Professional Documents
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and Reliability
J. THARAKAN, Suncor Energy Products,
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
led to many serious incidents in industry. Operating within The gasket seating stresses relax after assembly, and it is rec-
integrity operating windows (IOWs) is equally important to ommended to impart sufficient assembly load to compensate
avoid unforeseen material damages. The operating manuals for future relaxation. For example, the A193 B7 bolt should be
will not indicate the rationale behind material selection and stressed from 40 kilopounds per square inch (Ksi) to 70 Ksi
the corrosion control documents (CCDs) being created to fill for joint integrity; although, the flange design calculation uses
this gap. The American Petroleum Institute (API) published an allowable bolt stress of 25 Ksi. Many leaks on heat exchang-
RP 584 IOWs in 2014, and RP 970-CCD is expected to be er body flanges could be traced back to low-assembly loads
released in 2017. selected by vendors thinking that they should stay within the
design allowable stress of the bolt. With the release of ASME
Undersized equipment. Gas-liquid separators are sized for PCC-1 in 2010 and training and qualification requirements in
a recommended residence time to enable the separation of the the 2013 revision, this knowledge gap has narrowed.
vapor and liquid phases. If the sizing is not appropriate, liq-
uid can carry over to the downstream systems. These are not Lack of understanding of the design intent. At times,
easy fixes. FIG. 2 shows the failure of a compressor’s diaphragm we fail to communicate the design intent to the user. During
(stationary guide vanes) due to liquid carryover from an un- an engineering review, the author came across a case where a
dersized separator from which the compressor took suction. pressure relief valve (PRV) was twinned, but the operations
It may be worth noting that no knockout drum was present lined up both sets of valves, which doubled the relief capac-
between the separator and the compressor suction. ity. If a relief scenario were to occur, this setup could poten-
tially lead to valve chattering and seat/disk damage. Only one
Misinterpreting flange assembly loads. Flange joints set is supposed to be in line, and the other should be a spare.
are generally the weakest component in a pressurized system. Per API 520 Part 2, when spare relief devices are provided,
a mechanical interlock or administrative controls—which
manage the proper opening and closing sequences of the iso-
lation valves to ensure that only one set is lined up at a time—
should be provided.
The pistons were replaced with lighter ones (FIGS. 3 and 4). when product is pumped out of the tank after the roof lands. A
Takeaway: The check valve’s ability to fully open at available client’s standard required that the bleeder vent be located close
differential pressure must be checked at the design stage. to the center of the roof, with an additional requirement on the
projection of its sleeve above the tank roof. The seating face of
Design/fabrication errors. Reciprocating water-injection the valve was at the top of the sleeve. The tank designer’s prac-
pumps in a hydrocracking unit suffered a catastrophic failure. tice was to place the bleeder vent closer to the outer periphery
The failure began at the welding on the plunger attaching its of the roof. They attached the bleeder vent near the tank center,
cover to the barrel. It is not recommended to use a welded but failed to compensate the length of the sleeve for the roof
plunger in the first place, as the plunger sees severe cyclic sagging. When in service, the accumulation of snow/water on
stresses that could fail a weld. To make matters worse, the the roof caused the roof sagging to increase (FIG. 8). The ad-
weld was defective. ditional weight on the roof increased product displacement as
A failure investigation revealed that the vent hole was miss- per the floatation law. The resulting level difference (h) lifted
ing in the failed plunger (FIG. 5). This vent hole is required to the bleeder valve leaking product above the roof.
relieve the welding fumes, without which the welding is prone
to be defective. The plunger was replaced with a solid plunger Ligament failure. As per API 590, the convection tube sheet
to eliminate the welded joint in this severe cyclic service. of heaters requires a minimum 0.5-in thickness. The spacing
Another notable example was lamellar cracking of pump between the tubes is determined by the center-to-center spac-
boxes—tanks that hold slurry—in a mining project (FIG. 6). ing of a 180° return bend, which is twice the nominal diameter.
The pump box had a rectangular shape with a conical bot- The holes on the tube sheet should be large enough to suit the
tom, and was fabricated from a 1-in.-thick carbon steel plate outside diameter of the fin (or stud) of the convection tubes.
conforming to A 572 Gr. 50. The major contributors leading This leaves a thin ligament, which is often inadequate to with-
to the lamellar cracking were the use of high-strength steel
(yield strength of 50 Ksi), with potentially low-transverse
ductility and a poor weld joint design. Weld shrinkage stresses
perpendicular to the rolling direction promote lamellar crack-
ing. FIG. 7 shows how a joint design can offset the direction of
weld shrinkage stresses. Preheating helps reduce weld residual
stresses, as well. The joint design principle would be applicable
for fabrication of thick header boxes for fin-fan exchangers.
FIG. 5. Cross-section of the plunger.
Misinterpretation of the standard. Floating roof tanks
have bleeder vent(s), which are meant to prevent vacuum
FIG. 4. Cross-section of the modified check valve’s piston. FIG. 7. The improved joint design eliminates lamellar cracking.
stand the operating load. The author has encountered multi- are discussed here; however, the designer failed to distinguish
ple cases of cracking of 0.5-in.-thick tube sheets at the narrow the specific limitations for their application. The first example
ligaments. FIG. 9 shows a cracked tube sheet that was repaired is the selection of a vortex flowmeter to measure the flow on
with stiffeners. Increasing the tube sheet’s thickness is required individual water-injection lines in a hydrocracker during a unit
where the ligament width is narrow. A company’s standard revamp. Orifice meters previously used in this service were suc-
must supplement industry standards, based on experience. cessful. The piping where the flowmeters were mounted ran
through the platform of a bank of fin-fan coolers. Vortex meters
Technology selection. When selecting technology, avoid be- are sensitive to vibration, and the fin-fan platform, where the
ing “guinea pigs.” Two examples regarding proven technology meters were mounted, had sufficient vibration to affect the ac-
curacy of its readings.
A large upstream oil company selected oil-flooded screw
compressors for wet gas compression in its gathering centers.
In oil-flooded screw compressors, the lube oil provides the
sealing between the casing and the rotor lobes. The lube oil
gets mixed with the process gas, is separated in an oil/gas sepa-
rator, and is then pumped back to the compressor through the
oil cooler and the lube oil filter. The compressors experienced
frequent plugging of the lube oil filter. The takeaway was that
oil-flooded compressors were not an appropriate selection for
wet gas compression due to the potential liquid entrainment
in the gas, despite having a gas scrubber upstream of the com-
pressor.3 The entrained liquid degraded the oil, which created
gooey material/solid particles that choked the oil filter.
FIG. 8. When in service, the accumulation of snow/water on the
roof caused the roof sagging to increase, which increased Dry gas seals for pumps. Multiple pumps in light hydrocar-
product displacement. bon/high-vapor-pressure fluids with a dry gas seal developed
an interesting integrity issue. The seal plan was 74 for this dual-
pressurized seal (FIG. 10). The barrier gas, nitrogen (N), was at
a pressure higher than the pump stuffing box pressure. The N
leaked past the inner seal face and into the pump casing of the
pumps that were on standby. This leakage caused vapor lock
when the standby pumps were started. This was resolved by
connecting the seal vent to the vapor space of the pump suc-
tion vessel. This solution channeled the leaking N to the suc-
tion drum, which prevented it from getting into the pump.
FIG. 10. The connection of a seal vent to the vapor space of the pump
FIG. 9. View of a cracker tube sheet repaired with stiffeners. suction vessel channeled the leaking nitrogen to the suction drum.
70 OCTOBER 2017 | HydrocarbonProcessing.com
Maintenance and Reliability
running Pump A almost continuously. This plan is an example that entails additional levels of protection, such as a chop valve
where limitations can be managed, but a flip side to this ex- that closes at a low low level in the separator. Process safety re-
ample does exist. The plant follows a pump swinging program, quires multiple layers of protection. Engineering control is the
which enables the detection of hidden failures and maintains top tier of the hierarchy of these layers of protection. All inci-
even run hours between the machines. These pumps needed to dent investigations require adequate probing to identify hidden
be singled out from the pump swinging program. engineering errors, if any.
Organizations can keep both engineering and administra-
Takeaway. The author has not attempted to cover all of the tive errors in check through periodic PHA, damage mechanism
design errors experienced in this article. A few other examples review (DMR), pre-startup safety review (PSSR) and a robust
are discussed in other technical articles.4,5 Aside from initial de- MOC system. Networking and competency development of
sign, errors can creep in when changes are implemented. People engineers are equally important.
easily visualize changes associated with any alteration of hard-
ware, but can fail to identify other changes that affect integrity. REFERENCES
A change in the feed specification to a unit, in the heat duty of a 1
El Ganainy, O., “Failure of dissimilar metals weld in reformer tubes,” Process Safety
furnace, or an increase in flow through a heat exchanger can im- Progress, July 1985.
2
Moss, D. and M. Basic, Pressure Vessel Design Manual, 4th Ed., Elsevier, 2012.
pact integrity. A rigorous management of change (MOC) sys- 3
Mirza, B. and F. Al-Kharqawi, “Key engineering highlights of facilities and equip-
tem and training are required to recognize and manage changes. ment for oil and gas production in Kuwait Oil Co.,” Journal of Energy and Power
Major engineering errors can lead to process safety events Engineering, January 2016.
(PSEs), which result in an unplanned or uncontrolled loss of
4
Tharakan, J., “Vibration studies offer valuable lessons for correcting problematic
operations,” Hydrocarbon Processing, March 2017.
primary containment (LOPC). Examples to illustrate how de- 5
Tharakan, J., “A deeper examination of the thermal expansion issues in process
sign norms have changed over the years include: equipment and piping,” Hydrocarbon Processing, May 2017.
1. Hydrocarbon liquid relief of a process vessel was
routed to the oily water sewer. Once, an over-pressure JOHN THARAKAN is a corporate static equipment specialist
scenario resulted in a massive release to the sewer, at Suncor Energy Inc. in Canada. He specializes in mechanical
integrity, with a focuses on troubleshooting, failure analysis
which led to a fire. and fitness for service. He holds an MS degree in mechanical
2. Due to the failure of a level controller, gas blowby engineering design and has more than 30 yr of experience
occurred from a two-phase separator to the in the oil industry.
atmospheric storage tank through the rundown line.
Both examples occurred on 50-yr-old plants.
Present design standards require the relief valve outlet to be
connected to the hydrocarbon flare. Gas blowby is a situation Idrojet s.r.l. & Idrokid s.r.l.
evaluated seriously through process hazard analysis (PHA), and proudly presents...
...your full line of heat exchangers maintenance product