COMPUTER AIDED ENGINEERING OF PROCESS PLANTS USING PERSONAL

COMPUTERS
Part: I, " Piping Flexibility Analysis / Design"
By
Dhananjay Rawal
M.E., M.S. (U.S.A.), Senior Member ASME
Director
Systech Consultancy Services
21 & 22 Aasra Apartments, 2nd Floor, St.Anthony Street,
Santacruz (East), Mumbai - 400 055,India.
Phone: 91-22-2667-4506 Or 2667-4787
E-Mail To: dhrawalsystech@gmail.com
cc: dhrawalsystech@yahoo.com
Providing Engineering Services from July 1, 1980
_________________________________________________________________________

INTRODUCTION

Piping constitutes one of the major expenditure for Chemical and Process Plants. In my
estimate piping consumes:

- about 50% of the design engineering man hours

- about 35% of the material costs, and
- about 35% of the labour costs in the field.

The cost of computer aided engineering of piping system in very small when compared with
the total cost of piping and benefits realized by way of increased reliability of the plant.

Computer aided engineering of chemical and process plant piping when carried out by
engineers well versed in piping engineering will help to:

- reduce engineering costs and material costs

- optimize piping layouts
- improve plant reliability factor.

The concepts of piping expansion, flexibility, design requirements, methods and calculation
of combined stresses are briefly explained in this paper.
Piping Expansion

When a piping system expands under the influence of a change in temperature of the
contained fluid or surrounding atmosphere, each individual piping run increases in length.
If only one point of the line were held fixed, the individual lengths could expand outward
from this point with complete freedom and no expansion stresses would be set up. Actually,
piping systems are almost always fully restrained from moving at their two or more
terminals, by anchors or connected equipments; and often partially restrained at inter
mediate points by rollers, hangers, guides, stops or sway braces introduced to support the
line or control its movement. These restraints develop resistance to expansion and thereby
put the line under thermal expansion stress and cause it or connected strain sensitive
equipment to deform.

Flexibility

The flexibility of a piping system is a measure of its ability to absorb its own expansion, and
that of the connected equipment while satisfying the "Design Requirements".

Design Requirements
Design of piping systems subjected to thermal expansion in chemical and process
industries require that the piping system have sufficient flexibility so as to prevent thermal
expansion from causing:
- failure of piping or anchors from overstress / overstrain.
- Fatigue failure of piping material due to cyclical or repeated overstress
(thermal)
- Detrimental distortion of connected strain sensitive equipments (such as
pumps, turbines, heat exchangers, pressure vessels, boilers, heaters,
distillation towers etc.) due to excessive thermal expansion forces and
moments.
This makes it necessary that reliable piping flexibility analysis be carried out to assure that
the piping design allows sufficient flexibility.

More specifically design requirements would typically consists of:

- the piping stresses meeting applicable piping code (ANSI B 31.1, B 31.3,
B 31.4, B 31.5 or B 31.8)
 - the thermal expansion loads (forces and moments) on strain sensitive
equipment be within:
• applicable industry codes for rotating equipment (API 610, API 617,
NEMA SM 23)
• equipment manufacturers specification
• good engineering practice
- the piping stresses meet in-company standards (e.g ICI B 120 A) or
industry specific or relevant government standards (e.g. US NAVY, US
Nuclear Regulatory Commision for dynamic analysis)
- the thermal expansion loads on flanges be such that pressure rating
resulting in equivalent pressure due to these loads be within those
allowable (e.g. ANSI B 16.5 rating)

Methods of Flexibility Analysis

The methods of flexibility analysis can be classified into two groups:

Simplified Method
Simplified method treat piping system as simple structures and standard beam formula are
applied to individual pipes which are assumed to have square corners. On these
assumptions various charts and monographs are developed for simple one plane layout.
This method is not accurate and it consistently underestimates the maximum stress and
its location is also not correct. The error in analysis would be 30% or more when compared
with exact comprehensive method.

Comprehensive Method
The Comprehensive analysis take into consideration the exact effect as far as it is known,
of all elbows, bends, valves, reducers in line fittings and all other components as well as
restraints such as pipe supports, spring type and rigid. For example, consider the effect of
elbow. When pipe expands, elbow gets bent and it ovalizes i.e. it assumes an oval cross
section instead of original circular cross section. This ovalization has two effects:
- making the elbow more flexible, and
- making it more highly stressed.
These effects are taken care of in the comprehensive analysis by the flexibility factor (h)
and stress intensification factor (I) for flexibility characteristic (k) which is a function of pipe
wall thickness, bend radius and radius of pipe.

A Simplified Description of Comprehensive Method of Flexibility Analysis

An assumption is made that one end of a two ended pipe with no branches is fixed, while
other is free to expand. A system of forces and moments are then applied to the free end of
pipe to return it, to original position, which is evaluated.
If a pipe lies in more than one plane, a system of three forces and three moments acting at
each end of the pipe has to be evaluated. While one set can be solved by equilibrium, other
set is solved involving the solution of six simultaneous equations. For a pipe more than one
plane with ‘m’ number of ends, 6(m-1) simultaneous equation needs to be solved. This is
extremely time consuming and hence use is made of advanced mathematical methods of
flexibility matrices and computer programming for flexibility analysis.

Standard Assumptions in Calculating Flexibility of Piping System as per ANSI B 31

Code
In calculating the flexibility of piping system between the anchor points, the system shall be
treated as a whole.

The significance of all parts of the line and all restraints such as solid hangers or guide
including intermediate restraints introduced for the purpose of reducing moments and
forces on equipment or small branch lines, as also the restraint introduced by support
friction shall be recognized. Not only the expansion of the line itself, but also linear and
angular movements of the equipment to which it is attached shall be considered.

The piping codes of interest to

- ANSI B 31.1 Power Piping Code
- ANSI B 31.3 Chemical Plant and Petroleum Refinery Piping Code
- ANSI B 31.4 Liquid Petroleum Transportation Piping Systems Code
- ANSI B 31.8 / US DOR Gas Transportation Piping Systems Code.

Calculation of Combined Expansion Stresses as per ANSI B 31 Code

Stresses from expansion are calculated using the cold modulus of elasticity Ea as per ANSI
B 31 Code.
Guideline for Piping Flexibility Analysis
Authors personal experience of 30 years as a designer of piping system and analyzer of
piping failures plus experience of 40 years of Mr. A. H. (Tony) Hill, CET, AAA Technology
And Specialties Co., Inc, Houston, USA indicates that about 80% to 95% of piping for new
process plants to be analyzed.
More specifically:
- most utility lines and process lines to be analyzed (very few process lines
are not analyzed after Bhopal incident)
- all lines 2 inches and above and connected to rotating or reciprocating
equipment to be analyzed
- all thermal lines, i.e. high or low ambient temperature are to be analyzed
- all process lines handling flammable or hazardous fluids must be
analyzed.
GOOD engineering judgement based on CAE experience is what practical piping flexibility
analysis is all about.
Use of computer helps engineer to quickly and accurately analyze existing / new process
plant design and gain experience about piping layout, effect of changes in the layout /
support and help answer “what –If” type of questions.

Computer Programs
Large number of computer programs are available for computer aided engineering of piping
systems on PC such as TRIFLEX of AAA Technology And Specialties Co., Inc, Houston,
USA. TRIFLEX has been used by industry for last 15 years on PC’s, main frame, super-
mini and mini computer system.

Summary
This paper covered briefly concepts of piping expansion, flexibility, design requirements,
methods and calculation of combined stresses, guideline for piping flexibility analysis and
computer programs.