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Introduction
It is common practice worldwide for piping designers to route piping by consider
ing mainly space, process and flow constraints (such as pressure drop) and other
requirements arising from constructability, operability and reparability. Unfor
tunately, pipe stress analysis requirements are often not sufficiently considere
d while routing and supporting piping systems, especially in providing adequate
flexibility to absorb expansion/contraction of pipes due to thermal loads. So, w
hen as designed piping systems are handed-off to pipe stress engineers for detaile
d analysis, they soon realize that the systems are stiff and suggest routing chang
es to make the systems more flexible. The piping designers, in turn, make change
s to routing and send the revised layout to the pipe stress engineers to check f
or compliance again.
Such back and forth design iterations between layout and stress departments contin
ue until a suitable layout and support scheme is arrived at, resulting in signif
icant increase in project execution time, which, in turn, increases project cost
s.
This delay in project execution is further worsened in recent years by increased
operating pressures and temperatures in order to increase plant output; increas
ed operating pressures require thicker pipe walls, which, in turn, increase pipi
ng stiffnesses further! Such increased operating temperatures applied on stiffer s
ystems increase pipe thermal stresses and support loads. So, it is all the more
important to make the piping layout flexible at the time of routing. (checkSTRES
S, another SST s product [different from CAEPIPE] for AutoCAD, CATIA, Autoplant, P
DMS, Cadmatic and others, directly addresses and solves this problem).
Types of Loads
Piping systems experience different types of loadings, categorized into three ba
sic loading types
Sustained, Thermal and Occasional loads.
Sustained Loads
These mainly consist of internal pressure and dead-weight. Dead-weight is from t
he weight of pipes, fittings, components such as valves, operating fluid or test
fluid, insulation, cladding, lining, etc.
Internal design or operating pressure causes uniform circumferential stresses in
the pipe wall, based on which a pipe wall thickness is determined during the pr
ocess P&ID stage of plant design. Additionally, internal pressure gives rise to
axial stresses in the pipe wall. Since these axial pressure stresses vary only w
ith pressure, pipe diameter and wall thickness (all three of which are preset at
the P&ID stage), these stresses cannot be altered by changing the piping layout
or the support scheme.
A pipe s deadweight causes the pipe to bend (generally downward) between supports
and nozzles, producing axial stresses in the pipe wall (also called bending stres
ses ) which vary linearly across the pipe cross-section, being tensile at either t
he top or bottom surface and compressive at the other surface. If the piping sys
tem is not supported in the vertical direction (i.e., in the gravity direction)
excepting equipment nozzles, bending of the pipe due to deadweight may develop e
xcessive stresses in the pipe and impose large loads on equipment nozzles, there
by increasing its susceptibility to failure by collapse.
Various international piping standards/codes impose stress limits, also called al
lowable stresses for sustained loads, on these axial stresses generated by deadwe
ight and pressure in order to avoid failure by collapse.
For the calculated actual stresses to be below such allowable stresses for susta
ined loads, it may be necessary to support the piping system vertically. Typical
vertical supports to carry deadweight are:
Variable spring hangers
Constant support hangers
Rod hangers
Resting steel supports
Rod hangers and resting steel supports fully restrain downward pipe movement but
TOP
he 3D model where the pipe can be vertically supported by the support types list
ed above. Based on this information, it is possible to vertically support the pi
ping such that sustained stresses do not exceed yellow zone. This step may require
you to execute several iterations within CAEPIPE with several vertical support
schemes.
In case, resting steel supports are selected to provide vertical support for pip
ing under sustained load, it is to be made sure that piping continues to rest on
such steel supports even during operating condition (= weight + pressure + ther
mal) and does not lift off from these supports. If pipe lifts up at any of these
resting supports during operating condition, then that support does not carry a
ny pipe weight and hence will not serve its purpose. Similarly, at rod hanger lo
cations, the tendency of piping should be to deform downward for operating load
case, so that the rod hangers carry the pipe weight under tension. On the other
hand, if pipe lifts up at any of the rod hangers, then that rod hanger goes into
compression thereby not carrying the weight of the piping during operating cond
ition.
CAEPIPE displays the deflected shape of piping under operating load case too. By
viewing this deflection from different directions, you can make sure that pipin
g is resting on steel supports and/or piping is not deforming upward at rod hang
ers.
Step 5
You should perform Steps 1 to 4 for all piping systems of the project. Systems,
for which the layout and support schemes are finalized, are ready for detailed a
nalyses and stress report preparation.
Verification Step
Provide all additional input data into the models such as insulation thickness a
nd density, corrosion allowance and mill tolerance of pipe sections, thermal anc
hor movements, seismic anchor movements, support conditions such as friction and
gap, other loads such as wind, seismic and water/fluid hammer, multiple thermal
and pressure cases, etc. and perform detailed analyses. It is most likely that
the layout and support schemes (finalized during steps 1 4) meet all other pipe st
ress requirements (such as meeting nozzle allowable loads) and hardly require an
y further iteration(s).