Pressure Relief Pipework Analysis and Design

Pressure Relief Pipework Analysis and Design The Problem DC White Engineering Consultants Ltd were commissioned to design and assess pressure relief pipework. This was to be installed to an existing pressure vessel weighing several hundred tonnes containing process chemicals. The piping arrangement was assessed against the ASME B31.3 Process Piping code using CAESAR II software. Internal pressure, thermal loading (expansion) and dynamic vibration were included within the assessed load cases and the analysis process included flange leakage check calculations as per the requirements of ASME VIII Div 1. The Solution Support and restraint adaptation and design is exceptionally important when incorporating new pipework into existing plant, as changes to pipe routing can result in delays due to process calculations that may need to be updated and re-performed. The differing approaches required to iteratively resolve thermally induced stresses coupled with dynamic vibration can be complicated and time consuming. This is due to the fine balance which must be achieved between flexibility of the pipework (to reduce stresses resulting from thermal expansion) and the correct level of support and restraint (to ensure adequate fatigue life). Conclusion The integrated experience of DC White engineering team allowed for a solution to be derived which achieved the fine balance between pipework flexibility and adequate fatigue service life without the need to re-route the pipework, passing on this valuable cost saving to the client. Please feel free to contact us if you think we could help you.

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