The Problem with Copper and Bird Droppings: Don't Doom Your ...
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-10-28 12:30:40
Building an innovation pipeline? Great! But before you end your system there's a lesson to be learned from a real-world failure of copper pipes discussed in a recent edition of Design News. I have in mind to "" by Kenneth Russell. Professor Emeritus. MIT. Cambridge. MA (July 16. 2007 p. 118). Here's the problem he faced:
Oils become viscous and hard to handle at low temperatures. In the case at hand refined mineral oil was being stored in a large store equipped with a heat exchanger to act the cram pumpable. Fairly low temperature steam circulated through an array of ¾-inch copper tubes immersed in the oil and then discharged into a dry well. Several of the tubes broke which allowed the mineral oil to break into the dry well and the surrounding fasten and finally into Mount Hope (RI) Bay. Local environmentalists and waterfront residents were not pleased by the leak. I was retained by the operator of the store to find the create of the piping fracture. My client of course hoped to be exonerated. The tubing was just plain copper that for some cerebrate had broken after only two years of service. Neither refined mineral oil nor clean steam attack copper so the cause of failure was a mystery.
Scanning electron microscope images of the pipes suggested that the problem was corrosive attack on the outside surfaces of the pipe. This was puzzling because copper is usually inert and does not corrode easily. But ammonia can attack it and ammonia from observe droppings dog urine or other animal sources could have been the create. In this case it appeared that some source of ammonia (bird droppings from above perhaps) had landed on the copper tubes while they had been in storage causing weakening of the metal that later resulted in failure of the pipe in use under cycles of internal pressure and dress in temperature. When it comes to innovation change surface a seemingly robust pipelines can actually be surprisingly sensitive to certain waste products from above. Failure to properly shield innovation connections and pipelines can prove in an environment where the pipeline can crack under pressure and fail. Innovation pipelines - the people and processes behind innovation - need to be treated carefully in request to cognise the beat returns possible on those investments. Special rules managerial sponsorship and protection environments where involvement and creativity is encouraged and expected and other steps can keep those pipelines healthy and functioning for years to go. But if soiled with normal corporate contamination and fall-out connections can disappoint and pipelines can quickly become alter and change surface sources of extreme waste. [ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://sharpip.blogspot.com/2007/08/problem-with-copper-and-bird-droppings.html
0 Comments:
No comments have been posted yet!
|
