Materials of construction comparison

Materials of construction for pressure vessels are related to their mechanical strength but also to their corrosion resistance to media.

Corrosion could be defined as the combination of temperature, pressure and composition and concentration of the media in contact.

You can see hereunder the relative position of each common material for chemical processes industries.

This graph does not take in account the thermal conductivity of material which will affect the choice especially for heat exchangers equipment. Glass lined metal has excellent corrosion resistance but faces low thermal conductivity, limitation in dimensions, high sensitivity to thermal and mechanical shock which need to be assessed as well.