The Structural Efficiency of Tube-plates for Heat Exchangers

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Abstract
Experimental investigations are described in which the stress and deflexion distributions in models of tube-plates for high-pressure feed-water heaters were determined. The plates were drilled on a triangular pitch and the loading conditions of heaters employing hair-pin tubes were simulated by equivalent concentrated loads and by means of the ‘Flexible-bag’ technique. Direct measurement of the deflexion and the linear strain on the surface of the plate were made under a wide range of conditions. Comparisons of deflexion and stress in a given test plate before and after drilling to a four-, two-, and one-pass drilling-pattern provided specific experimental values for the structural efficiency of each type of drilled plate. The dependence of this efficiency on the ratios of hole-size/pitch and pitch/thickness was also investigated. Methods proposed by other authors for estimating structural efficiency are reviewed in the light of experimental findings and an analytical method of treating one-pass tube-plates, based on Horvay's thick-plate theory, is proposed.

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