Evaluation of the structural behaviour of a port chamber following damages produced in the refractory lining

• Published in: The international journal of multiphysics Vol. 3; no. 2; pp. 129 - 140
• Main Authors: Constantin, Nicolae, Sorohan, Ştefan, Soare, Mircea, Anghel, Viorel, Găvan, Mircea
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: MULTIPHYSICS 01.01.2009
• ISSN: 1750-9548; 2048-3961
• DOI: 10.1260/175095409788837810

The port chamber used in oil refineries is an exhaust chamber mounted after the catalytic reactor for retaining and unifying the exhaust hot process gases. The thick steel shell has a refractory lining made of refractory cement called gunite or shotcrete. Damages produced in the refractory lining have serious effects on the thermal generated stresses in the steel shell. The research work aimed to find the level of these stresses in a numerical/experimental approach and to evaluate its consequences on the service life of this important component of the oil refinery. A complex sequentially coupled physics thermal-structural analysis was performed using the ANSYS code in order to get the stresses generated by a deep crack in the shotcrete layer. The results concerning the thermal mapping were based on previous inspections made with infrared thermography (IRT) and made possible an estimation of the remained service life of the port chamber.