Materials Selection, Stress Analysis and

CFD Modelling of Flare Tips

Sobhan Abolghasemi

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

February 2012

Department of Materials
Royal School of Mines
Imperial College London

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...dedicated to my loving parents.

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Preface

This thesis is the conclusion of research conducted in the Department of

Materials, Imperial College London, during the period October 2008 to
December 2011, under the supervision of Professors Jim Williamson,
Peter D. Lee and Trevor C. Lindley. The work presented in this dissertation,
except where otherwise acknowledged, is entirely my own original work, no
part of which has been accepted or is being currently submitted for any degree
or qualification, at this university, or elsewhere.

Sobhan Abolghasemi
February 2012

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Abstract

Oil and gas platforms, refineries and chemical plants need to burn off the excess gas resulting
from pressure variations during production. The failure of flare tips, sometimes with short
lifetimes, has been a major cause for concern in the oil and gas industry for many years. The aim
of this study was to evaluate and improve the performance of flare tips. The study has been
approached from two perspectives: (i) material requirements, identifying the most suitable alloys
for use in flare tips, and (ii) design optimisation, aimed at the development of a flare tip that
minimises interaction with flame, therefore giving lower operating temperatures and longer
lifetimes. The thesis also includes an Infra-Red (IR) thermal imaging study to establish flare tip
temperature profiles during flaring.

Examination of failed flare tips has provided evidence of intergranular oxidation and stress
corrosion cracking as possible failure mechanisms. A study of the effect of thermal shock on the
oxidation resistance of alloys 800H and 625, currently used in flare tips, is presented. The
embrittlement of alloy 625 in the range 650 °C to 800 °C has also been investigated.

Thermal imaging of three flares in operation has indicated metal temperatures of up to 1000 °C,
above levels that can be sustained by alloys currently in use. A Finite Element model of stress
distributions based on the temperature profiles has been developed. It was concluded that flare
tip lifetimes would be limited by a combination of creep and fatigue of the support brackets, and
by plastic deformation at the top of the windshield. The model successfully predicted the failure
of two flare tips and lead to a timely replacement, resulting in significant financial savings and the
prevention of catastrophic failure.

Commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics software, that solves the Navier-Stokes equation
combined with a combustion model, has been used to assess the effect of gas flow rates and
wind conditions on combustion behaviour and the resulting operating temperatures of flare tips.
The model has been validated with data obtained from thermal imaging studies and shows
reasonable agreement, especially at low gas flow rates. As a result, a procedure has been
developed to calculate flare tip temperature profiles (via CFD) and mechanical integrity (via FE
stress analysis) of flare tips, and thus assess suitability of any flare tip design prior to manufacture
and installation.

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Acknowledgements

First and foremost, I would like to sincerely thank EPSRC for the award of grants
EP/F001452/1 and GR/T26344/01, and a DTA award, and Shell UK for providing additional
financial support that has facilitated this project.

I would like to express my utmost gratitude to my supervisors, Professors Jim Williamson,

Peter D. Lee and Trevor C. Lindley, for their expert advice, caring support, and inspiration
throughout the entire duration of my PhD. The immeasurable encouragement and guidance
offered by them has been the sole driving force that has brought my studies to fruition.

Invaluable technical advice, encouragement and overwhelming support from Drs Okite
Obakponovwe and Steve Paterson, especially with regard to arranging thermal imaging trials, and
the practicalities of getting things done in a multinational conglomerate, is gratefully
acknowledged. Inestimable thanks are also expressed to Dr. Mark Ward, for his expert advice,
and assistance in acquiring and analysing optical and IR images of flare tips. I would also like to
express gratitude towards Max Klein, Anton Bakker, Adrie Phaff and the wonderful folk at
NAM for being excellent hosts during my experiments in the Netherlands.

My fellow PhD students and notably, the members of the Materials Processing Group have been
a pleasure to work with and deserve an honourable mention. I would especially like to thank Dr
Pavel Ramirez Lopez for so gracefully introducing me to the world of FEM and CFD, and
sharing his knowledge with me. The invaluable friendship and advice offered by Drs Lang Yuan
and Farid Tariq, and Richard Hamilton has been a constant source of inspiration. I would also
like to thank all my fellow students in the Materials Department and RSM 1.01, especially
Devashish, Randhir, Stefano, Zohaib, Chedtha, Flora, Kristina, David, Taek Bo, Sophia, Cathy,
Alireza, Jinesung, Sergey, Laurie, Alice, Ning and Gladys, for being wonderful friends and
helping create memories that I will forever cherish.

Finally, I would like to thank my beloved wife, Zahra, and my dearly loved parents, Mahmood
and Masoumeh, for being an everlasting source of love and happiness in my life. I should also
mention my loving sisters Fatemeh and Reyhaneh, and brothers Amin and Mostafa, and parents
in law Mohammad and Nahid, all of whom have a warm place in my heart. My life would be
meaningless without them.