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with an example
Process plants deal with fluids those are mostly chemical in nature with varying
pressure and temperature .these fluids are transported from one point to another
through pipes. The operations must be leak free.
Plants are designed for certain no’s of years, most commonly for around 20
years. In these life cycle years it shall contain
To satisfy these material used to build a pipe must have high strength and
ductility besides other properties like resistance to corrosion, commercial
availability etc. There comes metal into picture and that is the reason why we see
most of the pipes used in plants being metallic rather than plastic or rubber. As a
matter of fact plastics and rubber are also used but not as common as metals.
So after the designer has chosen the material of pipe a question comes how
much thick should be the pipe so that it will satisfy previously said conditions.
ASME has laid down the Procedure to calculate this. We will explore this with an
example and detail calculation.
As per ASME B 31.3 – Para 304.1
that says for t ≤ D/6 the internal pressure design thickness for straight pipes shall
not be less than the calculated in accordance with either eq (3a) below or (3b)
D = OD of pipe (in)
E = Weld joint quality factor from Table A-1a (for casting) or A-1b (for tube/pipe)
Equation (3b) (above) is seldom used and its used as a reference to verify. So
equation (3a) is considered preliminary.
EXAMPLE:
Now we will determine the required pipe thickness for a pipe
D = Pipe OD = 30in
So to put in Equation 3a we know value of P,D only. Lets see how we can
determine other values from code
After finding the material grade row find the °F temperature column. And as
shown above here you can find the allowable stress value S in (ksi) for A106 gr B
for 200°F to be 20 ksi = 20000 psi.
A single bar as shown below specifies the usage of material beyond this
temperature needs special precaution.
A double bar as shown below prohibites the usage of material beyond this
temperature
Find the material grade and find Ej value as shown below for our case its 1.0 so
We got E=1
If the pipe is welded i.e not seamless then you have t multiply the value given in
para 302.3.4 (Ej) with the above determined (E)
If our pipe grade specified as Astm A 135 Electric resistance welded then W
value would be 0.85 as shown below.
Y = Temp dependent co efficient
Go to table 304.1.1
As A106 gr B is ferritic steel go to ferritic steel row .And then find the temp
column for your temperature.
this is the required minimum thickness after mill tolerance of 12.5% means the
specified thickness by the designer may decrease 12.5% during the
manufacturing process and even after reducing 12.5% pipe thickness should not
be less than tm i.e 0.237in