Removal of Tube Bundle from Utubes Heat Exchanger

I vote for drilling out the tubes, with drill diameter = tube o.d. You need only drill as far as the depth of the weld, and then the tube should break loose. If any burrs remain, the hole can be reamed to the original tube o.d.

A heat exchanger specialty shop can offer other hints, along with special tools such as tube cutters, groovers, expanders, reamers, etc. Some places rent such tools, in case you don't want to buy them for just one job.

If your shop is not set-up to make these kind of repairs and do not have experienced employees, I would farm the repair to a proper shop. More damage can be done by someone not familiar with repairing tube heat exchangers, where you wind up buying new. Not worth the risk for small amount of cost for a proper repair.

You might land up in a bigger mess severely affecting the tubesheet if the tubes are not removed properly. As rightly explained by Tornado the tubes are to be drilled and removed. Also if your tubesheet has expansion grooves, the removal of the tubes becomes very tedious and restoring the tubesheet is not that easy. You need to re-groove the tubesheet and in that process you might create new grooves/ non concentric grooves in addition to the existing grooves which are not visible, with extra material removal. Have you worked out the economics of replacing the tubes and replacing the whole bundle? Sometimes it becomes economical to replace the whole of the bundle in small exchangers having non-costly MOC.

If it is just one tube I wonder if you actually need to replace it.

I knwo that as a process engineer we put safety margins on our requirements for heat exchangers. The mechanical engineer then puts amargin on and the manufacturer adds his margin so the exchanger is often well oversized.

If there are several hundred tubes then losing one tube will be less than 1% of surface area - is that really going to cause a problem

If you can afford to los the tube all you need to do is plug the CORRECT tube holes in the tube sheet! Easier said than done I know but... its teh same principle if you are going to drill out.

I would tend t agree very much with you. I can't imagine anyone cutting a design so closely that the loss of one tube is of consequence to the system operation. It is much easier and possibly less damaging to simply plug both ends of the tube. With U tube exchangers sometimes just fishing out the tube if it is one of the shorter inside area tubes can be a nightmare and can be the cause of more damage during its removal.

Quite.

It is not unknown for failed <...Utube...> to be plugged, sometimes with proprietary plugs, sometimes with concrete , in order to sustain operations until a more permanent solution can be found.

GA

I am having difficulty in removing the tube bundle from heat exchanger. I have both end caps off but cannot pry the bundle out by the flange. I have managed to bend the flange a bit so now I really need to get it out to straighten it. I am afraid to push from the non-flange end for fear of damaging the tubes. Please help!

This plight indicates the value of getting the job done by a specialised workshop instead, and forms a recommendation for others.