PTSC MECHANICAL & CONSTRUCTION

DEPRESSURING STUDY AND

APPLICATION ON
BP-A PROJECT
Vung Tau, May 22rd 2014

Prepared Checked Approved

Full Name Truong Minh Hoang Nguyen Cong Hai -

Signature

Date 22 – May – 2014 May – 2014 May – 2014

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 CONTENT

LOW TEMP
INTRODUCTION PEAK STUDY
STUDY

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 INTRODUCTION

 Depressuring is a process of releasing pressure from an isolated system, it can

be manually or automatically operated.
 Depressuring is considered for high pressure (> 1700 kPag as recommended in
API 521 – Section 5.20.1) systems or systems with large volatile liquid
inventory (e.g LPG) usually when other pressure safety devices such as PSV
can not satisfy requirements of releasing pressure in a given period of time in
case of emergency:
 Emergency Depressuring with Fire (Fire Case): External Fire in Process Area.
 Emergency Depressuring without Fire (Adiabatic Case): process malfunction (valve
failure…).
 System depressuring/drainage for maintenance after long shut-down (Isochoric Case).
 In wellhead platform, typically the following systems are considered for
depressuring:
 Production/test manifolds
 Fuel gas header
 Pig launcher system
 Gas Booster Compressor…
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 INTRODUCTION

 Depressuring system consists of one Blowdown valve (BDV) and one

Restriction Orifice (RO).

Typical depressuring system with SDV and BDV-RO

 System description: In case of emergency, shutdown valves (SDVs) close to

isolate the system from other process area, BDV opens to release pressure
from system to flare header, RO is used downstream of BDV to restrict the flow
and decrease pressure of the relieving stream.
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 INTRODUCTION

 Typical criteria for depressuring in Fire Case: vessel is required to

depressurize from design pressure to 6.9 barg (100 psig) or ½ design pressure
in 15 minutes.
 Depressuring calculation objectives:
 PEAK STUDY: To determine peak flow rate for Vent/Flare network line sizing and RO
bore sizing based on the depressuring time requirement - Fire Case is used.
 LOW TEMP STUDY: To determine minimum design temperature for proper material
selection - Adiabatic or Isochoric Case is used.
 Depressuring simulation can be performed by using different dedicated
softwares. Among them, Hysys is the most common tool. However, if client
require or a higher accuracy needed, softwares such as LNGDYN (Technip
France) or BLOWDOWN (Imperial College London) are preferred for LOW TEMP
STUDY.

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 INTRODUCTION

 Dynamic depressuring utility in HYSYS is used to simulate the

depressurization of gas, gas-liquid filled vessels and systems with several
connected vessels or piping volumes depressuring through a single valve.
 Steps to calculate depressuring:

Information about liquid level on the vessel

Calculate total piping and equipment inventory.

Determine basic composition and conditions

Simulate in HYSYS

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 APPLICATION ON BP-A PROJECT

 System illustration:

HH SET @ 7100 kPag

PZA

 Pipe lengths are estimated as follows:

 FWS Gas Flowline U/S choke valve (HPW/MPW): 5m
 FWS Gas Flowline D/S choke valve (HPW/MPW): 10m
 FWS Production Header: 35m
 FWG Export Line: 25 m
 Pig Launcher: 0.5 m3

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 APPLICATION ON BP-A PROJECT

 System Inventory calculation:

Line No 1 2 3 4 5 6
FWS Gas Flowline FWS Gas Flowline FWS Gas Flowline
FWS Gas Flowline U/S FWS Production FWG Export
Description U/S choke valve D/S choke valve D/S choke valve
choke valve (MPW) Header Line
(HPW) (HPW) (MPW)
Service PG PG PG PG PG PG
DN, mm 150 150 150 150 300 600
Piping Spec 253470X 153470X 153470X 153470X 153470X 15WWWW
Pipe Schedule 160 80S 80S 80S 100 -
OD, mm 168 168 168 168 324 610
ID, mm 131.75 146.33 146.33 146.33 280.97 541.12
Thickness, mm 18.13 10.84 10.84 10.84 21.51 34.24
Liquid Fraction 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
Pipe Length, m 5 10 5 10 35 25
Quantity 2 2 16 16 1 1

Pipe Volume, m3 0.14 0.34 1.35 2.69 2.17 5.75

Volume margin 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%
3
Pipe volume + margin, m 0.14 0.34 1.35 2.69 2.17 5.75
Pipe metal volume, m3 0.04 0.05 0.03 0.05 0.72 1.56

Total Pipe Volume 12.43 m3 Total pipe metal volume 2.45 m3

3
Total Pipe Volume + margin 12.43 Metal density 7801 kg/m
Gas Inventory 12.43 m3 Total metal weight 19102.86 kg
3
Liquid Inventory 0.00 m

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 APPLICATION ON BP-A PROJECT

 Feed Composition and Conditions:

 Composition and conditions of stream holdup in the
Production Header are used as Feed Stream.

 Initial Condition:
 Fire Case: design pressure or PZAHH
 Adiabatic Case: design pressure or PZAHH
 Isochoric Case: relevant pressure with T (minimum
ambient temperature)
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DEPRESSURING USING HYSYS

Tool + Utility or Ctrl + U

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PEAK STUDY

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 PEAK STUDY

1. SPECIFYING CONNECTIONS Feed stream

Case Name
Specify the composition and
conditions of the fluid holdup
in the system right prior to
depressuring.

“Horizontal”
for system in which piping is
dominant.
Volume of the system
the cylindrical portion only.
Vessel Dimensions
Initial liquid inventory
based on NLL or HLL
Metal mass in contact with
liquid and vapor
Hysys will use the heat content
The cylindrical area of this metal when performing
calculated from input vessel geometry. the calculation (for Fire Case,
Head surface area can be specified. this is optional).
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 PEAK STUDY

2. CONFIGURING STRIP CHART

 Strip chart is used to store all the data of the depressuring calculation.

Sampling Interval = 0.5s

The length of time between data
samples taken from the strip
chart. Smaller interval is
preferred if more details needed
or if the relieving flow rate is
significantly larger than the
volume or if vessel
depressurizes in a short amount
of time.

Tick to active the variable

Add a new variables

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 PEAK STUDY

3. SPECIFYING HEAT FLUX

Select: Fire API 521
models heat from a fire using
an equation based on API 521:
Q = 21000.F.A0.82 (Btu/hr)
C1, C2
Constants from API 521

Environmental factor = 1
C3 depends on insulation
method of system. 1 for bare
vessel is used as conservative
value.
Heat loss = None
None heat loss model is used
for worst case.

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 PEAK STUDY

4. SPECIFYING VALVE PARAMETER

Back pressure = 0 kPag
For initial value: Pb = 0 kPag
Pb has significant effect on
Subsonic valve model only.

General vapor flow equation

should be used for systems
that are depressurized through
a fixed orifice.
Cd = 0.85 for vapor relief

Estimated RO area

No liquid relief

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 PEAK STUDY

5. SPECIFYING OPTIONS

0% for conservative results

PV Work Term Contribution is
used to approximate the
isentropic efficiency. 100%
indicates isentropic
processes while 0% means
isenthalpic processes.

Hysys recommends common

values range from 87% to
98%.

A higher isentropic efficiency results in a lower final temperature

A lower isentropic efficiency results in a higher peak flow rate

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 PEAK STUDY

6. SPECIFYING OPERATING CONDITIONS

PZAHH set point
This value is specified in Feed
Stream.
Time step size = 0.5s (default)
the integration step size

Depressuring time = 15 minutes

Select Calculate Area:

Orifice area/ valve Cv is
iterated to meet depressuring
requirements (final pressure
and time).
Initial area estimate

Final Pressure = 690 kPag

Run simulation after all data are filled

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 PEAK STUDY

RESULTS

Valve area = 187.3 mm2

Vapor peak info

Composition and
conditions of peak flow
Vapor peak flow rate = 9402 kg/h

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LOW TEMP STUDY
 LOW TEMP STUDY is based on Adiabatic or
Isochoric Case, whichever results in lower temp.
 Most Options are the same with those of PEAK
STUDY, except the followings.

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 LOW TEMP STUDY

1. SPECIFYING CONNECTIONS
Case Name

Initial liquid inventory

based on LLL

Metal mass in contact with

liquid and vapor
This values should be
specified. If not, Hysys will
assumes no metal mass and
this definitely results in over
design.

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 LOW TEMP STUDY

3. SPECIFYING HEAT FLUX

Select: Adiabatic
No external heat is applied

Heat loss = Detailed - Conduction

The conduction parameters allow
the user to manipulate the
conductive properties of the wall
and insulation.

It is recommended to use detailed heat loss model and specify the thickness of the metal wall.
If not, Hysys assumes no metal mass and this definitely results in over design.

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 LOW TEMP STUDY

5. SPECIFYING OPTIONS

100% for conservative results

A higher isentropic efficiency
results in a lower final
temperature.

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 LOW TEMP STUDY

6. SPECIFYING OPERATING CONDITIONS

PZAHH set point
For Adiabatic Case: design
pressure or PZAHH.
For Isochoric Case: relevant
pressure with T (minimum
ambient temperature).
Depressuring time = 30 minutes
Trial depressuring time to meet
final pressure of 0 kPag.

Select Calculate Pressure:

Final pressure is calculated
from specified orifice area and
depressuring time.

Valve Area = 187.3 mm2

Valve area is obtained from
PEAK STUDY.
Run simulation after all data are filled

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 LOW TEMP STUDY

RESULTS ADIABATIC CASE

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 LOW TEMP STUDY

RESULTS ISOCHORIC CASE

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 DEPRESSURING STUDY

 References:
 PTSCMC-000-WI-F-0030 - WI Report.docx - “Low Temp Study” - Nguyen Cong Hai

 “Depressurisation - A practical guide”, HYPROTECH.

 “Aspen HYSYS 7.2 - Unit operations guide”, 14.8 Dynamic Depressuring.

 API RP 521, 5th Edition, 2008.

 API RP 520 Part I, 7th Edition, 2000.

 BN-MLS-21-PTSC-308012_CN - Depressurisation_Full

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APPENDIX A

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APPENDIX B

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 APPENDIX B-1

 Heat flux: specify heat model

 Fire API 521: models heat from a fire using an equation based on API 521.
 Adiabatic: no external heat is applied, this is used for LOW TEMP STUDY.
 Fire Mode: models heat from a fire using a general equation.
 Fire - Stefan Boltzmann: models heat from a fire using a radiation equation.
 Use Spreadsheet: allows the user to customize the equation used.

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APPENDIX C

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APPENDIX D

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APPENDIX E

 1. Supersonic: is used when no

detailed information available on
the valve and supercritical flow
(generally Pupstream > 2Pdownstream)
 2. Subsonic: is used for sub-
critical flow (usually Pupstream <
2Pdownstream).
 3. Manesolian: Taken from the
Masoneilan catalogue, this
equation can be used for general
depressuring valves to flare.
Often the Cv or a valve is known
from vendor data.
 4. No Flow: indicates there is
now flow through the valve.

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APPENDIX F

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 APPENDIX G
13470X
153470X
153470X

15WWWW

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