Piping Stress Analysis – Europa Crown

This project provided piping stress analysis for Europa Crown.

The problem

The project involved a piping stress analysis for several steam and condensate lines which are part of a large vegetable oil refinery. The client had no previous experience with pipework construction and needed to know where, and how, the system should be supported. Once the supports had been added to the system, it was substantiated to ASME B31.3 Process Piping. If the pipework was experiencing high stresses, we were asked to introduce thermal expansion loops and suggest where they could be installed.

The solution

It was decided that the ideal location for supports would coincide with the floor heights and pillar locations. The supports were equally spaced along the pipe runs and any connections to ancillary components were considered anchored.

The client supplied several drawings of the plant which were used to model the pipework within AutoPIPE. The program allows the user to select the standard which needs to be met and produces a detailed report of the system stating whether or not it meets the requirements. Following initial analysis of the pipework, we used the stress plots to determine whether it was necessary to introduce thermal expansion loops into the system. Using the building plans we were able to place supports in locations that coincide with the existing structure, as requested by the client. The final report included fully detailed AutoPIPE models for the client to use as a design guide.

Conclusion

The results showed that there was no need for expansion loops in the system and therefore these were not added. The suggested support locations were found to be ideal by the client and they were incorporated into the design.

This solution would be ideal for any pipework analysis and would be able to easily establish whether they meet the required standards.