10/27/2019 (4) Stress Analysis of 48” Flare Line (Project Experience) | LinkedIn

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Stress Analysis of 48” Flare Line

(Project Experience)
Published on December 2, 2018

Mohammed Jibran 4 articles Follow

Piping Engineer at Worley

Background:

Our client had observed that their support / civil foundations were severely damaged for
their existing 48” flare line pipe supports. The line was running from Knock out drum till the
ground flare. The objective of this project was to execute a detailed stress & flexibility
analysis and provide suitable recommendations.

Personal engineering activities:

This was a typical stress analysis job where my responsibilities were to perform stress
analysis by Caesar II software for as-built conditions, optimize supports based on results and
provide adequate recommendations.

The ground flare involved 10 stages of piping branching out of the 48-inch line. These
stages activated in sequence, as the pressure of the system augmented.

A few observations I made during site visit of the entire system are as follows:

1. A very long portion of straight run (about 30mtrs) was simply rested without any guides
or stops. This run had supports displaced in lateral and axial direction which shows the need
for guide and stop supports.

2. A portion of piping had two limit stops. Which I consider as terrible design.

3. Piping loads on the system were not properly balanced due to improper support design.

4. The 10 stages of piping entering the ground flare were buried by gravel.

5. Site as-built condition was not matching with the existing stress report.

Modeling of the system was to be done based on operating philosophy i.e. each stage being
activated based on increase in pressure to a certain value as defined by the operating
philosophy. In addition, the portion of the piping inside the flare had to be considered
underground as it is covered by gravel.
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After analyzing the system, it was evident that the loads on certain supports were extremely
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high causing the civil foundation to break. However, this was not my concern anymore when
I observed that the system was terribly failing in expansion stresses by about 400% at the
point at which the stages were branching out of the 48” flare line. The only way to overcome
this failure was to provide expansion loops for the stages as optimization of supports was of
no significant help. Providing horizontal loops in this case was not possible due to space
constraints and vertical loops due to steam pockets formation.

There was barely any way out, that is when I realized that the plant has been running for 12
years and with 400% failure, there was no way that the system wouldn’t show any sign of
failure yet.

After digging deep, I figured out that this failure is caused by portion of piping which is
considered underground. Caesar II considers the underground portion to be a virtual anchor
thus restricting the displacement and observing expansion stresses. Therefore, I then
corrected the soil density to a very minimum value.

Things got easy from here. No expansion stress failure!

Recommendations provided:

1. Optimization of supports to reduce loads on existing supports.

2. Removal of one line stop from the portion where two line-stops were provided.

3. Passing the revised loads to civil for revamping of the existing damaged civil
foundations.

Conclusion:

This was a typical stress analysis job however every job has some learning to take from and
one of the major attribute I took back from this project was critical thinking process.

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Mohammed Jibran 4 articles Follow
Piping Engineer at Worley
Published • 11mo

#stressanalysis #pipingengineering

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A Hasan
Operation and maintenance manager.

Carry out a CFD/thermal stress analysis. A comprehensive investigation, taking ALL parameters into 10mo
consideration.
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Pankaj Kumar • 2nd

Technical Advisor Piping Stress at Woodgroup PSN, UK

48” branch must be checked as per B31J and suitable SIF’s shall be applied before concluding about 10mo
expansion stresses exceeding. D/T in this case may not be suitable to analyse in Caesar due to ovality.
It shall be checked. Support foundation failures indicate poor civil design.
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Mohammed Jibran
Piping Engineer at Worley

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