Transient Analysis and Fatigue Life Prediction of Tubesheet

Abstract

The filtration process is widely used in various applications where the contaminants are to be removed from the working fluid of the system. This paper deals with the analysis and determination of the fatigue life of the tube sheet which is widely used in the filters as main supporting elements of the filter tubes. The application of the filters which is considered in this paper is of petro chemical industries. The specific application analyzed deals with the natural gas filtering immediately after it is mined. For analysis purpose static structural and transient dynamic modules are used and for fatigue life prediction, the ASME codes are referred. In the primary phase the calculation of dimensions of the tubesheet were of prime importance. The calculated dimensions of the tubesheet were then confirmed from the client for further process. In secondary phase the tubesheet was analyzed in static structural module for proper convergence and then was analyzed in transient dynamic module for peak values of stresses and deformation. These stress and deformation values are used for fatigue life prediction of the tubesheet. The fatigue life is predicted by using ASME codes. The last phase of the project concludes with the validation of FEA results by comparing the FEA results of hydro test in the virtual environment and the experimental results obtained from actual hydro test of the tubesheet conducted at the clients end.