Seawater Cooling System 1500mm Pipe Supply Line Leak Repair & Reinforcement
A nozzle snapped from a flange left a 50mm hole in a Saudi Arabia petrochemical plant’s seawater cooling system main pipe supply line, requiring an urgent repair due to the damage being caused by a subsequent discharge of water 5 metres vertically at a pressure of 3 bar.
Site Petrochemical plant
Location Saudi Arabia
Pipe Type 1500mm seawater cooling system pipe supply line
Pressure 3 bar
Repair Type Leak repair & pipeline reinforcement
Products Sylmasta AB Original Epoxy Putty, SylWrap HD Pipe Repair Bandage
Pipe Defect
The petrochemical plant were extracting seawater from the Red Sea and using it for the cooling of machinery and other industrial processes on site. The 1500mm pipe was the main supply line and therefore critical to the seawater cooling system.
When the nozzle snapped from a flange, it left a 50mm hole in the top of the pipe through which water was discharging 5 metres vertically at a pressure of 3 bar.
Losing so much water severely impacted on the efficiency of the system. As this seawater returned to the ground, it saturated the surface of the pipe immediately below the hole.
This was causing damage, discolouration, mould and a suspected weakening of the line. The plant therefore needed to make an urgent repair to the hole, to both protect the pipe and get the system operating at full capacity.
SylWrap Solution
The supply line was shut off whilst an engineering team carried out the repair of the hole. The application began by securing the hole made in the pipe by the snapped nozzle using a PTFE plug.
To create a watertight seal around the plug and fix it permanently in place, the nozzle was encompassed with Sylmasta AB Original Epoxy Putty. AB Original is smooth setting and bonds to all materials, including wet surfaces.
It has a two-hour work time, ensuring that the putty could be mixed, shaped and applied without the threat of premature curing because of the hot Saudi climate.
The PTFE plug and surrounding AB Original were then given further reinforcement by wrapping with seven layers of SYL412HD SylWrap HD Pipe Repair Bandage.
SylWrap HD is composite repair wrap with a water activated resin. It set rock hard in minutes, creating an impact resistant layer of protection for the plug.
Combining Sylmasta AB and SylWrap HD created a repair with resistance up to 30 bar, more than enough to handle the pressure which the seawater cooling system operated under.
When the line was put back into operation, the engineers noticed that the surface of the pipe was bubbling with air and water underneath the nozzle, confirming the earlier suspicions that the line had been weakened by discharging water.
They therefore decided to reinforce the entire area underneath the nozzle by wrapping the 1500mm diameter with four layers of SYL616HD SylWrap HD Bandage.
This created a protective sleeve around the weakened section of the line, strengthening it against potential future breaches and extending the lifespan of the pipe.
Outcome
Completing the repair and reinforcement of the line took less than two hours, after which the seawater cooling system was able to operate at full capacity again.
Follow Up
The repair saved the petrochemical plant from a costly and time-consuming fitting of a replacement section of pipe, both at the time and in the future, should breaches appear because of the weakening of the line caused by discharge.
Products Used
Sylmasta AB Original
Super-strength epoxy Putty effective on wet surfaces with two hour work time for use in hotter climates
SylWrap HD Bandage
Water-activated wrap sets rock hard to reinforce, protect and strengthen pipework
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