Pressure Vessel Dimension Inspection

The Pressure Vessel Dimension Inspection article provides you with

information about the dimensional requirements in pressure vessel
construction and pressure vessel inspection.

You may know some fabrication tolerances have not been addressed in
ASME Code Section VIII.

So you need to refer to other sources for inspection. This article

provides you the most important dimensional inspection requirements.

The dimensional check of a pressure vessel consists of the following

items:

 Mill Under tolerance of Plates and Pipes

 Tolerances for Formed Heads

 Out of Roundness of shell

 Nozzles and attachments Orientation

 Nozzles and attachments Projection

 Nozzles and attachments elevation

 Nozzles and attachments levelness

 Weld mismatch

 Weld reinforcement

Mill Under tolerance of Plates and Pipes

Pressure Vessel Dimension Inspection - Plate:

Your pressure vessel plates with 0.01 inch or 6% under

tolerance, whichever is smaller, may be used for full design pressure,
instead of at the given design thickness specified.
However, if the material specification allows greater under tolerance,
then the ordered thickness for the material should be sufficiently
greater.

For example, if you have SA 516 Gr.70 plate with a 0.625 inch nominal
thickness, and the actual thickness is 0.615, it is acceptable, and you
may use this plate without any specific design consideration.

But if the same plate has an actual thickness of 0.595 inches, you
need to consider mill under tolerance in your design calculation.

This plate thickness is acceptable based on the material specification

(see table in SA 20 for thickness tolerances). We cannot reject this
plate because it is in the permissible tolerance of plate specification,
but based on ASME Code SEC VIII Div 1, you need to consider this
0.03 inches in your design calculation: e.g. Thickness = Min Thickness
+ Corrosion Allowance + Mill Under tolerance

Pressure Vessel Dimension Inspection - Pipe:

Contrary to the plate material, your pipe and tube mill under
tolerances need to be taken into account for design consideration.

Pipe and tube under tolerances are almost -12.5 % of the nominal wall
thickness, but sometimes there are differences for different materials,
so for any specific material, it shall be referred to the suggested pipe
or tube material specification to obtain the exact amount of mill under
tolerances.

For example, if there is a pressure vessel with nominal shell thickness

of 0.5 inch, it needs a 6” SA 106 Gr.B nozzle to be attached to the
shell plate.

Assume that external loading is not a design controlling factor (is not
governor), so as our minimum, nozzle thickness will be the same as
the shell thickness.

So with a consideration of -12.5%, the calculation will be: 0.5 / 0.875

= 0.571 inches. So when we refer to ASME B36.10 and select our pipe
schedule it will be SA 106 Gr.B Schedule 160.
Pressure Vessel Dimension Inspection - Tolerances for Formed
Head:

You may know that there is a specific rule for dimensional checking of
formed heads, based the fact that the UG-81 inner surface shall not
deviate outside of the specified shape more than 11⁄4% of D and
inside the shape more than 5⁄8%.

You can use sweep boards, which are made by cutting a thin steel
sheet or piece of wood for checking your crown and knuckle radius.

For your skirt, the difference between the maximum and minimum
inside diameter should not be more than 1%, and you can use a tape
measure or laser measure for dimensional control of the skirt.

So to fully understand, let's check the following head together:

Head ID = 3364 mm

Head Type: TorisphericalLimit for

Outside of specified Shape =
3364 x 1 ¼% = 42.05 mm

Limit for Inside of specified Shape

= 3364 x 5/8 % = 21.025 mm

So we check the depth, and the

drawing is 656.3 mm and the
actual is 672 mm, so it is outside of the shape. We need to check if it
is in the range of tolerance, so the maximum outside of the shape will
be 42.05 + 656.3 = 698.35 so our actual value is 672 mm.
672<698.35, so it is OK.

We cut a sweep board equal to the head drawing crown radius (3400
mm) and other one for the knuckle radius equal to 204 mm, so we try
to fit the sweep boards in the heads for the above example of the
sweep boards. The edge distance to the head surface should not be
deviate from the above limited values.

Skirt max and min ID should not be more than 1% of the ID, which is
33.64 mm. So, in the above example skirt is also is OK. Our nominal
thickness is 20 mm, so up to 19.746 is acceptable then for the above
example. The thickness dimension is also OK.

So the above head dimensions are ok

Pressure Vessel Dimension Inspection - Out of Roundness of

Shell:

UG-80 deals with out of roundness of shell. The maximum permitted

ovality tolerance (D max – D min) shall not exceed 1% of the nominal
diameter of the vessel.

If you have an opening, then the tolerance can be increased by 2% x d

(d = diameter of opening), if the measurement is taken within a
distance of ‘d’ from the axis of the opening.

The out of roundness generally is measured in two directions with a

normal measuring tape or laser measure, so one direction would be
the D max and other one would be the D min.
The following picture shows an out of roundness measurement:

Pressure Vessel Dimension Inspection - Nozzles and

Attachments Orientation:

ASME Code SEC VIII Div 1 has not specified the orientation tolerances
for nozzles and attachments, so you need refer to the pressure vessel
handbook.

It is almost +/- 1 degree. The orientation check can be done by a

simple calculation by using a measuring tape in the actual
measurement work on the vessel.
For example, we want to check N3 orientation in following drawing.

N3 is located at 120 degrees in the drawing. The manufacturer has

located this point in the vessel with a marker, and we want to check
the location, and if it is OK, then we can allow the manufacturer to cut.

So we run this simple calculation:

Vessel OD = 97.875”

Shell outside Circumference length = π x OD = 3.14 x 97.875 =

307.3275”

307.3275 distributed to 360 degrees so each degree represents

307.3275/ 360 =0.8536”

N3 is located at the 120 degree position, so if we use a measuring

tape and keep 0 at the zero reference point in the vessel and pull the
tape, the nozzle center should be located at 120 x 0.8536 = 102.4425
inches.

This 102.4425 is a perfect case so our tolerance is ±1 degrees. So if

the tape shows in following range, it will be OK.

102.4425 – 0.8536 =101.5889”

102.4425 + 0.8536 =103.2961”

Pressure Vessel Dimension Inspection - Nozzles and

Attachments Projection:

Nozzle and attachment projection is the length from the nozzle or the
attachment face to the vessel shell centerline.

Projection dimensions are addressed in general assembly drawings.

The projection tolerances are not addressed in ASME Code SEC VIII
Div 1, but if you refer to the pressure vessel handbook, almost ± 0.25
of an inch is permissible.
In following figure, we need to check the BD nozzle projection. It
should be 660 mm in distance from shell centerline to the flange face.

In practical measurement, you may use a measuring tape to measure

the distance between the shell outside circumference to the nozzle
face. Then the measured value is summed with the shell thickness and
the inside radius. So for the above example, the following range is
acceptable:

660 – 6.35 = 653.65

660 + 6.35 =666.35

Pressure Vessel Dimension

Inspection - Nozzles and
Attachments Elevation:

Your Nozzles and attachments

elevation is the length between
the nozzles or the attachments centerline and the bottom or top head
tangent line.

The elevation dimension is addressed directly in the general assembly

drawing. The elevation tolerances are not addressed in ASME Code
SEC VIII Div 1, but if you refer to the pressure vessel handbook,
almost ±0.25 inch is permissible.

In following figure, we need to check Nozzle EB elevation. As you see

in the drawing, the distance between the nozzle centerline to the
bottom head tangent line is 700 mm.

In actual measurement, the measuring tape or laser measure is used

to measure from the nozzle neck center line to the tangent line. In this
example, the following range is acceptable:

700 – 6.35 = 693.65

700 + 6.35 = 706.35

Pressure Vessel Dimension Inspection - Nozzles and

Attachments Levelness:

The nozzles and attachments levelness tolerances are not addressed in

ASME Code SEC VIII Div 1, but in the pressure vessel handbook, a ½
˚ deflection is permissible.

For levelness checking, a level gage is used. If the bubble is in the

middle of the designated lines, the nozzle is level.
But if the bubble intersects the designated limit lines, you need to run
a simple calculation and see if your deflection is within the tolerance
limit.

You need to move one end of the level gage up to the bubble to be
placed in middle. Then measure the distance between the level gage
end and the flange face. The measured value is the X in the figure.

Then obtain α, if α is less than 0.5˚, the deflection falls within the
tolerances. And it is OK otherwise it will require cutting out and re-
welding.

Pressure Vessel Dimension Inspection - Weld Mismatch:

ASME Code SEC VIII Div. 1 specified tolerances for weld mismatch in
UW-33. It is important to know that the limit for weld mismatch is
stringent for a category A weld
(Longitudinal joint and
circumferential shell to
hemispherical head).

The concept behind this is that

the longitudinal joint bears
double the amount of stress,
and inspectors should
precisely check these joints.
For example, you have a pressure vessel with a nominal thickness of 1
inch. You do a visual and measure the mismatch by the welding
gauge. Assume you found a 0.143 inch mismatch in one longitudinal
and one circumferential joint.

So you look to the UW-33 table:

The permissible weld mismatch in the longitudinal joint for your case is
0.125 of an inch, and for the circumferential joint, it is 0.1875 of an
inch.

Your weld mismatches for both longitudinal and circumferential joints

are 0.143, so your circumferential joint is OK, but your longitudinal
joint should be repaired.

Pressure Vessel Dimension Inspection - Weld Reinforcement:

The same concept for weld mismatch exists for weld reinforcement
tolerances. The longitudinal joint weld reinforcement limit is more
stringent than that for circumferential joints.

This is because longitudinal joint bears double stress, and it is required

that the stress concentration is minimized.

In the same example, assume that there are 0.150 of an inch welds
reinforcement for both category A and B welds. Do you want to review
your weld acceptance?

Category A allowances = 0.093

inch

Category B allowances = 0.1875

inch

So our circumferential joint is OK, but the longitudinal is not OK and

should be repaired by removing the excess weld reinforcement.