Failure of titanium condenser tube

Failure investigation was carried out on a titanium condenser tube that suffered from a large size perforation. The environment at the shell side is hydrocarbon with low pressure steam, while it is seawater at the tube side. The tube was totally plugged with alkaline scale, consisting of calcium carbonate and calcium sulfate. The investigation revealed that in the initial stages of fouling, the titanium tube suffered from erosion–corrosion...