Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Stress Training
Stress related technical and execution problems in the design of process
plant piping are complex and must be addressed properly.
There will be some Piping Designers, Stress Engineers and others who read
this and say that they agree.
There are five basic factors that influence piping and therefore piping stress
in the process plant.
Stress problems become all the more complex because two or more of these
will exist at the same time in the same piping system.
The main objective of the focus when dealing with problems related to piping
systems is not normally the pipe itself.
In a very high percentage of the time it is not the pipe that is the weakest
link.
Note this: the pipe is normally stronger and/or less vulnerable to damage
than what the pipe is connected to.
Pumps are just one examples of equipment to which pipes are routinely
connected.
Equipment failures can lead to the potential for fire, plant shutdown and loss
of revenue.
At this point it should be emphasized that the success (or failure) of the
plant's operation, years down the road can and will depend on what is done
up front by all the members of the design team during the design stage.
On the other hand, proper analysis will identify bad design and potential
problems in a piping system design.
Each extreme on the temperature scale and everything in between brings its
own problems.
There will also be times when both high and low temperatures can occur in
the same piping system.
No matter what the designer or the stress engineer does they cannot
prevent the action caused by heat or cold.
As we all know if a bare pipe was just lying on the ground in the middle of a
dry barren desert it will absorb a lot of heat from just solar radiation.
In the hot sun piece of pipe can reached 150 o F (65.5 C).
The pipe will expand and with both ends loose it would not be a problem.
However, when you connect the pipe to something, even if only one end is
connected you may begin to have expansion related problems.
Flexible routing is the first and by far the cheapest and safest method for
handling expansion in piping systems.
The other way is the use of higher cost and less reliable flexible elements
such as expansion joints.
Two piping configurations with the same pipe size, shape, dimensions,
temperature and material but with different wall schedules (sch. 40 vs. sch.
160) will not generate the same stress.
This may cause the failure of a pipe support system or it may cause the
damage or failure of a piece of equipment.
Force, and the expansion that causes it, is best handled by a more flexible
routing of the piping.
Some people suggest that force can be reduced by the use of expansion
joints.
However we must remember that for an expansion joint to work there must
be an opposite and equal force at both ends to make the element work.
Pressure in piping systems also range from the very high to the very low.
Piping systems with pressure as high as 35,000 psi in some plants are not
unusual.
On the other hand piping systems with pressures approaching full vacuum
are also not unusual.
The pressure (or lack of) in a piping system effects the wall thickness of the
pipe.
When you increase the wall thickness of the pipe you do two things.
With low or vacuum systems there are also other ways to prevent the
collapse of the pipe wall.
These include the weight of the pipe, the fittings, the valves, any
attachments, and the insulation.
There is also the test media (e. g. hydrotest water) or the process
commodity whichever has the greater specific gravity.
However there are times when the piping (weight) is supported from a
vessel or other type of equipment.
Vibrations will also occur in piping systems and come in two types.
There is the basic mechanical vibration caused by the machines that the
piping is connected to.
Then, there is acoustic (or harmonic) vibration caused by the characteristics
of the system itself.
Typically the only place severe vibrations will be found is in piping connected
to equipment such as positive displacement reciprocating pumps or high
pressure multi-stage reciprocating compressors and where there is very high
velocity gas flows.
All of the issues listed above that a piping system is exposed to need to be
covered in a company specific or company sponsored piping designer,
stress-related training program.
By definition, the role of the piping designer is to design the plant piping
systems.
Design all of the system means that the piping designer shall define the
proper routing of each and every pipeline required for the project.
This includes each and every inline component (pipe, valves, fittings,
flanges, instruments, etc.), every online component (anchors, guides,
hangers, etc.).
To do this and do it properly the designer must know about piping stress
issues and know what to do about them.
The designer is responsible for a lot and so they need to know a lot.
Is there any risk involved to the company or the
project in not doing this stress related designer
training? Yes!
● First, a designer who is naïve about the cause and effect of stress
related problems would not be able to recognize the symptoms and
will burn a lot of budget hours and create bad designs.
● Second, bad designs are subject to the 'domino effect' when the
need for corrective action is finally identified and taken then other
lines get "pushed" and then modifications to them are required.
● Third, when the bad design does get to the stress engineer for
analysis there is the potential for repeated recycle and a serious
delay in the design issue schedule.
Piping design is more than just knowing how to turn on the computer, how
to find the piping menus and the difference between paper space and model
space.
So, appropriately, what else does the designer need to know about piping
design besides how to connect a piece of pipe to a fitting?