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- Corrosion (2)
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The Stolt Rotterdam tanker ship, filled with nitric acid, was unloading at the Krefeld-Uerdingen terminal on the Rhine River in November 2001. Nitric acid ran out of the stainless steel tanks into the ship's hull and damaged the structural steel. The ship then caught fire and sank at the terminal. Large quantities of nitrogen oxides were emitted, which drifted towards a residential area. Additionally, a mixture of acid and water was introduced into the Rhine River. The area became hazardous to people and the natural environment; however, the imminent danger for the residents and the environment was reduced because of the protective measures against pollution and the good teamwork between local authorities, fire brigades and the Bayer AG company. The acid was drained off of the ship using a controlled discharge of the acid into the river. Through the use of this measure, the ship was salvaged, limiting the pollution to the area and removing the health hazards to the people and the environment. After the ship was salvaged, the river police, along with assistance from the BAM Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, impounded the ship and selected corroded parts for further examination. Some of these components have been examined in detail by the BAM. These material investigations contributed to the elucidation of the origin of the leak in the floor panel. The cause of damage was deemed to be a result of a construction flaw at the enamelled valve on the load and discharge pipes.
The results from the comparative corrosion testing using the original structural steel and 60% acid revealed that the valves began to leak at least 8 h prior to the incident at the terminal.
Damage analyses on two heat exchanger units showed that in both cases inappropriate flow conditions of media caused very different failure mechanisms that resulted in irreparable damage. The first incident was the breakdown of an unalloyed steel condenser, which operated in a coal-fired power plant. A considerably high number of tubes successively leaked. Metallography identified lines of segregation in the microstructure of the tube walls, thus, giving evidence that both uniform corrosion and erosion corrosion caused by low-pressure wet steam were the root cause. The second incident was the breakdown of a recuperator made from chromium–nickel steel due to mechanical damage to tubes and baffle. This unit operated as part of a pilot plant to regain heat from the drying process of sewage sludge. It turned out that soiled vapour caused clogging of the cross-sectional area and therefore accelerating the flow velocity of the vapour. This inappropriate operating condition caused the tubes to oscillate so severely that they even banged together. Abrasive wear especially at the intersection through the holes of the baffle damaged the tubes and the whole unit irreparably.
The Berlin Congress Hall was a gift of the United States of America to Germany for the Berlin World Exhibition in 1957. The elegantly double-curved roof was made from an advanced prestressed concrete construction. The construction followed the design by the American architect Hugh Stubbins with special structural modifications to comply with German construction rules. No early indications for failure initiation were detected before a sudden partial collapse. On May 21st, 1980, the Southern external roof overhang collapsed. In December 1980, Jörg Schlaich and his co-authors published a summarizing expert opinion about structural causes of failure. The present paper mainly introduces results of cause analysis made at the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), mandated by the Public Prosecutor at the Berlin District Court to specify the causes of the sudden failure. This paper refers to BAM-publications about analyses that were performed under this mandate and published – most of them in German language – within the first years after failure. The expert's opinions comprise structural considerations materials investigations, metallographic analyses and corrosion. Nowadays experts have learnt from the failure and built a slightly modified roof in the original shape at the 750th birthday of the city of Berlin and re-opened the former Berlin Congress Hall to the public on May 9th, 1987. The Hall is now serving as the House of the Cultures of the World, following the initial intention of the hall.