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Failure Analysis of Cooling Tower Fan-Arm

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Abstract

This work presents failure investigation of cooling tower fan-arms commissioned in a chemical processing plant. The analysis aims at understanding the mechanism and root-cause of the failure. The investigation involves site visits, microstructural analysis, fracture surface analysis, hardness measurements, numerical stress analysis and experimental simulation. Work concludes that the fan-arms failed due to the lack of post-weld heat treatment, which caused localized stress-corrosion and pitting at critical locations that served as crack initiation sites. Fatigue loading condition and presence of residual stresses at the weld enabled easy propagation of cracks that led to recurring premature failure. Based on the root-cause and the mechanism identified in this analysis, proper pre-heating and post-weld heat treatment is recommended to relieve the residual stresses at the critical locations and thus to avoid/minimize such recurring failures in future.

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Acknowledgment

Authors thank the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, NITK, and Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, for providing experimental facilities and financial support, respectively, for completing this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, 575025, India

    Basavaraj Padasale, J. K. Rakshan Kumar, Pavankumar R. Sondar, Sumanth Govindarajan & Subray R. Hegde

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  1. Basavaraj Padasale
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  2. J. K. Rakshan Kumar
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  3. Pavankumar R. Sondar
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  4. Sumanth Govindarajan
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  5. Subray R. Hegde
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Correspondence to Pavankumar R. Sondar.

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Padasale, B., Kumar, J.K.R., Sondar, P.R. et al. Failure Analysis of Cooling Tower Fan-Arm. J Fail. Anal. and Preven. 20, 1417–1425 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11668-020-00947-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11668-020-00947-1

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