hardness due to recrystallization or over aging.

Hardness testing is divided into two categories: macrohardness and microhardness



Hardness scan – fillet welds



Hardness scan – butt weld



The hardness testing methods in use today for testing metals are: – Brinell
– Rockwell
– Vickers
– Knoop   o CHARPY IMPACT TEST
The Charpy vee-notch impact test is the most common fracture toughness test used by industry. A notched specimen is broken by a swinging pendulum and the amount of energy required to break the specimen is recorded in foot-pounds or joules. This is determined by measuring how far the pendulum swings upwards after it fractures the specimen. If the specimen is tough, the pendulum will only swing up a small distance since part of its energy has been absorbed by the specimen. If the specimen is brittle it will absorb little energy thus allowing the pendulum to swing up to almost its original height


Charpy Impact Testing Machine

The amount of energy absorbed can be read directly off of the dial indicator that is located on the machine.
The specimen is supported in place as shown and the pendulum strikes it from behind the notch.  


Charpy vee-notch specimen holder

This puts the notch in tension, causing the specimen to fracture. The dimensions of the specimen are shown in the next diagram. In some cases sub size specimens may be used when the material thickness is to small to accommodate the full size specimens. It is extremely important that the specimen is machined to the tolerances and finishes specified (eg ASTM E23 Standard Methods For Notched Bar Impact Testing Of Metallic Materials).


Charpy vee-notch specimen dimensions

 Metals such as carbon and low alloy steels, exhibit a change in failure mode with decreasing temperature. For this reason, it is common to conduct impact tests over a range of specimen temperatures. The performance of the material at different temperatures can be observed and a conclusion made regarding the temperature below which the material can no longer be used without a risk of brittle fracture. The graph shows the relationship between test specimen temperature and absorbed energy

Impact energy vs temperature

The absorbed energy is the most common value reported, however, the percent shear and the lateral expansion may also be noted. Metals that exhibit a high Charpy vee notch value are typically those that are more resistant to brittle fracture. It is important to remember that these tests are comparative only and are no guarantee of ductile behaviour in actual service.
The fractured ends of a specimen often reveal the manner in which it fractured. If the specimen has fractured in a brittle manner with low energy the faces will have a flat, crystalline and shiny surface. A tough specimen will exhibit more deformation and will have a dull and fibrous surface.

Fractured charpy vee-notch specimen

o IZOD IMPACT TEST

The Izod test is another form of impact testing. It also involves the use of a vee notched specimen and a machine to deliver an impact blow to the specimen. Testing is generally carried out with the specimens at room temperature since the time required to accurately place it in the machine allows its temperature to increase. This can introduce a significant error when conducting tests at various temperatures.

The positioning of the specimen within the testing machine is critical. Unlike the Charpy specimen, the Izod specimen is held rigidly in a vice type fixture with the notched side facing the direction of impact. The centerline of the notch must be in the plane of the vice top within .125 mm. Once the specimen is in place the hammer is released from a preset height and allowed to strike the specimen thus fracturing it at the vee notch

Izod specimen set up

Izod impact specimen dimensions

Unfortunately, ASME VIII Div.1 doesn’t give a clear picture, whether to add the undertollerance in the min. required thickness as calculated by ASME VIII Div.1

ASME VIII Div. 2, give a clear cut understanding on this issue, can clears all ambiguity. (Clause 4.1.3)

The explanation goes as under

Mill Under tolerance. Plate material shall be ordered not thinner than the minimum required thickness.Vessels made of plate furnished with an under tolerance of not more than the smaller value of 0.3 mm (0.01 in.) or 6% of
the ordered thickness may be used at the full maximum allowable working pressure for the thickness ordered. If the specification to which the plate is ordered allows a greater under tolerance, the ordered thickness of the materials shall be sufficiently greater than the design thickness so that the thickness of the material furnished is not more than the smaller of 0.3 mm (0.01 in.) or 6% under the design thickness.

{The underline sentence is very clear, if they are in this limit, no need to add the allowance in calculation, which as per II-A, need to be part of purchase specification, and purchaser has to bid by it}

Pipe Under tolerance. If pipe or tube is ordered by its nominal wall thickness, the manufacturing under tolerance on wall thickness shall be taken into account. After the minimum wall thickness is determined, it shall be iincreased by an amount sufficient to provide the manufacturing under tolerance allowed in the pipe or tube specification.

{Again, this is very clear, we need to take this in account in our calculation}

So, Bottom line
If the shell is made from Plate (Rolled) and if purchase specs for Plate as per ASME II-A, then the vendor is binded to supply material within these limits, and we need not to consider additional allowance. But if your shell is made from Pipe, then you need to consider the 12.5% tolerance during calculation of thickness!

Hope this will help.

http://www.hcheattransfer.com/shell_and_tube.html

Take Care!

(3) Very light wall tubes require a smoother tube hole finish than heavier wall tubes.

(4) Significant longitudinal scratches can provide leak paths through an expanded tube-to-tubesheet joint and should therefore be removed.

Hence its important to show roughness during design, and ensure it durign fabrication.

Good day!

1. Reynolds number (Re) Reynolds number, which relates inertial forces to viscous forces and thereby characterizes the type of flow regime
2. Prandtl number (Pr), which relates the thermal properties of the fluid to the conductivity of the pipe.
3. Nusselt number (Nu) , a dimensionless group defining the relative significance of the film heat transfer coefficient to the conductivity of the pipe wall

where:

Dh is the hydraulic diameter of the pipe; its characteristic travelled length, , (m).

Q is the volumetric flow rate (m3/s).

A is the pipe cross-sectional area (m²).

v is the mean velocity of the object relative to the fluid (SI units: m/s).

mu is the dynamic viscosity of the fluid (Pa·s or N·s/m² or kg/(m·s)).

nue is the kinematic viscosity ( (m²/s).

rho is the density of the fluid (kg/m³).

Calculation of Prandtle number :

Where

Based on these parameter, we can now calculated Heat transfer co-efficient on either side.

Where kw is thermal conductivity of the bulk fluid.

With this you are now equipped to calculate over all heat transfer.
 

2. Tables for tube hole drilling have been expanded to 3” diameter tubes.
3. Guidelines for performing Finite Element Analysis (FEA) had been added.
4.Rules for the design of shell intersections (with large nozzle to cylinder ratios) subjected to pressure and external loadings have been added.
5.Foreign material cross-reference linking material specifications from various international codes has been added.
6.Rules for the design of longitudinal baffles have been added

Followings are my observation (And I’ll keep it upto date as more I go in detail)
1. Page numbering & Indexing changed completely
2. Tube Plate thickness calculation is now moved to Appendix A, and detail and simplified approach is seen.
3. Section T (Thermal Relations), Section P (Physical properties of fluids), Section D (General Information) and Section RGP (Recommended Good Practice) added

To Calculate LMTD, we need to understand the flow and type of process (Isothermal or not)

Generally we have complication, when either of fluid is showing isothermal characteristics. see the following variation.

Two fluids are separated by a heat transfer surface (wall), these fluids ideally do not mix, and there are no moving parts.In this blog the thermal design theory of recuperates is presented. In a heat exchanger, when hot and cold fluids are maintained at constant temperatures of Th and Tc as shown in above Fig(a)..The driving force for overall heat transfer in the exchanger, referred to as mean temperature difference (MTD), is simply Th-Tc.

Such idealized constant temperatures on both sides may occur in idealized single-component condensation on one fluid side and idealized single-component evaporation on the other fluid side of the exchanger. However, a number of heat transfer applications have condensation or evaporation of
single-component fluid on one side and single-phase fluid on the other side. In such cases, the idealized temperature distribution is shown in Fig(b) and (c)

The First major step in Thermal design, is to understand the assumptions that are considered while we disign the heat exchanger, but we forgot to understand them, they are:-

1. The heat exchanger operates under steady-state conditions [i.e., constant flowrates and fluid temperatures (at the inlet and within the exchanger) independent of time].

2. Heat losses to or from the surroundings are negligible (i.e. the heat exchanger outside walls are adiabatic).

3. There are no thermal energy sources or sinks in the exchanger walls or fluids, suchas electric heating, chemical reaction, or nuclear processes.

4. The temperature of each fluid is uniform over every cross section in counter flow and parallel flow exchangers (i.e., perfect transverse mixing and no temperature gradient normal to the flow direction). Each fluid is considered mixed or unmixed from the temperature distribution viewpoint at every cross section in single-pass cross flow exchangers, depending on the specifications. For a multi pass exchanger, the foregoing statements apply to each pass depending on the basic flow arrangement of the passes; the fluid is considered mixed or unmixed between passes as specified.

5. Wall thermal resistance is distributed uniformly in the entire exchanger.

6. Either there are no phase changes (condensation or vaporization) in the fluidstreams flowing through the exchanger or the phase change occurs under thefollowing condition. The phase change occurs at a constant temperature as for a single-component fluid at constant pressure.

7. Longitudinal heat conduction in the fluids and in the wall is negligible.

8. The individual and overall heat transfer coefficients are constant (independent of temperature, time, and position) throughout the exchanger, including the case of phase-changing fluids in assumption 6.

9. The specific heat of each fluid is constant throughout the exchanger, so that the heat capacity rate on each side is treated as constant. Note that the other fluid properties are not involved directly in the energy balance and rate equations, but are involved implicitly in NTU and are treated as constant.

10. For an extended surface exchanger, the overall extended surface efficiency is considered uniform and constant.

11. The heat transfer surface area A is distributed uniformly on each fluid side in a single-pass or multi pass exchanger. In a multi pass unit, the heat transfer surface area is distributed uniformly in each pass, although different passes can have different surface areas.

12. For a plate-baffled (1–n) shell-and-tube exchanger, the temperature rise (or drop) per baffle pass (or compartment) is small compared to the total temperature rise (or drop) of the shell fluid in the exchanger, so that the shell fluid can be treated as mixed at any cross section. This implies that the number of baffles is large in the exchanger.

13. The velocity and temperature at the entrance of the heat exchanger on each fluidside are uniform over the flow cross section. There is no gross flow maldistribution at the inlet.

14. The fluid flow rate is uniformly distributed through the exchanger on each fluid side in each pass i.e., no passage-to-passage or viscosity-induced maldistribution occurs in the exchanger core. Also, no flow stratification, flow bypassing, or flow leakages occur in any stream. The flow condition is characterized by the bulk (or mean) velocity at any cross section.

Question??? So many assumption… still we are ‘designing’ a heat exchanger with Guarantee on performance!! sure we are Engineers 😉

Following Table will show the impact of various parameters on design of heat exchanger.
(NTU stands for number of transfer unit, and alternate to LMTD method)

1st Position : 23 : Defines, ID of Vessel
2nd Position : 192 : Defines, Tube length
3rd Position : BEM : it further splited in three parts as per fing N-1.2
e.g B-E-M,
the 1st section, defines the Type of Front head (B for Bonnet Integral cover)
the 2nd section, defines the shell type (E – One pass shell)
the 3rd section, defines the type of rear head (M – Fixed tube sheet, stationary head)

Above figure shows typical flow arrangement inside a heat exchanger.

Typically for a heat exchanger, their are two type Tube Bundle exist. see the picture below.

Generally we can get reference from various resources listed below, either expected heat flux (W/m2) or range of heat transfer co-efficient. based on this information, we can estimate the heat transfer area required.

But if the case is, you are doing for first time, and have no earlier experience in that type of heat exchanger, then better is make your self ready with all information e.g fluid properties which includes

1. Dynamic viscosity (for the temperature ranges)
2. Conductivity (for the temperature ranges)
3. Density (for the temperature ranges)
4. Boiling temperature
5. Specific heat

The grate equation (you can see in my earlier post) for heat duty is:
Q = U A LMTD & Q = m. cp. DT

where
Q = heat duty (kcal/hr)
U = over all heat transfer co-efficient (Kcal/hr.m2.oC)
A = heat transfer area (m2)
LMTD = Log mean temperature (degC)
cp = Specific heat of the fluid to be heated / or to be cooled (kcal/kg)
DT = temperature difference of any one of the fluid (degC)
m = mass flow rate of the fluid (kg/hr)

LMTD is calculated based on the temperature on both the side for both the fluid
it’s simple if you understand the following figure

& LMTD = (dt_o – dt_i) / ln(dt_o / dt_i)

Just Plot your temperature, take difference on each side, and do the arithmatics…

Some good refrences (Free google search results 🙂

http://www.chemsof.com/lmtd/lmtd.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Log_mean_temperature_difference
http://www.wlv.com/products/databook/databook.pdf

After long days of calculation, rewriting calculations on pages! on excel! finally I come to some ‘lesson learn’ which I’ll  be sharing now.

But before that, following are two good references to design a thermosiphone reboiler
1. Applied Process Design Volume-3 by Ludwig
2. Process Heat Transfer – D.Q. Kern