Vibration

Induced Fatigue
Failure in Process
Pipework
Acoustic Induced
Vibrations (AIV)

sabato 4 marzo 2023

Acoustic Induced Vibrations
Main Aspects
▪ In a gas system, high levels of high frequency acoustic energy can be generated by a
pressure reducing device such as a relief valve, control valve or orifice plate.

2
Acoustic Induced Vibrations
Main Aspects
▪ Acoustic waves are a type of energy propagation through a medium by means of
compression and decompression, generated by any vibrating source, such as vocal
cords, guitar strings or a turbulent fluid;

▪ they travel with a characteristic acoustic velocity (celerity) that depends on the
medium they're passing through and can be described by acoustic pressure; their
energy is expressed by sound power level.

3
Acoustic Induced Vibrations
Main Aspects
▪ Acoustic fatigue is of particular concern as it tends to affect safety related (e.g.
relief and blowdown) systems.

▪ In addition, the time to failure is short (typically a few minutes or hours) due to the
high frequency response. As well as giving rise to high tonal noise levels external to
the pipe, this form of excitation can generate severe high frequency vibration of the
pipe wall.

4
Acoustic Induced Vibrations
Main Aspects
▪ The vibration takes the form of local pipe wall flexure (the shell flexural modes of
vibration) resulting in potentially high dynamic stress levels at circumferential
discontinuities on the pipe wall, such as small bore connections, fabricated tees or
welded pipe supports.

5
Acoustic Induced Vibrations
Main Aspects
▪ The high noise levels are generated by high velocity fluid impingement on the pipe
wall,turbulent mixing and, for choked flow, shockwaves downstream of the flow
restriction. They are a function of the pressure drop across the pressure reducing
device and the gas mass flow rate.

6
Acoustic Induced Vibrations
Main Aspects

7
Acoustic Induced Vibrations
Main Aspects
▪ Typical dominant frequencies associated with high frequency acoustic excitation are
between 500 to 2000Hz.

8
Acoustic Induced Vibrations
Failure Examples

9
Acoustic Induced Vibrations
Assessment
Methods

(ADOTTATO SU TUTTE COMMESSE

(ADOTTATO SU THAI OIL) ARAMCO)

+ + +
LOF
(LIKELYHOOD OF FAILURE)

10
Acoustic Induced Vibrations
Assessment
Flow-chart

11
Acoustic Induced Vibrations
Assessment
Flow-chart

12
Acoustic Induced Vibrations
Assessment
Excitation solutions: mass flow rate reduction

▪ Increase quantity of valves

13
Acoustic Induced Vibrations
Assessment
Excitation solutions: pressure drop fractionation

▪ Multi-staged restriction orifice downstream a valve

14
Acoustic Induced Vibrations
Assessment
Excitation solutions: valve trim change

▪ Multiple path trim type low noise valve

15
Acoustic Induced Vibrations
Assessment
Excitation solutions: valve trim change

▪ Staged trim low noise valve

16
Acoustic Induced Vibrations
Assessment
Response solutions: increase local thickness

▪ Change pipe schedule

17
Acoustic Induced Vibrations
Assessment
Response solutions: increase local thickness

▪ Full wrap / full encirclement reinforcements

18
Acoustic Induced Vibrations
Assessment
Response solutions: removal of circumferential discontinuities

▪ Use of less fatigue sensitive geometries such as forged/extruded tees and sweepolets

19
Acoustic Induced Vibrations
References

20