CFD Based Thermal Fatigue Risk Assessment in Refinery Process Lines

Flow turbulence at the mixing points of process fluids can generate large temperature fluctuations. If these fluctuations are transmitted to the pipe walls then they will suffer thermal fatigue induced damage over time. Often special injection devices at the mixing points mitigate the temperature fluctuations. Computational Fluid Dynamic methodology can be effectively used to predict and quantify the thermal fluctuations in the fluid as well as at the walls. An overview of the technique will be presented with the help of a few case studies.