Root Cause Analysis for a Burst Steam Pipe in a Petrochemical Plant
Publication: Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering and Practice
Volume 12, Issue 2
Abstract
Steam pipe failure is a problem that may affect refinery production and personal safety. It has practical significance for engineers who need to find out how to prevent such failure. This paper reports on a pipe bursting accident in a steam network. An investigation to identify the root causes of the failed steam pipe was carried out by macro inspections, chemical composition analysis, metallographic microscopy, scanning electron microscope (SEM) images, and energy dispersive spectroscope (EDS) analysis. The results showed that the chemical composition and mechanical properties were within the related standards, a combination of the ratchet effect and material creep causing the pipe wall thinning was the major failure root, and spheroidization of pearlite in the material also contributed to the failure.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the support provided by the Guangdong Science and Technology Innovation Strategy (Grant No. 2018KJ011).
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Published In
Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering and Practice
Volume 12 • Issue 2 • May 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 23, 2020
Accepted: Nov 20, 2020
Published online: Feb 23, 2021
Published in print: May 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Jul 23, 2021
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