EP420/EP427 Process Equipment Design

Chapter 4 – Pressure vessel (part 2)

CLO3: Design the pressure vessel, heat exchanger and distillation column
including the vessel components and piping system (C6, PLO3)

•Pressure vessel codes and standards

•Fundamental principles and equations of
pressure vessel
•General design considerations
•Design of thin walled vessels under internal
pressure
•Compensation for openings and branches
•Design of vessels subject to combined loading
•Vessel supports
•Bolted flanged joints
•Welded-joint design
•Design of components supports
•Selection of vessels accessories and mountings

Mohd Fadhil Majnis

 Compensation for openings and branches

• The presence of an opening weakens the shell,

and gives rise to stress concentrations.
• The stress at the edge of a hole will be
considerably higher than the average stress in
the surrounding plate.
• To compensate (reinforce) for the effect of an
opening, the wall thickness is increased in the
region adjacent to the opening.

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Compensation for openings and branches

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Compensation for openings and branches

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 Vessel Component Design
Vessel subjected to combined loading
Pressure vessel must be designed to withstand the worst
combination of loading without failure. The resultant stress
from all loads must not exceed the maximum allowable stress
intensity at any point.

Basically, the main sources of load are:

1)Pressure
2)Dead Weight of vessel and contents
3)Wind
4)Earthquake
5)External loads imposed by piping and attached equipment

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 Vessel Component Design
Weight Loads
The major sources of dead weight are:
1) The vessel shell
2) The vessel fittings: manways, nozzles
3) Internal fittings: plates, heating and cooling coils
4) External fittings: ladders, platforms, piping
5) Auxiliary equipment which is not self-supported, agitators
6) Insulation
7) The contents: liquid to fill the vessel

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 Vessel Component Design
Weight Loads
For preliminary calculations the approximate weight of a
cylindrical vessel with domed ends, and uniform wall
thickness, can be estimated from the following equation:

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 Vessel Component Design
For a steel vessel, the equation can be reduced to:

The following can be used as a rough guide to the weight of

fittings:
a) Caged ladders, steel, 360N/m (length)
b) Plain ladders, steel, 150 N/m (length)
c) Platforms, steel, for vertical column, 1.7kN/m2 (area)
d) Contacting plates, steel, including typical liquid loading,
1.2 kN/m2 (plate area)

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 Vessel Component Design

Typical values for the density of insulating materials are:

a) Foam glass 150 kg/m3

b) Mineral wool 130 kg/m3
c) Fibreglass 100 kg/m3
d) Calcium silicate 200 kg/m3

p/s: These densities should be doubled to allow for attachment

fittings, sealing, and moisture absorption.

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 Vessel Component Design
Wind Loads (tall vessels)
Wind loading only be important on tall column installed in the
open. Column are usually free standing, mounted on skirt
supports, and not attached to structural steel work.

So under these conditions, the vessel under wind loading acts

as a cantilever, and it can be described as below:

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Vessel Component Design

Where x is the distance

measured from the free end and
w is the load per unit length
(Newtons per metre).

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 Vessel Component Design
▪ So the bending moment, and hence the bending stress will
vary parabolically from zero at the top of the column to a
maximum value at the base.

▪ The bending stress due to wind load is always greater than

the direct stress due to pressure.

▪ The most economical design will be one in which the plate

thickness is progressively increased from the top to the base
of the column, so the thickness at the top being sufficient for
the pressure load, and that at the base sufficient for the
pressure plus the maximum bending moment.

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 Vessel Component Design
Any local increase in the column area presented to the wind
will give rise to a local concentrated load. This can be
expressed as:

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 Vessel Component Design
Dynamic wind pressure
The load imposed on any structure by the action of the wind
will depend on the shape of the structure and the wind velocity.

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 Vessel Component Design

For a smooth cylinder column or stack the following semi-

empirical equation can be used to estimate the wind pressure.

or

If the column outline is broken up by attachment such as

ladders or pipe work, the factor of 0.05 in the equation should
be increased to 0.07 to allow the increased drag.

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 Vessel Component Design
Deflection of tall column
Tall column sway in the wind. The allowable deflection will
normally be specified as less than 150mm per 30 meters of
height.

Wind-induced vibrations
Vortex shedding can induce vibration, and it can be severe
enough to cause premature failure of the vessel by fatigue.

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 Earthquake Loading

The movement of the earth’s surface during an earthquake

produce horizontal shear forces on tall self-supported vessels,
the magnitude of which increases from the base upward. The
total shear force on the vessel can be expressed as:

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 Eccentric Loads (Tall Vessel)

Ancillary equipment attached to a tall vessel will subject the

vessel a bending moment if the centre of gravity of the
equipment does not coincide with the centre line of the vessel.

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 Primary Stresses

The longitudinal and circumferential stresses due to pressure

(internal or external) given by:

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 Direct Stress
The direct stress σw due to the weight of the vessel, its
contents and any attachments.

• Tensile (positive) for the

points below the plane of
the vessel supports
• Compressive (negative)
for points above the
supports.
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 Bending Stress
For horizontal vessel with saddle supports, from the disposition
of dead-weight load, the bending stress will be compressive or
tensile, depending on location, as:

Mv is the total bending moment at the plane being considered,

Iv the second moment of area of the vessel about the plane of
bending.
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 Vessel Component Design
Example:
Make a preliminary estimate of the plate thickness required for
the distillation column specified below:
Height, between the tangent lines 50 m
Diameter 2m
Skirt support, height 3m
100 sieve plates, equally spaced
Insulation, mineral wool 75 mm thick
Operating pressure 10 bar (absolute)
Vessel to be fully radiographed joint factor 1
Material of construction, stainless steel, design stress
135N/mm2 at design temperature 200ºC
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 Vessel Component Design
Solution:
Design pressure, take 10% above operating pressure

Minimum thickness required for pressure loading

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 Vessel Component Design
Dead weight of vessel
The rough estimate of the weight of this vessel can be done by
using the average thickness in the equation, let say 14 mm.

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 Vessel Component Design
Weight of plates:

A value suggested by authors.

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 Vessel Component Design
Weight of insulation:

So the total weight is :

Shell 402
Plates 380
Insulation 60
842 kN
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 Vessel Component Design
Wind loading
Take dynamic wind pressure as 1280 N/m2.

(A wind speed of 160km/h (100 mph) can be used for

preliminary design study, its equivalent to a wind pressure of
1280 N/m2.)

Effective diameter, including insulation

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 Vessel Component Design

Loading

Bending moment at bottom tangent line:

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 Vessel Component Design
Analysis of Stress
At the bottom tangent line, the pressure stress is:

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 Vessel Component Design
Dead weight stress

Bending stresses

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 Vessel Component Design

σw is compressive and therefore negative.

Resultant longitudinal stress = σw + σb + σL
σz (upwind) = 27.8 – 7.4 + 61.1 = +81.5 N/mm2
σz (downwind) = 27.8 – 7.4 – 61.1 = -40.7 N/mm2.
The greatest difference between the principle stresses will be
on the down-wind side
(55.6 - ( - 40.7 )) = 96.5 N/mm2.

This is well below the maximum allowable design stress.

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 Vessel Component Design
Vessel Supports
The method used to support a vessel normally depend on size,
shape and weight of the vessel.

1)Horizontal vessels are usually mounted on two saddle

supports.
2)skirts supports are used for tall, vertical column.
3)Brackets are used for all types of vessel.

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Saddle Support

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Saddle Support

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Saddle Support

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Saddle Support

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Skirt Support

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Skirt Support

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Skirt Support

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Bracket Support

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Bracket Support

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 Saddle Supports
Saddle Supports
The longitudinal bending stress at the mid-span of the vessel is
given by:

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 Saddle Supports
The resultant axial stress due to bending and pressure will be
given by:

The magnitude of the longitudinal bending stress at the supports

will depend on the local stiffness of the shell, if the shell does not
remain circular under load a portion of the upper part of the
cross-section is ineffective against longitudinal bending:

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Saddle Supports

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 3. Vessel Component Design

They are often constructed of bricks or concrete, or from steel

plate. The contact angle should not be less than 120°, and will
not normally greater than 150°.
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 Skirt Support

A skirt support consists of a cylindrical or conical shell welded to

the base of the vessel.

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 Example of Skirt Support
Example:
Design a skirt support for the column as specified in the
previous example.

Solution:
• Try a straight cylindrical skirt of plain carbon steel, design
stress 135 N/mm2 and Young modulus 200,000 N/mm2 at
ambient temperature.
• The maximum dead weight load on the skirt will occur when
the vessel is full of water.

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Example of Skirt Support
Volume of water density

Acceleration due
to gravity

Shell 402
Plates 380
Insulation 60
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Example of Skirt Support

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 Example of Skirt Support
• As a first trial, take the skirt thickness as the same that of the
bottom section of the vessel, 18 mm.

“The skirt thickness must be sufficient to withstand dead-

weight loads and bending moments imposed on it by the
vessel.”

The resultant stress in the skirt will be:

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Example of Skirt Support

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 Example of Skirt Support

P/S: the “test” condition is with the vessel full of water for the
hydraulic test. In estimating total weight, the weight of liquid on
the plates has been counted twice.
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 Example of Skirt Support

Therefore,

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 Example of Skirt Support
The skirt thickness should be such that under the worst
combination of wind and dead-weight loading, therefore,

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 Example of Skirt Support
Take the joint factor J as 0.85. Criteria for the design:

Both criteria are satisfied, add 2 mm for corrosion,

gives a design thickness of 20 mm.
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 Base Ring and Anchor Bolts

Base ring and anchor bolts

The load carried by the skirt are transmitted to the foundation
slab by the skirt base ring.

The moment produced by wind and other lateral loads will

tend to overturn the vessel, this will opposed by the couple set
up by the weight of the vessel and the tensile load in the
anchor bolts.

For preliminary design, the short-cut method and nomographs

given by Scheiman (1963) can be used.

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Base Ring and Anchor Bolts

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 Base Ring and Anchor Bolts
Design (based on the previous example):

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Base Ring and Anchor Bolts

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 Base Ring and Anchor Bolts

Bolt pitch should not be less than 600 mm.

Maximum allowable bolt stress, typical

design value is 125 N/mm2. 60
 Base Ring and Anchor Bolts
The anchor bolts are assumed to share the overturning
load equally, and the bolt area required is given by:

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 Base Ring and Anchor Bolts
The base ring must be sufficiently wide to distribute the
load to the foundation. The total compressive load on the
base ring is given by:

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 Base Ring and Anchor Bolts
The minimum width of the base ring is given by:

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 Base Ring and Anchor Bolts

Rather large ---- consider a flared skirt.

Take the skirt bottom diameter as 3 m.

Sin80.5° = 0.99, so this term has little effect on the design

criteria.

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 Base Ring and Anchor Bolts
Assume bolt circle diameter = 3.2 m
Take number of bolts as 16.

Bolt pitch should not be less than 600 mm.

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Base Ring and Anchor Bolts

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Base Ring and Anchor Bolts

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Base Ring and Anchor Bolts

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Base Ring and Anchor Bolts

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Base Ring and Anchor Bolts

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Base Ring and Anchor Bolts

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Bolted Flanged Joints & Welded Joint

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Types of Flange

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Types of Flange

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Flange Design

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Standard Flange

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 Welded Joint Design
Basic requirement to satisfy:
1. Give good accessibility for welding and
inspection
2. Require the minimum amount of weld metal
3. Give good penetration of the weld meta;
from both sides of the joint, if practicable
4. Incorporate sufficient flexibility to avoid
cracking due to differential thermal
expansion
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Welded Joint Design

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Welded Joint Design

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Welded Joint Design

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http://www.cheresources.com/invision/topic/17041-pressure-vessel-mechanical-design/

1. Assuming you follow Coulson Richardson (vol 6) / Example 13.3 (preliminary thickness for a distillation
column), design conditions for your case could be about 100 oC and 21 barg = 2.1 N/mm2 ; carbon steel
design stress 125 N/mm2 (Table 13.2) and thickness to withstand pressure e=2.1*3600/(2*125-2.1)=30.5
mm (+corrosion allowance). A thicker wall will be needed to withstand wind and weight loads too,
indicated procedure in example 13.3.
2. At vessel bottom tangent line, following stresses are developed.
α. Weight stress (L, negative); L=longitudinal, compressive stress is conventionally considered negative.
β. Bending stress due to wind (L), positive (i.e. elongation) upwind - negative downwind, concerning the
tower section.
γ. Pressure stresses (L and circumferential, the latter being 2 fold L), both positive.
δ. Resultant longitudinal stress is the sum of above (L), different upwind and downwind. Stress (β) has
opposite sign upwind and downwind, but this is not necessarily so for the sum.
3. Probably both upwind and downwind stresses are negative in your case because of the heavy weight
of the vessel. Anyway you can recheck signs of partial stresses before summing.
4. Concerning the skirt, there is no pressure stress (2γ), thus
α. Stress (L) of max absolute value is negative and downwind (both partial stresses are negative, that is
compressive). This is normal.
β. Increasing skirt thickness would decrease absolute value of bending stress (13.9.2, skirt supports),
seeing that bending moment is same; so upwind bending stress (positive) would decrease and sum of
stresses would remain negative. Probably recheck is needed for this case.
Apart from this, 340 mm thickness looks unrealistically high, steel plate so thick cannot be bevelled; but
this was just for testing stress signs.
5. Hope it is helpful, comments are welcomed.
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MID TERM JAN 2017

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In this video compare the amount of force subject to the two cylinders.
The cylinder on the right is a normal cylinder (without strakes). Notice
how it vortex-sheds in regular intervals such that the force applied to the
cylinder is maximized. However, the cylinder on the left, with strakes
added, induces turbulence around the cylinder making the force profile
lower in magnitude and non-oscillatory.
finite element and CFD solutions to real world problems

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