Keynote - Les Jackowski, Chevron: Operational Issues Caused By Incorrect Heat Exchanger Design Choices

Failure of heat exchangers installed in industrial facilities may lead to serious accidents resulting in injuries, environmental spills, and significant financial losses. In this presentation we present various design choices that may work properly for most typical operations but fail when heat exchangers operate at unexpected operating conditions which were not considered at the design stage. Several industrial case studies are used to illustrate the key messages of each section and to highlight some of the limitations in the current methodologies, accepted practices, and industry standards in heat exchanger design. Moreover, it is shown that selecting designs that avoid operational issues do not necessarily result in the more expensive solutions.