Alex Stoller - Stress Engineering Services
Phillip Loya - Stress Engineering Services
In addition to monitoring and low cycle fatigue life projections, health monitoring systems may be used to assess design features of coke drums. In the current study, the data collected by Stress Engineering Services health monitoring systems across a number of coke drums was leveraged to evaluate the effects of inlet configuration on various measures of coke drum health and performance. Coke drums with conventional bottom feed inlet, single-side inlet, and dual-side inlet configurations were included in the evaluation. Data collected with regards to fatigue damage accumulation rates, thermal rates during fill and quench, and local temperature differences were analyzed for trends and differences using statistical techniques. In addition, a case study will be presented in which health monitoring data was utilized to model stress conditions and to develop a crack repair strategy for the cone region of a single side inlet drum. This work is an attempt to highlight additional benefits of health monitoring beyond simple life assessment and supplement industry knowledge regarding the influence of inlet configuration.