different heat recovery loops

[ricols]

Our organization has an atmospheric psi heat recovery system and it has recently been changed to a pressure loop system. What dynamic changes have taken place within the system?
The system is 40 years old and consist of plastic pipe. Although the pressures are not much higher then before we are experiencing pipe fitting leakage.

 

[MikeHalloran]

Given the system's years of age, you can soon expect catastrophic failure of any plastic fittings.

Why did you disturb the system?





Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[ricols]

Thanks Mike for responding...We added a new fan unit with a recovery coil and piped it to the exsiting loop. However the new coil and pumps were desiged for a pressure system. The design team then came up with the idea to make the whole system a pressure loop. We at the Plant Ops department voiced our concerns about the idea but you know the rest...are there more things going on here then anyone realizes?

 

[ccfowler]

Pressurizing a 40 year old plastic piping system that was designed for no pressure? YIKES!!!! Small wonder that you are looking at problems. Old plastic pipe can be expected to be very brittle.

For what it may be worth, components intended for pressurized operation can often be operated at atmospheric pressure with little or no adaptation needed.

I wish you luck with this nightmare!!!

Valuable advice from a professor many years ago: First, design for graceful failure. Everything we build will eventually fail, so we must strive to avoid injuries or secondary damage when that failure occurs. Only then can practicality and economics be properly considered.