Structural Integrity Evaluation by System Stress Analysis for Fuel Piping in a Process Plant

Process gas piping is one of the most basic components frequently used in the refinery and petrochemical plants. Many kinds of by-product gas have been used as fuel in the process plants. In some plants, natural gas is additionally introduced and mixed with the byproduct gas for upgrading the fuel. In this case, safety or design margin of the changed piping system of the plant should be re-evaluated based on a proper design code such as ASME or API codes since internal pressure, temperature and gas compositions are different from the original plant design conditions. In this study, series of piping stress analysis were conducted for a process piping used for transporting the mixed gas of the by-product gas and the natural gas from a mixing drum to a knock-out drum in a refinery plant. The analysed piping section had been actually installed in a domestic industry and needed safety audit since the design condition was changed. Pipe locations of the maximum system stress and displacement were determined, which can be candidate inspection and safety monitoring points during the upcoming operation period. For studying the effects of outside air temperature to safety the additional stress analysis were conducted for various temperatures in $0{\sim}30^{\circ}C$. Effects of the friction coefficient between the pipe and support were also investigated showing a proper choice if the friction coefficient is important. The maximum system stresses were occurred mainly at elbow, tee and support locations, which shows the thermal load contributes considerably to the system stress rather than the internal pressure or the gravity loads.

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