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3 authors, including:
Shivakumar Ranganathan
Farid Abed
Rowan University
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Original Article
Abstract
Piping is the main transportation method for fluids from one location to another within an industrial plant. Design and
routing of piping is heavily influenced by the stresses generated due to thermal effects and high pressure of the operating
fluid. In particular, pressurized fluids create critical loads on the supports and elbows of the pipe which increases the
overall stresses in the piping. Moreover, long pipes operating under high temperature gradients tend to expand significantly. Therefore, designers and engineers usually provide an expansion loop in order to relieve the pipe from the critical
stresses. However, expansion loops require extra space, supports, elbows, bends, additional steel structure that could
adversely affect the operating cost. It is therefore necessary to optimize the geometry, the number of expansion loops,
and the supports. Reducing the number of loops in one single system or reducing the length of the loop itself is always
favored as long as stresses are within safe limits. Usually, the commercial software (PipeData) is used in the industry to
get the dimensions of the expansion loop. However, this software is mostly based on empirical models that rely on past
experience rather than engineering fundamentals. Accordingly, this paper conducts an optimization analysis concerning
the expansion loop dimensions and the number of supports without compromising on the safety of piping. The design
approach is conducted as per the guidelines of ASME B31.3 (Process Piping) code and uses the commercial software
(CAESAR II) for stress calculations. A full comparison for the expansion loop dimension is conducted between the
empirical approach and the optimization analysis using ASME B31.3 for one of the existing oilfield projects. Results
indicate that optimization reduces the dimensions and the number of expansion loops as well as the total number of
supports. This results in significant savings in the piping cost without any compromise on the safety.
Keywords
Expansion loop, thermal stresses, CAESAR II, PipeData, ASME B31.3
Date received: 7 November 2013; accepted: 2 April 2014
Introduction
The major purpose of piping stress analysis is to
ensure the safe operation of a piping system for the
applied external loads. It is important to ensure safety
against failure of the piping and in-line equipment as
well as to protect anchor, support structures, and terminal equipment from overstress, all without wastage
of material.
One of the major hurdles that engineers in any
plant or a piping project encounter is the thermal
expansion of pipes. Basically, due to high temperature
of uid being transported from one point to another,
and due to the dierence of ambient temperature of
the surrounding, the steel pipe expands. This addition
of length creates high loads and moments on the xed
points (points with zero displacement) resulting in
high stresses. Usually, these xed points are the nozzles of the equipment or the anchors. Moreover,
elbows of the pipe encounter the maximum expansion
displacement due to space availability. The design of
Background
Expansion loops
Oil and gas piping sector is considered as one of
the most crucial systems due to the high stresses
1
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ASME B31.3
ASME B31.3 7 is the code for pressure piping. It
denes the pipe as a hollow tubular bar that is
designed for transferring uids and gases from one
location to another. The B31.3 states several requirements for the satisfactory design piping in the industrial sector and the main segment is stress in piping.
The following are considered as the basic requirements for any design in the piping system for an oil
and gas project:
1. Design pressure must be always less than the most
severe case that requires largest thickness and
highest component rating.
2. Some pipes may encounter external and internal
pressure, thus both must be taken in
consideration.
3. All additional sources of pressure must be
considered.
4. The minimum design temperature is the lowest
component temperature expected in service.
5. In externally insulated piping, the design temperature shall be the uid temperature.
Stresses in piping
Figure 1. Expansion loop.
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Shehadeh et al.
Mt
2Z
T E " E T
where
sT stress due to temperature expansion
E Youngs modulus
" strain
a temperature expansion coecient
T temperature dierence
SAT
Sh
Eff
Sb
5b
Design methodology
Allowable stress
q
Ii Mi 2 Io Mo 2
SA f1:25Sc Sh SL Sh 5 SL
1:25
f
Sc Sh SE
Eff
Stress ratio
In order to determine the location in the piping
with critical stresses, the stress ratio which is dened
as percentage ratio of the code stress to the
allowable stress of the material is computed as
follows
R%
q
S2b 4S2t
SE
100
100
f1:25Sc 0:25Sh
SA
R%
5a
q
S2b 4S2t
SE
100
100
f1:25Sc Sh SL
SA
10
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R%
T
E dt
100
100
f1:25=EffSc Sh SL
SAT
11
Software
PipeData. PipeData8 is a program that establishes
standards and provides the necessary information
for piping design. It has a professional version that
is easy to use and provides useful information
required for the design of pipes, piping parts, anges,
valves, and design data. Basically, the dimensions of
all piping equipment are estimated based on empirical
models. The program is used in this project for calculation of the initial expansion loop dimensions. This is
the approach that is normally used in the industry and
it results in overdesigning of the components.
CAESAR II. This software evaluates the stresses in
piping systems in accordance with ASME B31.3 and
based on nite element analysis. It provides users the
exibility to optimize the system parameters in order
to minimize the total cost of piping.
Experimental setup
Design input
The project under consideration is located in UAE and
is being implemented by the Abu Dhabi Company for
Onshore Oil Operations. The total pipe length is 600 m
and the purpose is to transport liquid butane under the
input conditions described in Table 1. The input for
609.6 mm
600,000 mm
9.525 mm
85 C
21 C
1.96 MPa
1050 kg/m3
0
N/A
ASTM 672 C60
7830 kg/m3
202 GPa
PipeData output
The design input is used to obtain the dimensions, in
which those results are optimized and compared at the
end of this paper. Basically, PipeData accounts for
temperature of the uids, ambient temperature, and
the length of the designed pipe. Subsequently, the
dimensions we obtained for the length of the loop L
is 9255 and 9255 mm for the width W as well.
Load cases
Load cases include the hydro test, operational case,
sustained and expansion case, and are described in the
subsections to follow. It is possible to have higher
stresses in some cases when compared to the operational loads. It is therefore necessary to test all possible load cases in order to ensure a safe design.
Hydro test case. This case accounts for weight of pipe
and uid pressure. Hydro test is a case that is designed
to test the pipe under the self-weight. In addition, in
this case the pipe is lled with water and exposed to a
pressure that is 1.5 times the operational pressure.
Failure in this test is expected to be in the Y supports since the loads are in gravitational direction and
is typically due to the lack of supports in long pipes.
Thus, stress ratio and the loads on friction support are
investigated in this case.
Operational case. The operating case takes into account
the actual loads on the piping including the ones for the
attached equipment, anchors, supports, guides, or limit
stops. Temperature, weight of pipe along with uid
density and pressure loads is combined to mimic the
real life scenario. In this case, temperature is the main
factor since it creates the expansion in the pipe length.
Sustained case. Sustained case stresses are due to the
axial loads, bending moment, and internal pressure.
Sustained case eliminates thermal eects and focuses
on the loads of pressure, pipe density, insulation
weight, and uid density. Failure in this case indicates
the lack of sucient number of supports to take the
Y load (the same as in hydro case). Also, ASME
B31.3 states that the allowable stress in this case
equals two-thirds of the hydro case. Therefore, failure
in this case directly implies failure in the corresponding hydro case since pressure is higher.
Expansion case. This case is designed specically to
study the thermal expansion of the pipe under the
temperature eect. Failure typically occurs due to
high stresses at the xed points (zero displacements).
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Shehadeh et al.
Client regulations
Optimization steps
After obtaining the initial dimensions, the system is
modeled in CAESAR for subsequent stress analysis.
The dimension of the expansion loop is then reduced
individually and in combination in order to optimize
the design to meet the client regulations as well as
ASME B31.3. The following trials are set up to
assist the optimization:
Effect of reducing length of the loop (L). The loop length is
independently varied between 2000 and 8000 mm
keeping all other parameters xed (see Table 2).
Effect of reducing width of the loop (W). The loop width is
independently varied between 2000 and 8000 mm
keeping all other parameters xed (see Table 3).
Results
Initial system results
The primary results are the reference since the input is
taken from PipeData. Table 4 presents the highest
stresses generated by the original model.
The loads are calculated by CAESAR software.
As presented in Table 5, the loads are expected to
be in the Y direction due to weight (gravitational
force) and in the X direction due to the thermal
expansion. Those loads must be as low as possible
in order to minimize the stress ratio. The locations
of nodes 140, 510, and 740 are illustrated in
Figure 2.
Optimization results
Effect of reducing length of the loop (L). In this trial, length
of the leg is reduced from 8000 to 2000 mm, while
width, number of supports, and number loops
remain the same. In this case, the system fails when
the length L is below 3500 mm (in terms of stress ratio
exceeding the clients regulation). The stress ratio in
both cases (sustained and expansion) is shown in
Figure 3. As expected, the curve for the sustained
case is horizontal, whereas the expansion case
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
Stresses (kPa)
Load cases
Node
No.
Calculated
(max)
Allowable
(as per code)
Max.
stress
ratio
(%)
Hydro test
Sustained
Expansion
740
740
140
80,888.1
67,057.5
63,873.1
220,629.0
134,965.4
206,110.3
36.7
49.7
31.0
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
Load cases
Node
no.
Fx
Fy
Fz
Sustained
Operating
Hydro test
740
510
740
0
29,492
0
70,064
98,307
67,804
0
0
0
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Shehadeh et al.
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Optimized
L 9255 mm
W 9255 mm
Extra elbow support
Max. stress ratio 31%
(expansion case)
Max. displacement
3.6 mm (sustained case)
L 4000 mm
W 2000 mm
Elbow support removed
Max. stress ratio 75.4%
(expansion case)
Max. displacement
0.9 mm
(sustained case)
Max. displacement
47.6 mm
(operation case)
Max. displacement
48.8 mm (operation case)
Length (2 legs)
Width
Sum
Original
(mm)
Final
(mm)
Difference
(mm)
9255
9255
4000
2000
10,510
7255
17,765
Optimized design
The initial and the optimized design have the following dimensions and results.
Figure 10 illustrates the initial and the optimized
system dimensions.
Cost savings
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Shehadeh et al.
9
References
Conclusion
It is a common practice in the industry to determine
the dimensions of the expansion loop using empirical
means or by using commercial programs that have no
engineering backgrounds. In general, such an
approach leads to the over designing of the system.
In order to save material costs, it is desirable to optimize the dimensions of the expansion loop using physics based models. A systematic parametric study was
conducted to optimize the dimensions of the expansion loop in accordance with ASME B31.3.
Additional constraints that stem from specic client
requirements were also considered in the optimization
process. Results indicate that the optimized design
signicantly saves the amount of material as well as
the number of supports used in the piping system,
thus resulting in direct cost savings without compromising on the safety.
Funding
This research received no specic grant from any funding
agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-prot sectors.
Conflict of interest
None declared.