Heat exchanger life extension via in-situ reconditioning

Title: Heat exchanger life extension via in-situ reconditioning

A method of in-situ reconditioning a heat exchanger includes the steps of: providing an in-service heat exchanger comprising a precipitate-strengthened alloy wherein at least one mechanical property of the heat exchanger is degraded by coarsening of the precipitate, the in-service heat exchanger containing a molten salt working heat exchange fluid; deactivating the heat exchanger from service in-situ; in a solution-annealing step, in-situ heating the heat exchanger and molten salt working heat exchange fluid contained therein to a temperature and for a time period sufficient to dissolve the coarsened precipitate; in a quenching step, flowing the molten salt working heat-exchange fluid through the heat exchanger in-situ to cool the alloy and retain a supersaturated solid solution while preventing formation of large precipitates; and in an aging step, further varying the temperature of the flowing molten salt working heat-exchange fluid to re-precipitate the dissolved precipitate.

Inventors:: Holcomb, David E.; Muralidharan, Govindarajan

Issue Date:: 2016-06-28

OSTI Identifier:: 1259496

Assignee:: UT-Battelle, LLC (Oak Ridge, TN) ORNL

Patent Number(s):: 9,377,245

Application Number:: 13/833,357

Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725

Resource Relation:: Patent File Date: 2013 Mar 15

Research Org:: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Org:: USDOE

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION; 32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE

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