Citation: Yeh, C.-L. Reinforcement
Design of the Support Frame of a
Petrochemical Heater. Appl. Sci. 2022,
12, 5107. https://doi.org/10.3390/
app12105107
Academic Editors: Alberto
Campagnolo and Alberto Sapora
Received: 18 April 2022
Accepted: 16 May 2022
Published: 19 May 2022
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Article
Reinforcement Design of the Support Frame of a
Petrochemical Heater
Chun-Lang Yeh
Department of Aeronautical Engineering, National Formosa University, Huwei, Yunlin 632, Taiwan;
clyeh@nfu.edu.tw; Tel.: +886-5631-5527
Abstract:
In this paper, we investigated the operating security of the support frame of a petrochemical
heater under the action of a strong wind. When the fatigue limit was exceeded, the support frame was
damaged. We monitored the heater before reinforcement and then applied the finite element method
to analyze and compare nine different kinds of reinforcement methods for the support frame. From
the results of the finite element analysis, fatigue failure of the support frame before reinforcement
occurred at locations where the computed stresses from the finite element analysis were large, thus
partially justifying the adequacies of the present analysis methods and results. Among the nine
reinforcement methods, we suggest case 9 to reinforce a support frame so that its operating security
under the action of a strong wind can be improved. At the end of this paper, several future studies are
suggested, including verification of the reinforcement for the support frame and the establishment of
the system for automatic stress monitoring and analysis.
Keywords: heater; support frame; vibration; stress analysis
1. Introduction
The petrochemical facilities comprise a storage tank, reactor, heater, tower, separator,
pipeline, rotating machinery, etc., among which the heater is the major source of energy and
steam. A heater is a kind of heavy energy consumption equipment whose performance and
operating security are closely connected with the profits, capacities, and product qualities
of the petrochemical industry. Owing to the demand of environmental protection and
greenhouse gas reduction, the improvement and maintenance of heaters as well as the
reduction and prevention of pollutions are undoubtedly tasks that have high return on
investment (ROI) and instant results.
A typical petrochemical heater comprises a convection section, radiation section,
waste heat recovery system, burners, support frames, and the ventilation system. Huang,
et al. [
1
], investigated the dynamic response of a stack to an earthquake at a nearby site.
They summarized the results of a response spectrum analysis of two stacks, including the
Tupras stack and a generic U. S. stack. They also used a demand-collapse comparison to
present a nonlinear static analysis of the collapsed stack. The results confirmed that the
stack could readily fail under the considered earthquake and were also consistent with the
debris pattern. Mojtaba Haratian, et al. [
2
], developed a mathematical model associated
with genetic algorithms. The model took the operational and geometric constraints into
account. It was used to design the convection section, radiant chamber, stack section, and
other subsections of a heater, with the aim to optimize the total annual cost. The authors
declared that the proposed model could yield an economically/realistically optimal design
up to 2.48% cheaper than the original design. Guo, et al. [
3
], discussed the strengthening
measures and weak points of a natural gas heater in detail. The authors proposed two
effective optimizing arrangements of the heat exchange surfaces to enhance the heat
transfer: (a) thermally retarding and cooling the heated surface, and (b) setting baffles
among the heating surfaces. It was found that the energy consumption was reduced and
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12, 5107. https://doi.org/10.3390/app12105107 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci
