FUNDAMENTAL UNDERSTANDING OF CRACKING AND BULGING IN COKE DRUMS

Cracking and bulging in welded and internally lined pressure vessels that work in thermal-mechanical cycling service have been well known problems in the petrochemical, power and nuclear industries. However, published literature and industry surveys show that similar problems have been occurring during the last 50 years. A better understanding of the causes of cracking and bulging causes is needed to improve the reliability of these pressure vessels. This study attempts to add information required for increasing the knowledge and fundamental understanding required. Typical examples of this problem are the coke drums in the delayed coking units refinery process. This case was selected for experimental work, field study and results comparison. Delayed coking units are among the refinery units that have higher economical yields. To shut down these units represents a high negative economical impact in refinery operations. Also, the maintenance costs associated with repairs are commonly very high. Cracking and bulging occurrences in the coke drums, most often at the weld areas, characterize the history of the operation of delayed coking units. To design and operate more robust coke drums with fewer problems, an improved metallurgical understanding of the cracking and bulging mechanisms is required. A methodology that is based field experience revision and metallurgical analyses for the screening of the most important variables, and subsequent finite element analyses to verify hypotheses and to rank the variables according to their impact on the coke drum lives has been developed. This indicated approach provides useful information for increasing coke drum reliability. The results of this work not only order the most important variables according to their impact in the life of the vessels, but also permit estimation of the life spans of coke drums. In conclusion, the current work shows that coke drums may fail as a combination of thermal fatigue and other degradation mechanisms such as: corrosion at high and low temperatures, detrimental metallurgical transformations and plastic deformation. It was also found that FEA is a very valuable tool for understanding cracking and bulging mechanisms in these services and for ranking the design, fabrication, operation and maintenance variables that affect coke drum reliability.