EMERGENCY VESSELS BLOWDOWN

SIMULATIONS
 AGENDA

INTRODUCTION

TYPICAL FIRST STUDIES IN TOTAL UPSTREAM

INTERNAL RULES BASED ON API

METHODOLOGY

STUDY RESULTS

DEVELOPMENT WORK - COLLABORATION BETWEEN SIMSCI & TOTAL

PROPOSED ENHANCEMENTS TO BE DONE

CONCLUSION

Emergency vessels blowdown simulations - Orlando 2014 - Schneider-Electric Global Customer Conference 2
INTRODUCTION
Why to depressurize ?
Loss of control
(fire, power failure,
leak…)
Hazard for installation and
people (explosion, oil spill …)
Pressurized
hydrocarbons

Solution: Emergency depressurization

Pressure decrease leads to temperature drop

because of the Joule-Thomson effect and of the
liquid vaporization

Hydrocarbons sent to the flare

Main concerns
• Wall vessel temperature Reliable predictive
Vessel material to be chosen to resist low temperatures simulation tools
needed
• Maximum flowrate to be flared

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TYPICAL DEVELOPMENT STUDIES IN TOTAL UPSTREAM

Conceptual
Screening Pre-project Project
studies

A few weeks 3 months 6 months

Short time periods + Fluctuating data Longer periods + detailed studies

Calculations done internally with process simulators External tools

Depressurization calculations are done at early stage of the studies: The flare size or safety zones have a significant
impact on the facilities layout or on a platform size. It can be of major importance in the choice of a concept.

RADIATIONS
Calculations are done through flaresim (softbits) software
It models thermal radiation and noise footprints generated by flare systems and predicts the
temperature of exposed surfaces

DISPERSION
Calculations are done through PHAST (DNV) software
It models atmospherics dispersion to determine the safety zones.

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 INTERNAL RULES DERIVED FROM API 521

Initial conditions
- Initial pressure =system design pressure

- Initial temperature = MinOT (or ambiant T if lower)

- Initial liquid level in the drum, the calculations shall be conducted for both LAL
and LAH. The worst case shall be retained.

Final conditions
- P down to 8 bara or 50% of design pressure (whichever is the most stringent) in
15 minutes.
For cold cases, P down to atmospheric pressure to get the right minimum
temperature.

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 METHODOLOGY
Two Reference tools considered in Total:
Blowdown (from Imperial College of London) and LNGDYN (From Technip) not
available for Total initial development studies (have to be subcontracted to ICL
or Technip, which is not compatible with the initial studies planning)

4 commercial software

Un…m Pro/II Hy..s Dynsim

Comparisons to the results of

Very few experimental data reference software
LNGDYN and BLOWDOWN

Why do we use pro/II for dynamic simulations?

• PRO/II used for performing all the process simulations in
conceptual and pre-projects studies → more comfortable to use
the same tool.
• Dynsim too onerous at these early stages of a project
• More efficient to use pro/II features such as controller to adjust
the orifice size

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 OBJECTIVES AND RESULTS OF THE STUDY

Objectives of the study

• Decide if PRO/II can be used in our studies by comparison of the
results to those of the reference tools
• Determine margins to be applied on simulation results during
conceptual and project studies
• Focuss on vessel depressurization (no multi-units were checked
and no pipes) with no water phase

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RESULTS AND WORK AHEAD

Conclusions of the validation study

• This study exhibited relatively good predictions for pro/II for
flowrate and temperature
Recommended margins: 10% on flowrate predictions and 10°C on
Minimum temperature
• Drawbacks: Only one wall temperature, poor flexibility on vessels
geometry (head types, wall thickness…) , no orifice models

Total and SimSci worked together to address the weaknesses of pro/II

depressurization tool. This work led to significant enhancements into pro/II software
1. Definition of the required improvement by Total
progress
Project

2. Prioritization from Total

3. Reviewing of the detailed specifications issued by SimSci
4. Tests of issued versions

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 DEVELOPMENT WORK - COLLABORATION BETWEEN SIMSCI & TOTAL

USABILITY VESSEL CONFIGURATION

Report temperature downstream the relief valve New Valve Mode – Orifice: It will automatically
detect if the flow is sonic or subsonic and use the
Add Depressuring Time vs. Pressure Summary to appropriate equations.
Depressuring report
Different head type (hemispherical, flat…)
Indicate whether flow through valve is critical or
subcritical Valve Policy & user control of flow rate and
depressuring time
Re-order product streams
Rigorous Dynamic Wetted Area calculation
Create pseudo-streams corresponding to
instantaneous vent rates at specific times Support Density and thickness in Vessel
Geometry
Supply wall and liquid temperature profiles
Require final pressure in depressuring unit to be
Documentation on depressurization unit exactly the specified PFINAL

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 FURTHER ENHANCEMENTS PROPOSED TO BE DONE

Two main concerns for Total

• Solid CO2 predictions: The aim is to predict accurately amounts and

conditions of formation of Solid CO2 during cold Blowdown for gas
with a high CO2 content

• Two wall temperatures: Twliq for the liquid side and Twgas for gas
side

Twgas

Twliq

• We do not expect a multi equipment depressurization (Dynsim to

be used in such cases)

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 CONCLUSIONS

 Pro/II Software is able to perform vessel depressurizations at

early stages of upstream development projects

 Comparison were done with reference tools in Total

 Pro/II leads to satisfying results compared to these reference

tools (appropriate margins have been defined)

 Software development project permitted to successfully

improve Pro/II depressurization tools

 Further enhancements are currently studied to have a more

powerful tool

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