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Carbon Steel Piping To Be Used at Lower Temperature
Carbon Steel Piping To Be Used at Lower Temperature
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Calculations help determine carbon steel piping in cold temperature relief service
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here to Gas processing facilities may have flare or vent systems that occasionally handle cold relief
enlarge flows for short periods of time. Although nonimpact-tested carbon steel piping is not
image typically used for cold service applications, its use in the main flare headers of facilities with
intermittent occasional cold relief flows was evaluated.
Stress analysis of the flare header can be used to determine if nonimpact-tested carbon steel
is a suitable material of construction. This article discusses the calculations required to
evaluate the use of nonimpact-tested carbon steel piping in cold intermittent services per the
ANSI B31.3 guidelines, prior to the 2000 B31.3 addendum. The 2000 addendum includes
additional calculations (not discussed in detail in this article) that are less restrictive in the
application of nonimpact-tested carbon steel for intermittent cold services.
This article also discusses simple steady state and nonsteady state heat transfer calculations
that can be used to estimate the impact of intermittent cold relief flows on flare header
piping. These calculations can be part of a risk analysis process to assess the suitability of
nonimpact-tested carbon steel for a given application.
Design conditions
During a hazard analysis review mandated to meet process safety management (PSM)
requirements, the authors checked to see if the design pressures and temperatures of
equipment and piping were adequate for the conditions to which they could be exposed.
Vent and flare header systems were part of this evaluation.
Different locations were found to have different materials of construction. Some systems
were constructed entirely of nonimpact-tested carbon steel (typically referred to as mild
carbon steel such as types ASTM A53 Grade B, ASTM A106 Grade B, ASTM A234 Grade
WPB for formed fittings and ASTM A105 for forged fittings). Other systems were
constructed of impact-tested carbon steel (typically referred to as low-temperature carbon
steel such as ASTM A333 Grades 1 or 6, ASTM A420 Grade WPL6 or WPL6WX for
formed fittings, and ASTM A350 Grade LF2 for forged fittings).
Still others were constructed of a mixture of nonimpact-tested carbon steel, impact-tested
carbon steel, and types 304 or 316 stainless steel. For example at one location, some of the
relief valves and outlet piping to the main header were stainless steel, but the main header
was nonimpact-tested carbon steel except for the elbows which were impact-tested carbon
steel.
Some differences were obviously due to different design conditions. The age of the plant,
however, and whether the plant was designed and built by the operator-user company or another company had an impact on the materials of construction.
Material toughness requirements were based on materials of construction, wall thickness, and design temperatures. Charpy V notch impact tests were typically used for
toughness testing.
Additional review
In a typical gas processing facility, temperatures below -20 F. are common. Even warmer streams such as natural gas liquids (NGL) products or the higher-pressure gas
streams have the potential to go below -20 F. during pressure letdown due to Joule Thomson cooling. Relief or vent systems often have the potential for handling streams
with temperatures lower than -20 F.
Additional review and study were done on the relief and vent streams where process simulations showed that there was a potential to have temperatures lower than -20 F.
Operating nonimpact-tested carbon steel piping at temperatures below -20 F. could lead to a cold brittle fracture failure of the piping.
Obviously, it is an important area to design correctly. However, replacing the piping in an existing vent or flare header system typically would involve significant costs and
downtime. It is not something that we wish to do unless it is absolutely necessary.
Further study
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The first criterion for further study was that the calculated temperature of the fluid going into the relief or vent header be less than -20 F. Process simulations were used to
calculate the expected temperature.
We used the HYSIS or HYSIM process simulation programs for most of the calculations. Some situations, such as the relief valve flow from a fire around an ethane -propanebutane natural gasoline mixture (EPBC) storage vessel, did not have cold temperatures even though most instances of throttling this fluid would cause cold temperatures. This
is because the conditions that cause the relief valve to open also cause higher venting temperatures.
Guidelines for determining the situations to consider in relief valve discharges were based on API RP 521.2 All process temperatures below -20 F. were flagged for further
evaluation.
The second criterion for further study was that the system have components of nonimpact-tested carbon steel. In some instances, the type of steel used in the nonimpact-tested
piping was similar to the type of steel used in the impact-tested piping.
We briefly checked to see if in this instance we could upgrade rating of the steel through testing to meet the impact-test requirements. We found that it was perhaps
technically possible, but not practical nor feasible, for our applications.
To do an impact test requires a destructive test of the components in question.3 To do this for existing piping would have required cutting out a section from each pipe and
fitting. If the testing and documentation of the material are not done during construction, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to recreate this documentation several years
later.
criteria
Although the minimum design temperature for nonimpact-tested carbon steel piping with a wall thickness less than 0.5 in. is -20 F., B31.3 allows for "occasional variations
of pressure and/or temperature which shall be considered in selecting design pressure and design temperature."
Intermittent temperatures as low as -50 F. (-46 C.) are allowable if certain conditions are met.4 At the time that these conditions were reviewed, the criteria in B31.3 for
occasional variations of temperature below -20 F. (-29 C.) with nonimpact-tested carbon steel included the following:
l
l
l
An addendum to B31.3 issued in 2000 modified the requirements under which intermittent cold flows are allowable in nonimpact tested carbon steel.6 The requirements now
are more liberalized and are similar to the fracture mechanics guidelines found in the pressure vessel code ASME Section VIII.6
ossible remediation
In one location with excessive stress due to the thermal contraction of the piping, the installation of an expansion joint could be used to reduce the stress to an acceptable
level.
The capital and installation costs for installing an expansion joint were reasonable (less than $25,000). The main drawbacks of this option were the down time, purging, and
isolation required to do the installation work.
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12 fps (3.6 m/s) and the wind velocity outside the piping is 12 mph (17 km/hr), the calculated heat transfer coefficients are equal inside and outside the piping.
The calculated steady state pipe temperature is the average of the cold fluid temperature and the outside ambient temperature. If the cold fluid temperature is -34 F. (-37 C.)
and the cold ambient design temperature is -2 F. (-19 C.), the calculated pipe temperature is -18 F. (-28 C.).
At an ambient temperature of 60 F. (16 C.), the calculated pipe temperature is 13 F. (-11 C.). For an ambient temperature from -2 F. to 60 F. with a wind velocity less
than 2 mph (3 km/hr), the calculated pipe temperature is -32 to -33 F. (-36 C.), very close to the inside fluid temperature.
This type of calculation could be used to suggest the following generalities for the relief:
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l
l
A loss of reflux relief with any ambient temperature and a wind velocity under 2 mph could result in a piping temperature below -20 F.
A loss of reflux relief with an ambient temperature above -5 F. (-12 C.) and a wind velocity of 12 mph or greater would not have a calculated piping temperature
below -20 F.
A loss of reflux relief with an ambient temperature above 10 F. (-20 C.) and a wind velocity of 3 mph or greater would not have a calculated piping temperature below
-20 F.
of the system. It can also be approximated by an integration of the system heat balance.10
Equation 4 represents the overall heat balance of the piping system with a cold relief or vent flow. Equation 5 is obtained when it is integrated.
Obviously, piping close to the relief source will more quickly reach steady state than piping further away. The unsteady state heat transfer analysis may have application to a
system that has different materials of construction in different parts of the relief system. For example, it took one section of nonimpact-tested pipe that we analyzed nearly 3 hr
to reach -20 F. under the most conservative conditions possible.
The relief could continue for more than 45 min only if the operator did not take any action within a 20-min period and the automatic shutdown devices failed to operate
properly.
The expected frequency of the relief was less than once per year.
The ambient conditions that could allow the piping temperature to reach a steady state temperature of below -20 F. occur less than 5% of the time.
To reach -20 F., the plant operator would have to take no corrective action for over 2 hr, and the plant shutdown instrumentation would have to fail to operate.
The piping material was not impact tested but may have been able to meet toughness requirements had impact tests been performed.
Ac nowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Vance Green of Conoco Inc. in reviewing and interpreting B31.3, James Sharpe of Merrick Engineering for taking a lead
role in the piping stress analysis work, and Mike Morgan of Conoco Inc. for his review and comments on the original paper.
eferences
1. ASME B31.3-1999, Process Piping, ASME Code for Pressure Piping, B31, An American National Standard, Table A-1 and Figure 323.2.2.
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2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
API Recommended Practices 521, Guide for Pressure-Relieving and Depressuring Systems, Section 3, Fourth Edition, March 1997.
ASME B31.3-1999, Process Piping, ASME Code for Pressure Piping, B31, An American National Standard, Section 323.3.
ASME B31.3-1999, Process Piping, ASME Code for Pressure Piping, B31, An American National Standard, Item (l) - Section 302.2.4.
ASME B31.3-1999, Process Piping, ASME Code for Pressure Piping, B31, An American National Standard, Table 323.2.2.
2000 Addendum to ASME B31.3-1999, Process Piping, ASME Code for Pressure Piping, B31, An American National Standard, Table 323.2.2 Notes and Figure
323.2.2B.
ASME Pressure Vessel Code, Section VIII, Division 1, Paragraph UCS 66.
Perry, R.H., Green, D.W., and Maloney, J.W., Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook, pp. 11 -18 - 11-19, Seventh Edition, McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1997.
Kern, D.Q., Process Heat Transfer, pp. 93 -97, McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1950.
Kern, D.Q., Process Heat Transfer, pp. 626 -35, McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1950.
The author
Click Michael il es is operations engineering supervisor at Conoco Inc.'s San Juan plant at Bloomfield, NM. He has been with Conoco for 23 years in
here to various process and project engineering assignments. Wilkes has a BS degree in chemical engineering from Brigham Young University and an MBA
enlarge from Phillips University.
image
Presented at the 80th annual Gas Processors Convention, Mar. 12-14, 2001, San Antonio.
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processing calculations help determine carbon steel piping in cold temperature relief
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