Root Cause Analysis for a Burst Steam Pipe in a Petrochemical Plant

Steam pipe failure is a problem that may affect refinery production and personal safety. It has practical significance for engineers who need to find out how to prevent such failure. This paper reports on a pipe bursting accident in a steam network. An investigation to identify the root causes of the failed steam pipe was carried out by macro inspections, chemical composition analysis, metallographic microscopy, scanning electron microscope (SEM) images, and energy dispersive spectroscope (EDS) analysis. The results showed that the chemical composition and mechanical properties were within the related standards, a combination of the ratchet effect and material creep causing the pipe wall thinning was the major failure root, and spheroidization of pearlite in the material also contributed to the failure.