Ruptured Refinery Bellows – Failure Analysis

An engineer at a Texas Refinery was seriously burned when a thirty-nine inch expansion joint ruptured while workmen were performing temporary repairs. The ruptured bellows spilled hot catalyst from a fluidizer catalytic cracking unit on the deck – on which the engineer had to cross to reach safety.

We were asked to perform a failure analysis on the bellows. We determined that:

1. The stainless steel had not been heat-treated properly
2. The steel was sensitized during fabrication and made susceptible to corrosive attack

O’Donnell Consulting Engineers Performs Failure Analysis on Equipment including Bellows, Piping, Valves and Vessels.