Case Study on Failure of Ti Lining

Abstract

Process equipment as well as their components are subjected to various damage mechanisms resulting from operating conditions, material ageing, upset conditions, environmental factors as well as neighborhood driven events. The absence of adequate inspection, repair and maintenance strategies can aggravate material problems causing pre-mature failures. This article addresses the failure incident of a newly applied Ti lining on the flange of a pressure vessel that rendered the whole process unit to outage. Further, it addresses the various factors that can be critical to the lining repairs considering various physical, metallurgical and electrochemical facets. Finally, it addresses the importance of conventional mock-up techniques towards mitigation of failure risks.