Paper: Failure of Austenitic Stainless Steel Drain Piping of OCR Reactor in Atmospheric Desulphurization Unit (ARDS) of Mina Abdulla Refinery, Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) (CORROSION 2009 (March 22-26, 2009))

Tuesday, March 24, 2009: 9:30 AM

C304 (Georgia World Congress Center)

Faisal H. AL-Refai , Zip Code: 13001, Kuwait National Petroleum Company, Kuwait, Kuwait

Mutlaq M. AL-Enezi , Zip Code: 13001, Kuwait National Petroleum Company, Kuwait, Kuwait

Anil K. Ray , Zip Code: 13001, Kuwait National Petroleum Company, Kuwait, Kuwait

Sunil V. Vipat , Zip Code: 13001, Kuwait National Petroleum Company, Kuwait, Kuwait

OCR Reactors in Atmospheric Desulphurization Unit (ARDS) of Mina Abdulla Refinery are provided with 4” dia X sch. 160 Tp321 S.S piping for draining of reactor material during shutdowns to low pressure section. A total of 3 on-stream failures occurred on the weld/parent metal and caused unit shutdowns/SHE hazards. Failures occurred in the form of extensive multi branched cracking in the parent metal / welds / HAZ. Failure was itiated by the presence of high level of chlorides and due to poor weld quality and mismatch of thickness between 90^o elbow/ pipe. The high pressure in the pipe , presence of high levels of chlorides in the stagnant section of pipe and low temperatures in the stagnant section of the pipe has aggravated the situation, which resulted in typical catastrophic Chloride Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC) failure.

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09579 Failure of Austenitic Stainless Steel Drain Piping of OCR Reactor in Atmospheric Desulphurization Unit (ARDS) of Mina Abdulla Refinery, Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC)