Research On The Deformation Mechanism And Countermeasures Of Platforming Reactor Scallop

Catalytic reforming, produce gas harmonious components and aromatics and hydrogen as byproduct, is one of the important secondary operation processes of refinery. Scallops are key internal accessories of catalytic reforming reactors, which are important to distribute the reaction oil and gas uniformly and insulate the catalyst bed. Now, the scallops, applied industrially, are made of stainless steel at a thickness of 1.2 mm. Because of the high punched ratio and the big size in length, their strength and hardness is too low to work well, which often causes deformation and enormous loss. This problem of scallops are long-standing, and a lot of researchers have taken attention to this problem but maken little progress. The problem is going to be solved fundamentally in this article.First, structural mechanics analysis of the scallops was carried out via the ANSYS analysis software. Since there are too many holes in the scallop tubes, it is very difficult to constitute the finite element model directly, and a simplication must be made. Based on the orthogonal aeolotropic plates theory the scallop model was simplified, and the equivalent simplification parameters have been obtained through a series of experiments . Then the finite element simplified model about the scallop tubes was established to carry on the statics analysis and the flexure analysis. Meanwhile, the basic rules about the gas flow in the reactor were gained by simulating the internal flow field via the FLUENT software.Through these analysis above and based on the actual distortion condition, it is shown that, with the special cases, scallops will withstand external pressure, which is caused by both catalyst and gas in the reactor, and will not work. In the end, four kind of projects were put forward to solve this problem. By experiment and comparison, it is indicated that setting the stiffening ring on the original scallop tube can solve the problem fundamentally. Besides it is one of the most economical and reasonable solution.