Failure Analysis of 304 Stainless Steel Plate Oil Cooler in Thermal Power Plant

Abstract

The stainless steel plate oil cooler is widely used in thermal power plants because of its high cooling efficiency and less occupied space. However， the oil cooler is easy to leak because of its complicated working conditions. Taking the failure plate oil cooler of a thermal power plant as the research object， the failure reason and mechanism of the plate oil cooler were analyzed through macroscopic observation，chemical composition analysis， metallographic structure analysis， micro morphology analysis and corrosion production element analysis with consideration given to service condition and environment. Results showed that the failure leakage of the plate type oil cooler was mainly caused by oxygen corrosion，accompanied by chloride ion spot corrosion and stress effect，resulting in perforated leakage. In order to prevent the failure of the plate type oil cooler， it was suggested that the plate type oil cooler material with better corrosion resistance could be used.

Keywords

• plate oil cooler|failure analysis|oxygen corrosion|corrosion perforation|water quality