Getting Started with BLOWDOWN™ Technology in Aspen

HYSYS®
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A Brief Tutorial (and supplement to training and online
documentation)

Luke Chen, Customer Support & Training, Aspen Technology, Inc.

Anum Qassam, Product Management, Aspen Technology, Inc.

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Contents
Perform Basic Sizing and Rating Analyses..................................................................... 3
Objective ............................................................................................................................ 3
Task 1 – Rate a blowdown orifice for the fire case .............................................. 3
Task 2 – Design the blowdown orifice for the fire case ....................................18
Task 3 –Cold Case Depressurization Rating ........................................................ 22
BLOWDOWN Solutions .................................................................................................... 27
Task 1 ............................................................................................................................. 27
Task 2 ............................................................................................................................ 27
Task 3 ............................................................................................................................ 27

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Perform Basic Sizing and Rating Analyses
Significant challenges arise in the process industry to reduce the capital cost of
pressure relief systems while still ensuring the required safety standards are
met. Although conservative approaches are often desirable for safety
considerations, uncertainties and inaccuracies can lead to gross overdesign.

The BLOWDOWNTM software program developed by Professor Stephen

Richardson of Imperial College London and Dr. Graham Saville formerly of
Imperial College London has been incorporated into Aspen HYSYS V9.0 in
order to provide an accurate determination of these low temperatures, which is
a critical activity in the design and operation of every process plant as it can
reduce capital cost while ensuring the safety of the plant.

Objective
In this workshop, you will be introduced to the BLOWDOWNTM Analysis Tool
and learn how to use this tool for a designing & rating an orifice for pool fire
depressurization scenario and cold case depressurization.

This workshop includes the following tasks:

 Task 1 – Rate a blowdown orifice for the fire case

 Task 2 – Design a blowdown orifice for the fire case
 Task 3 – Rate a blowdown orifice for the cold case

Task 1 – Rate a blowdown orifice for the fire case

A pool fire on a system often represents the scenario which results in the
greatest peak mass flow rate that the blowdown valve (BDV) must handle
(since the liquid will likely vaporize over the course of the fire, causing a rise in
system pressure, which both introduces more possible vapor to the flare
system as well as establishing a greater driving force to the disposal system).

This workshop will show you the key steps of setting up a fire case
depressurization using BLOWDOWNTM Technology in Aspen HYSYS.

The Fuel Gas Receiver in your main flowsheet has been targeted for some
additional study. In this workshop, you need to determine if the existing 0.3”
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blowdown orifice satisfies the API 521 design criteria – which is to depressurize
the system to 50% of the design pressure within 15 minutes.

1. Open the 01_BLOWDOWN Starter.hsc file.

2. To add a BLOWDOWN unit, from the Home ribbon tab, under the Safety
Analysis group, click the BLOWDOWN and Depressuring button and
from on the Depressuring form, click Add | BLOWDOWN Analysis. The
BLOWDOWN Analysis form appears.

Alternatively, from the Home ribbon tab, from the Safety Analysis group,
click the arrow next to the BLOWDOWN and Depressuring button, and
then click BLOWDOWN. The BLOWDOWN Analysis form appears.

3. On the BLOWDOWN Analysis form, edit the Name of the

BLOWDOWN unit to Fire Case Rating. Then, from the Template drop-
down list, select the SingleVessel.blo - Single Vessel
BLOWDOWN Template.

This template is a pre-configured template which sets up the geometry

and connections on the BLOWDOWN flowsheet for a single vessel with
piping. For details about this prebuilt template F1 Help menu has the
information.

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 Note: The button lets you import BLOWDOWN templates from the
Support site and aspenONE Exchange.

4. Next, click the Start Analysis button.

5. On the Design tab of the BLOWDOWN Analysis form, you can set up the
layout of the unit operations in the simulation to fit the actual process
equipment layout.

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 QUESTION: Based on the system drawing in the slides, what should you
select for the Inlet Line, Blowdown Line, and Vapor Outlet Line?

Next, the Number of Segments in Each Line will be specified. The rows in the
Number of Segments in Lines table change depending on the Inlet
Line, Blowdown Line, and Vapor Outlet Line configurations selected.

6. Configure the Number of Segments inputs to best represent the system

drawing.

Hint: You can define a maximum of five pipe segments on each line; these
inputs are used to capture pipe diameter or metallurgy changes that can
occur along the line. We recommend that you add the fewest possible
additional piping segments. The goal is to try to capture accurately the
volume, surface area, and holdup in the equipment upstream of the orifice.
Therefore, only add additional piping segments if there is a significant
change in piping diameter or metallurgy along the line. Otherwise, one
piping segment per required line is sufficient for the analysis. There is no
pressure drop modeled upstream of the orifice.

Next, on the System tab, you will specify equipment, fluid, and ambient
information for all BLOWDOWN unit operations at the same time.

7. Start by specifying Template Parameters which will apply to the entire

template.

8. In the Ambient Air Properties section, specify the Air Temperature

(Temperature of ambient conditions) as 32 ̊C (90 ̊F) and Air Speed
(Speed of air) as 0 m/s (0 ft/s).

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 Note: These values apply to all unit operations on your
BLOWDOWN subflowsheet.

9. For now, you won’t specify Equipment Conditions Upstream of Orifice.

These will be updated from a HYSYS stream that will be linked in
the Initial Inventory section.

Next, you must define the initial inventory in the system at time zero. In the
Single Vessel template, you can specify the inventory of the Main Vessel.

10. On the left-hand side of the System tab, expand Initial Inventory | Main
Vessel.

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11. The composition used in the BLOWDOWN Analysis can be defined either
manually, by linking to a stream on the flowsheet, or by copying and
pasting from a stream on the flowsheet. In this we will choose the
Manual option.

12. Select the Manual radio button, then click the Copy from
Stream button.

13. On the Select Process Stream dialog box, select the Feed _RP stream,
and then click OK. HYSYS copies the composition of the selected stream.

Feed_RP stream has been created with the same composition as Feed
stream but at relieving conditions. (Considering a Design Pressure =
800psig so the Releiving Pressure will be 1.21*800psig= 968psig)

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14. To copy over the stream’s temperature and pressure, click the Copy to
Initial Conditions button. This button overwrites the Initial
Temperature and Initial Pressure values in the Equipment Conditions
Upstream of Orifice table in the Template Parameters section.

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 15. Now the Template Parameters section will have the icon indicating
that you have specified all of the inputs necessary for the
BLOWDOWN run to begin.

Next, you must specify the Vessel Information.

16. Select Vessels in the left-hand pane to specify vessel information on the
Geometry, Heat Transfer and Initial Conditions tabs.

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17. On the Geometry tab provide the following geometry specifications.

Orientation Vertical
Tan-tan 4.572 m (15.0 ft)
Cylinder Inner Diameter 1.524 m (5.0 ft)
Wall Material Carbon Steel
Cylinder Wall Thickness 25.40mm (1.0 in)
Head Geometry Hemispherical
Head Wall Thickness 25.40mm (1.0 in)
Min Design Metal Temperature -20.0 ̊C (-4 ̊F)
Max Design Metal Temperature 593.3 ̊C (1100 F ̊ )

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18. On the Heat Transfer tab, check the “In Fire Zone?” box and make sure
Apply to liquid is selected as the Fire Heat Flux Method. (In this method,
the heat is applied directly to the liquid inside the equipment according
to the API 521 Heat Flux Equation Q=CFA0.82).

F1 Help menu has details about how the API 521 heat flux is applied to
the system.

19. On the Initial Conditions tab, specify the Initial Liq. Volume Percent (%)
as 50% which is the percentage of total volume that is filled by the
liquid at the beginning of the blowdown event.

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Next, you must specify the Pipes Information.

20. Use the system drawing to fill out the Geometry tab of the Pipes table.
There are multiple ways to do this step correctly. The image below
shows one possible solution.

Remember: You want to ensure that the volumes & surface areas are an
accurate representation of the system, as well as the general orientation
of the piping.

21. In this example, we will assume the pipes are not exposed to the fire, so
you can skip the Heat Transfer tab

22. On the Initial Conditions tab for the Pipes, we will fill out the required
inputs based on some general assumptions. In practice, engineers
should validate all assumptions based on any available plant data.

 The Inlet H-1 pipe has a 50% liquid level (since there is pocketing on
the system that prevents free drainage to the vessel).
 All other inlet pipes are assumed to have 0% liquid level.
 The Tail Pipe temperature is assumed to be 90 F (atmospheric)

Next, you must specify the Restriction Orifice Information.

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23. For the Restriction Orifice geometry information, provide an orifice
Diameter of 7.62 mm (0.30 in) and Discharge Coefficient of 0.9.

24. Once all of the icons appear as

, you can move on to the Mapping tab.
Make sure component mapping is successful.

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Next, you must specify the Halt Conditions. BLOWDOWNTM can solve and show
results over any time range with second-by-second reporting of events.

25. You can control the solver’s behavior. On the Run Controls tab, you can
define the simulation time intervals and conditions.

26. Select the Run Controls tab of the BLOWDOWN Analysis form.

27. In the Halt Conditions group, type a halt time of 15 minutes [900
seconds] and halt pressure of 484 psig. When you run your simulation,
once the simulation reaches one of these conditions, it will stop.

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Now the Blowdown case has all the necessary inputs for it to be run.

28. To run the BLOWDOWN simulation, either from the BLOWDOWN ribbon
tab | Run group, click the Run button or on the BLOWDOWN
Analysis form, click the Run BLOWDOWN button.

29. When the BLOWDOWN simulation is finished, a message appears in the

status bar, indicating that the simulation run is complete.

30. On the Results Summary tab of the BLOWDOWN Analysis form, you can
review overall system plots and key results or warnings from the
simulation.

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 31. On the Results Summary tab | Major Findings page of the BLOWDOWN
Analysis form, you can view major findings from your BLOWDOWN
simulation.

32. On the Results Summary tab | Plots page of the BLOWDOWN

Analysis form, you can view BLOWDOWN results in a graphical format.

QUESTION: What is the Vessel Pressure at the final Halt Time? [Write your
answer below]

QUESTION: What is the Orifice Mass flow rate at the final Halt Time? [Write
your answer below]

33. Save your case as 01_Task1_Rating Fire Case.hsc

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Task 2 – Design the blowdown orifice for the fire case

In Task 1, the blowdown orifice is not sized properly to satisfy the design
criteria -- to depressurize the system to 50% of the design pressure in 15
minutes.

You can use HYSYS to iterate on the restriction orifice size to find the minimum
orifice diameter which will meet the design criteria.

The restriction orifice can be designed in BLOWDOWNTM using the Adjust unit
operation on the main flowsheet.

1. On the main flowsheet, copy and paste the Fire Case Rating block.
Change the name to Fire Case Design.

2. Ensure that the simulation always ends at Halt Time rather than at
the Halt Pressure conditions by setting the Halt Pressure to a low
pressure (i.e. atmospheric pressure).

3. Select the Run BLOWDOWN on input changes check box at the bottom
of the BLOWDOWN form.

4. Return to the main flowsheet in which the BLOWDOWN block is located.

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5. Add an Adjust block to the flowsheet from the Object Palette.

6. On the Connections tab | Connections page, for the Adjusted Variable,

specify the Orifice Diameter.

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7. For the Target Variable group, specify the Final Pressure.

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8. For the Target Value group, select the User Specified option and specify
50% of the Design Pressure which is 484 psig (3438.4 KPa).

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 9. On the Parameters tab | Parameters page, in the Tolerance field, specify
a tolerance of around 1-10% of your desired final pressure. So specify 4
psi (27.6 KPa) as the tolerance and 0.1 in (2.54 mm) as the Step Size.

10. Start the Adjust block convergence.

QUESTION: What is the size of the Orifice? [Write your answer below]

11. Save your case as 01_Task2_Sizing Fire Case.hsc

Task 3 –Cold Case Depressurization Rating

In this portion of the workshop, a cold case will be run for the same system.
The goal is to identify if carbon steel is sufficient for the tail pipe and where to
switch to stainless steel if carbon steel is insufficient.

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Cold ambient conditions (32 ̊F), and maximum expected operating conditions
(725 psia, from plant data (for example)) are considered.

12. On the main flowsheet, copy and paste the Fire Case Design block.

Right click on the BLOWDOWN Fire Case and select Copy. Paste on the
main flowsheet. This will resolve the entire flowsheet. Wait until it is
solved.

13. Uncheck the box Run BLOWDOWN on input changes.

14. On the BLOWDOWN Analysis form, edit the Name of the

BLOWDOWN unit to Cold Case Rating.

15. Next, move to the System tab and review the Template Parameters.

16. Change the Air Temperature to 0.0 ̊C (32 ̊F) and change the Air Speed
(Speed of air) as 0 m/s (0 ft/s). (For the cold blowdown scenario, we
recommend an air speed of 0.)

17. For the Equipment Conditions Upstream of Orifice, specify 0.0 ̊C (32 ̊F)
as the Temperature and 5100 kPa (725 psig) as the Pressure.

18. Next, on Initial Inventory | Main Vessel page, select the Manual radio
button, then click the Copy from Stream button. On the Select Process
Stream dialog box, select the Feed stream, and then click OK. Do not
copy to initial conditions.

19. Select Vessels in the left-hand pane to verify the vessel information on
the Geometry, Heat Transfer and Initial Conditions tabs.

20. Uncheck the In Fire Zone? box on the Heat Transfer tab.

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 21. Select Pipes to verify the Geometry, Heat Transfer, and Initial Conditions
tabs

22. Navigate to the Tail Pipe_Boundary form. Click on the Initial Condition
tab and change the initial temperature of the tail pipe boundary to 0 C
̊
(32 F
̊ ).
Now the Blowdown case has all the necessary inputs for it to be run.

23. On the Run Controls tab, specify 2 hours [7200 seconds] as the Halt
Time and 0 psig [0 kPag] as the Halt Pressure.

24. Run the BLOWDOWN simulation.

25. When the BLOWDOWN simulation is finished, a message appears in the

status bar, indicating that the simulation run is complete.

26. On the Results Summary tab of the BLOWDOWN Analysis form, you can
review overall system plots and key results or warnings from the
simulation.

27. On the Results Summary tab | Major Findings page of the BLOWDOWN
Analysis form, you can view major findings from your BLOWDOWN
simulation.

QUESTION: Which equipment have predicted temperatures below the MDMT

for carbon steel?

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28. Save your case as 01_Task3_Cold Case-CS.hsc

29. We will now change the material for Tail Pipe_Boundary to Stainless
Steel and the MDMT to -88.89 ̊C (-148 ̊F).

30. Now Run the Blowdown Case.

31. Save your case as 01_Task4_Cold Case-SS.hsc

Notes:

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BLOWDOWN Solutions

Task 1

QUESTION: Based on the system drawing, what should you select for the Inlet
Line, Blowdown Line, and Vapor Outlet Line?

Inlet Line: With pocket

Blowdown Line: Attached to vessel
Vapor Outlet Line: Leaves vessel vertically

QUESTION: What is the Vessel Pressure at the final Halt Time? [Write your
answer below]

622.13 psig

QUESTION: What is the Orifice Mass flow rate at the final Halt Time? [Write
your answer below]

2931 lb/hr

Task 2

QUESTION: What is the size of the Orifice?

0.360 in

Task 3

QUESTION: Which equipment have predicted temperatures below the MDMT

for carbon steel?

Main Vessel
Tail Pipe_Boundary

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