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Relief Rate Calculation; External Fire (Part 2)

Saeid Rahimi
25-Aug-2011

Introduction
One of the most important responsibilities of any process engineer is to ensure that plant will safely operate in the different
emergency cases. One of the cases which lead to equipment overpressure is external fire. API-521, 4
th
edition section 3.15,
recommends the basic theory and formulas for calculating vapor rate generated during a fire due to liquid vaporization or gas
expansion for wetted and un-wetted vessels, respectively.

In Part 1, a calculation procedure was presented to find weather a vessel is categorized as wetted or unwetted before
beginning the relief rate calculation. This part reviews the different methods that are being used for relief rate calculation of
wetted vessel in fire condition and introduces a new simple method for this purpose.

Relief Rate Calculation
For wetted vessels, fire relief load is equal to the rate of vapor generation due to heat input. This can be calculated through
dividing the heat absorption rate by liquid latent heat.
W =

Q
(1)
Where

Q = B F A
0.82
(2)

There are some guidelines in API-521 section 3.15 for taking the
effect of piping area and drainage facilities in calculating total heat
(Q) absorbed by the vessel into account.
The accurate design of the pressure relief system capacity requires
accurately estimating the gas and liquid phase properties at high
temperature. The different methods for calculating fire relief load of
wetted vessels and liquid latent heat as major parameters affecting
the relief rate and the size of relief valve are reviewed in following
paragraphs.

1. Steady State Approach
This method basically uses the gas and liquid properties at initial
boiling point of liquid (bubble point). For achieving this purpose, the
first step is to simulate the liquid content of a particular vessel by
defining one stream with the same composition at relieving pressure
and vapor fraction of zero. This is to find the initial boiling point
(saturation) temperature of liquid mixture (this temperature is also
used as relieving temperature). The next step is to increase the stream
temperature about 1-2C above saturation temperature so that very
small amount of vapor is generated (some references recommend
increasing the temperature to get 3-5% vapor fraction).
The physical properties of gas and latent heat of residual liquids at the slightly elevated temperature are used in equation (3)
from section 4.3.2 of API-520 (7
th
edition) to find the relief valve orifice size:
M
Z T
K P K C
W
A
b r d
Orifice
= (3)

When a computer simulator is not available, using a figure is a simple way to calculate latent heat. API PR-521, Appendix
A, Figure A.1 shows the vapor pressure and latent heats of the pure single-component paraffin hydrocarbon liquids. This
chart may be also used as an approximation for following hydrocarbon mixtures:
NOMENCLATURE
A
orifice
Required effective discharge area of the
valve
A Wetted surface area of the vessel
B Constant used in equation (2)
C Coefficient in equation (3), a function of
C
P
/C
V
(gas specific heat ratio)
D Vessel diameter
E Constant used in equation (6)
F Environmental Factor, refer to Table 5 of
API-521 section 3.15.2
H Height of liquid inside the vessel
L Vessel length
K
b
Capacity correction factor due to
backpressure
K
d
Effective coefficient of discharge
M Molecular weight
P
r
Relieving pressure
V
H
Vessel liquid hold up volume which is
below the elevation of 25 ft (7.6m) from
grade
V
T
Vessel total volume
T Temperature
Q Total heat absorption across wetted
surface area
W Relief rate
Z Gas compressibility factor
Latent heat of vaporization
density

2

- Paraffin hydrocarbon mixtures composed of two components whose molecular weights vary no more than propane to
butane and butane to pentane.
- Isomer hydrocarbons, aromatic or cyclic compounds, or paraffin hydrocarbon mixture of components that have slightly
divergent molecular weight.
To estimate the latent heat of multi-component mixture that have a wide boiling range or widely divergent molecular weight,
rigorous series of equilibrium calculations may be required so that the process simulation software might be used for this
purpose. Refer to the method presented in article Thermodynamic methods for pressure relief system design parameter,
Fluid Phase Equilibria 241 (2006), pp. 41-50, Kwong W. Won, Arine R. Smith, Gerald A. Zeininger.
Calculating the relief rate and relief valve size based on gas and liquid properties at initial boiling point is simple and fast
(which are the main interest of oil and gas contactors), but it may not be always conservative. This is because vapor and
liquid composition and all process parameters change during fire, which affects the size of relief valve. Therefore there is no
other way for accurately calculating the multi-component hydrocarbon systems fire relief rate other than dynamic
simulation.

2. Dynamic Study
Dynamic simulation is undoubtedly the best methods for observing the behavior of system during fire. Building a dynamic
model for fire is also relatively easy job which is possible by adding a vessel and some valves in Hysys or Unisim dynamic
mode. Fire heat input also can be defined based on vessel wetted area using spreadsheet tool of simulation software. The
only point is that considering the number of equipment where fire case is applicable and time required for making such
model for each particular case, it may not be always feasible to perform fire relief study using this approach. Availability of
dynamic licenses and people who are good at dynamic simulation can be other limiting factors.

3. Semi-Dynamic Approach
In this method, the physical properties of gas and liquid are obtained at 5 wt% vaporization intervals from simulation
software and used in excel spreadsheet to find the maximum area required for relief valve during fire. The approach consists
of a search for the point where the relief valve orifice area is maximized. The objective equation can be derived by
substituting equations (1) and (2) into equation (3) which produces equation (4):
M
Z T
K P K C
A F B
A
b r d
82 . 0
Orifice

= (4)

Rewriting equation (4) produces:

M
Z T
C
A
E A
82 . 0
Orifice

= (5)
Where
b r d
K P K
F B
E = (6)
Performing this exercise needs the physical properties of liquid and gas phases and wetted area vs. time. Commercial
software like Hysys produces the required physical properties (T, Z, M, Cp/Cv & ). According to equation (4), the relation
between process parameters and their effects on orifice area is shown in Table 1. The variation of process parameters specified
in Table 1 is applicable to most hydrocarbon systems especially when major components are linear saturated hydrocarbons. A
quick look at number of parameters, their variations and effects on orifice area makes you confident that it is quite impossible
to predict the trend of A
orifice
curve without performing detail study for each system on case by case basis.
The wetted area of vessel can be also defined as a function of percent liquid vaporized or liquid hold up volume (V
H
) by
equations (7) and (8). For simplicity, the vessel cylindrical portion area can be assumed as wetted area (head cap area
ignored).
For vertical vessel: A = 4 V
H
/ D (7)
For horizontal Vessel: A = D L Arccos (1-2
D
H
) (8)
Where
4 3 2
4 3 2
h x x f x d x b 1
x i x g x e x c a
D
H
+ + + +
+ + + +
= (9)
and x = V
H
/ V
T
Table 1 Variation of Process Parameters During Fire
Parameter Variation during
fire
Effect on
Orifice Area
Vessel wetted area Decreasing Direct
Gas temperature Increasing Direct
Gas compressibility factor Decreasing Direct
C (function of gas Cp/Cv) Increasing Reverse
Liquid latent heat Decreasing Reverse
Gas molecular weight Increasing Reverse
Table 2 Equation (9) Coefficients
a = 0.00153
b = 26.787
c = 3.299
d = -22.923
e = 24.353
f = -14.845
g = -36.999
h = 10.529
i = 9.892


3


Figure 1 Schematic representation of sequential flashing in Hysys


Case Study
To review the effect of different process parameters variations on the
relief valve required area, semi dynamic approach is utilized for a vertical
vessel in condition specified in Table 3.
As depicted in Figure 1, gas and liquid physical properties at each 5wt%
interval are obtained and used in Excel spreadsheet (Table 4) to calculate
require orifice area. The vessel is assumed to be vertical with elliptical
heads. The wetted area is calculated by D 305 . 1
D
V 4
A
H
+ = (one head is
exposed to fire).

The calculation result for base case has been plotted in Figure 4 where the
maximum area required for relief valve is 0.1655 in
2
which corresponds
to 20% liquid vaporization. Similar calculations have been done for the
same system with different initial liquid content to see its effect on shape
of curve and point at which relief valve required area is maximized. The
results are shown in Figures 2, and 5.

Table 4 The calculation results for condition specified in Table 1
Vap
wt%
-
(kg/m
3
)
V
H

(m
3
)
Mass
(kg) A (m
2
)
Q
(btu/h)
-
(btu/lb)
W
(lb/hr)
Z*
(---)
T*
(F)
M*
(---)
Cp/Cv*
(---)
A
Orifice
(in
2
)
0 508.5 1.18 599 6.02 641812 157.6 4072 0.8025 451.6 89.8 1.094 0.1600
5 500.2 1.14 569 5.85 627669 147.7 4250 0.7888 469.1 95.2 1.094 0.1623
10 492.6 1.09 539 5.68 612424 138.8 4412 0.7751 484.8 100.3 1.095 0.1641
15 485.8 1.05 509 5.50 595999 131.0 4550 0.7621 498.6 105.0 1.097 0.1650
20 479.6 1.00 479 5.30 578555 124.0 4666 0.7495 511.1 109.3 1.099 0.1655
25 474.1 0.95 449 5.09 560028 117.8 4754 0.7378 522.3 113.3 1.101 0.1651
30 469.1 0.89 419 4.88 540580 112.2 4818 0.7267 532.6 117.0 1.104 0.1642
35 464.5 0.84 389 4.66 520288 107.1 4858 0.7163 541.9 120.5 1.107 0.1625
40 460.3 0.78 359 4.43 499158 102.5 4870 0.7063 550.6 123.7 1.110 0.1602
* Physical properties obtained from simulation software
Table 3- Base Case Condition & Composition
Composition
C3 mole% 2.824
nC4 mole% 3.954
nC5 mole% 5.649
nC6 mole% 8.474
nC7 mole% 8.474
nC8 mole% 11.299
nC9 mole% 11.299
nC10 mole% 14.124
nC11 mole% 16.949
nC12 mole% 16.949
Condition
Relieving Pressure barg 12.0
Vessel Diameter m 1.0
Vessel Height m 3.0
Liquid Height m 1.5

4


Figure 2 Required area for 0.3 m of liquid level Figure 3 Required area for 1.0 m of liquid level
Figure 4 Required area for 1.5 m of liquid level Figure 5 Required area for 2.0 m of liquid level

Conclusion
The results of this particular example show that the graph of orifice area versus liquid percent vaporized (time) shows a peak.
This peak usually happens at first 30% liquid vaporization range. The maximum relief valve required area (peak point) is not
more than 5% higher than required orifice at initial condition (relief valve size based on 0% liquid vaporized steady state
approach).
In view of above and considering following facts, I believe conventional approach (using initial gas and liquid properties) is
the most practical method for fire relief study.
- There are lots of uncertainties in fire relief rate calculation such as size of fire, distance to fire, fire heat flux rate, the
effect of fire fighting and depressuring facilities and fire team action on reducing relief load and demand on relief
valve.
- There are lots of overdesign factor such as piping area contingency, wetted area (vessel liquid level) overdesign, etc
which covers this 5% difference.
- Fire is usually categorized as remote emergency.
- The selected relief valve orifice is usually much bigger than required one.
- The limitation of man hour and other resources which are required for rigorous calculation.

In other words, although rigorous methods gives realistic picture but the time needed for building this realistic picture and the
benefits gained form it makes conventional method quite competitive and applied.

Contact
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