A tubular heat exchanger exemplifies many aspects of the challenge in designing a pressure vessel. High or very low operating pressures and temperatures, combined with sharp temperature gradients, and large differences in the stiffnesses of adjoining parts, are amongst the legion of conditions that behoove the attention of the heat exchanger designer. Pitfalls in mechanical design may lead to a variety of operational problems, such as tube-to-tubesheet joint failure, flanged joint leakage, weld cracks, tube buckling, and flow induced vibration. Internal failures, such as pass partition bowing...