Simplified Creep Assessment of Catalyst Tube

• Main Author: Hashim, Muhammad Khairuddin
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS 2011
• Subjects: TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery
• Online Access: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/10431/1/2011%20-%20Simplified%20Creep%20Assessment%20of%20Catalyst%20Tube.pdf; http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/10431/

Creep monitoring and assessment of catalyst tube is critical to avoid catastrophic failure. Although there are many creep assessment methodologies available, the methods not only costly but also sophisticated. Thus, there is a need to develop a simplified creep assessment method to assist plant engineer. The main objective of this study is to develop a method of Non-Destructive Testing and microstructure study methodologies to monitor creep in catalyst tube. A sample of damage catalyst tube has been taken from PETRONAS Fertilizer Kedah and the tube ruptured early before it reaches the expected life of the tube and suspected due to creep damage Ultrasonic testing and metallography study has been chosen as the methodologies to monitor the creep on the catalyst tube. By using ultrasonic flaw detector, the ultrasonic velocity has been determined. While by doing metallography study, the microstructure is obtained from optical microscope and hardness value from microstructure Vickers hardness. The result showed that there is decreasing in ultrasonic velocity values with increasing values of grain size. Besides that, increasing of hardness value also associated with the precipitation of carbide. Thus, the objective for this study is achieved by monitoring the velocity in ultrasonic testing and the microstructure for reformer tube evaluation. This technique has a potential to assess the creep damages and remaining life of the reformer tube.