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    FLARE STACK STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY ASSESSMENT Case Study

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    Elmigdad Omer
    Finglow Consultants Ltd was commissioned to conduct a structural integrity assessment of the upper water seal section of an integrated knock-out drum and 40m tall flare stack located at a refinery in South Wales. The assessment aimed to identify minimum acceptable metal thicknesses susceptible to internal corrosion. The analysis determined that the guy ropes providing support against wind loading were fundamentally important to the overall structural behavior. A finite element model was carefully constructed using a mixture of solid, shell, beam and spring elements to accurately represent the structural behavior and predict stress levels. The conclusions from the work regarding minimum thicknesses enabled the client to make informed decisions to ensure safe continued operation.

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    FLARE STACK STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY ASSESSMENT Case Study

    Uploaded by

    Elmigdad Omer
    28 views1 page
    Finglow Consultants Ltd was commissioned to conduct a structural integrity assessment of the upper water seal section of an integrated knock-out drum and 40m tall flare stack located at a refinery in South Wales. The assessment aimed to identify minimum acceptable metal thicknesses susceptible to internal corrosion. The analysis determined that the guy ropes providing support against wind loading were fundamentally important to the overall structural behavior. A finite element model was carefully constructed using a mixture of solid, shell, beam and spring elements to accurately represent the structural behavior and predict stress levels. The conclusions from the work regarding minimum thicknesses enabled the client to make informed decisions to ensure safe continued operation.

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    FLARE STACK STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY ASSESSMENT case study

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    Finglow Consultants Ltd was commissioned to conduct a structural integrity assessment of the upper water seal section of an integrated knock-out drum and 40m tall flare stack located at a refinery in South Wales. The assessment aimed to identify minimum acceptable metal thicknesses susceptible to internal corrosion. The analysis determined that the guy ropes providing support against wind loading were fundamentally important to the overall structural behavior. A finite element model was carefully constructed using a mixture of solid, shell, beam and spring elements to accurately represent the structural behavior and predict stress levels. The conclusions from the work regarding minimum thicknesses enabled the client to make informed decisions to ensure safe continued operation.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    28 views1 page

    FLARE STACK STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY ASSESSMENT Case Study

    Uploaded by

    Elmigdad Omer
    Finglow Consultants Ltd was commissioned to conduct a structural integrity assessment of the upper water seal section of an integrated knock-out drum and 40m tall flare stack located at a refinery in South Wales. The assessment aimed to identify minimum acceptable metal thicknesses susceptible to internal corrosion. The analysis determined that the guy ropes providing support against wind loading were fundamentally important to the overall structural behavior. A finite element model was carefully constructed using a mixture of solid, shell, beam and spring elements to accurately represent the structural behavior and predict stress levels. The conclusions from the work regarding minimum thicknesses enabled the client to make informed decisions to ensure safe continued operation.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 1

    FINGLOW CONSULTANTS LTD................................

    for reliable engineering solutions

    FLARE STACK STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY ASSESSMENT

    When undertaking the design or assessment of a piece of equipment, it is essential to accurately


    identify the most important structural features and the governing load cases in order to reach
    reliable conclusions. For simple items this is usually a straightforward exercise, but for more
    complex structures it can prove much more difficult. Aided by the presence of staff with significant
    experience in the field of structural analysis, FCL pride themselves on their ability to ‘zero-in’ on
    the key aspects of any given design and to then develop an appropriate and efficient methodology to
    adopt in progressing with the required scope of work.

    An example of this involved the structural integrity assessment of the upper water seal section of an
    integrated knock-out (KO) drum and flare stack located at a refinery in South Wales. The work was
    commissioned to identify minimum acceptable metal thicknesses in areas believed susceptible to
    internal corrosion, for subsequent comparison with measured thicknesses. The KO drum itself was
    a relatively straightforward vertical pressure vessel, but in order to accurately predict stress levels it
    quickly became apparent that it would be essential to also include consideration of the 40m tall
    stack, which was stayed by three guy ropes to provide additional support against wind loading.
    Furthermore, initial scoping work indicated that the support offered by these guy ropes was of
    fundamental importance to the overall structural behaviour. After a series of development studies,
    it was determined that the guys could best be represented using spring elements with appropriate
    tensile stiffness, which were only included in the model at locations where the guys were expected
    to be placed in tension by the applied loading. Appropriate consideration of self weight and pre-
    loading was then made by the separate application of forces to the guy rope attachment points.

    Linear elastic stress analyses were carried out using


    Pro/MECHANICA (now CREO/Simulate) finite element
    software, using a carefully constructed model that
    comprised a mixture of solid, shell, beam and spring
    elements. Solid elements were used in areas of particular
    interest where the greatest accuracy was required, while
    shell, beam and spring elements were used elsewhere to
    reduce model complexity and make more efficient use of
    computing resources. The increased understanding of the
    structural behaviour provided by the work and the
    conclusions reached regarding minimum acceptable metal
    thicknesses enabled FCL’s client to confidently make
    informed decisions regarding the necessary actions to take
    to ensure the continued safe operation of this important
    piece of plant.

    FINGLOW CONSULTANTS LTD


    Beane Bridge House, 34 Chambers Street, Hertford, SG14 1PL, UK
    Telephone: +44 (0)1992 585450
    Facsimile: +44 (0)1992 585460
    e-mail: [email protected]
    website: www.finglowconsultants.co.uk

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