The talk will discuss the main corrosion mechanisms affecting the commonly used copper alloy and stainless steel heat exchanger tubes. The limits of use to achieve reliable operation will be discussed using a combination of laboratory data and service experience. The selection of tube sheet materials to avoid corrosion issues will also be covered. Some case histories will show serious corrosion failures due to ignoring these limits, and some successful applications. In addition, it will be shown how utilising all an alloys properties in a heat exchanger design, it is possible to produce significant cost saving.
Dr Roger Francis CEng, FNACE, PhD, MSc, BSc, MIMMM
Dr Francis has been a corrosion engineer for over 45 years. He has wide experience in the fields of marine corrosion, desalination, sour oil and gas corrosion, mineral processing, and the chemical and process industries. Many of these industries involved investigating failures or recommending suitable materials for heat exchangers. He has published over 100 technical papers in all these areas, particularly on copper alloys and duplex stainless steels. He has written six books on various aspects of corrosion and has jointly edited
three others. The most recent was on corrosion in desalination plants. The author has served as chair of NACE Europe, two terms as the NACE European Area director and also as chair of NACE STG 32 (Oil and Gas; metals). He was made a NACE Fellow in 2005 for his work in marine corrosion. In 2014 he received the T J Hull Award for his work in publications. In 2012 he set up his own corrosion consultancy business, RFMaterials.
