MGT Consulting Network Blog

The 2010 Edition of our copyrighted course, “Tubular Heat Exchanger, Inspection, Maintenance and Repair is now available for purchase on media. Viewers should be aware that the course notes are based on the book, “Tubular Exchanger Inspection, Maintenance and Repair”, by Carl F. Andreone, P.E., Fellow of the ASME and Stanley Yokell, P.E., Fellow of the ASME and published by McGraw-Hill in 1997. The book is currently available for purchase from major book stores.

The course notes for Shell and Tube Heat Exchangers-Mechanical Aspects have been updated. Viewers should be aware that these notes are based upon Stanley Yokell’s book, “A Working Guide to Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchangers”, McGraw-Hill 1990, now out of print and available only on the used book market.

We have available a CD with 50 annotated photographs of feedwater heater failures and autopsies. We will provide them as a bonus to purchasers of our Closed Feedwater Heater Suite. They are also available for separate purchase for a price of $100.

As of today, MGT Inc.’s copyrighted Closed Feedwater Heater Suite is updated. The current price is $590. We will provide purchasers with a bonus DVD showing the installation of a feedwater heater bundle in the shell during manufacture.

The courses, “Closed Feedwater Heaters – Mechanical Aspects” and “Power Plant Auxiliary Heat Exchangers & Closed Feedwater Heaters” have been updated and are now available for purchase.

Each course consists of a set of course notes, suitable for printing in PDF format, a Power Point presentation for viewing in connection with the course notes and a bonus DVD showing a video of the installation of a feedwater heater bundle in the shell.

MGT’s course, “Closed Feedwater Heaters-Mechanical Aspects” has been updated to August 2010. MGT’s courses, “Power Plant Auxiliary Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchangers
and Closed Feedwater Heaters” and “Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchangers, Mechanical Aspets” are in process of updating. The update of our course, “Tubular Exchanger Inspection, Maintenance and Repair” will follow.

For the closed feedwater heater and the Power Plant Auxiliary Shell-and-Tube Heat Excangers & Closed Feedwater Heaters, we are currently including a bonus DVD that illustrates the insertion of a feedwater heater bundle in the shell.

On Wednesday, July 14,2010, Stanley Yokell presented his paper on “Testing Feedwater Heaters and Auxiliary Power Plant Heat Exchangers” at the 2010 PowerGen Conference in Chicago.

John Tsou will present Stanley Yokell’s paper, “Testing Feedwater Heaters” at the EPRI Feedwater Heater Technology Conference July 28-29, 2010 at the Marriot Suites Dallas Market Center in Dallas, Texas.

The conference organizer will present Stanley Yokell’s paper, “Nondestructive Testing Feedwater Heaters” at the 11th EPRI Balance-of-Plant Heat Exchanger Nondestructive Evaluation Symposium to be held in the Skamania Lodge, Stevenson, Washington, August 9th through 11th.

Stanley Yokell’s paper, “Pressure Testing Feedwater Heaters and Power Plant Auxiliary Heat Exchangers” has been accepted for presentation at the July, 2010 PowerGen Conference in Chicago. It has also been submitted for publication in the Journal of Pressure Technology.

Stanley Yokell’s paper “Nondestructive Testing Feedwater Heater Tube-to-Tubesheet Joints” has been accepted for presentation at EPRIs 11th BOP conference to be held at the Skamania Lodge in Stevenson, Washington.

Stanley Yokell’s paper on hydrostatic testing feedwater heaters and auxiliary heat exchangers Paper No. 2010 – 27106 has been accepted for presentation at the July PowerGen conference in Chicago. The paper demonstrates that pressure gage divisions of typical gages used in hydrostatic testing are too coarse to disclose minute leaks such as weeping from the channel through the tube-to-tubesheet joints during the half-hour TEMA-required hydrostatic test time hold time.

The paper uses as an example testing a U-tube, closed feedwater heater at 4600 psi and a leak volume of 10 drops of water over the half-hour hold time. It shows that the change in pressure resulting from such a leak would be so small that it would not register on the test gage that would typically have 50 Psi graduations.

In most feedwater heater designs and in some auxiliary tubular equipment, the back side of the tubesheet cannot be visually inspected. Because the hydrostatic testing does not disclose minute leaks such as weeping, defined as 10 drops over the half-hour test hold time, Purchasers are advised to require Manufacturers to perform leak tests described in the ASME Code’s section V. As a bare minimum Purchaser’s should require the Manufacturer to perform a Gas-Bubble test. However, it is more preferable to perform both the Gas-Bubble test and a Helium sniffer leak test (mass spectrometer leak test).

Chemical Engineering Magazine’s April 2101 Feature Report is Stanley Yokell’s article, “Full Length Sleeving for Process Heat Exchanger tubes.”