I've had a rather strange issue come up and I'd like to see how it compare with everyone else's experience. I'm sure most of us here are aware of API 686 for "machinery installation" and the requirements for piping design. Specifically the 5D of straight run requirement.
Chapter 6, Section 3...
Still developing, so no details on the cause, but local areas are still ordered to shelter in place.
PEMEX Refinery H2S leak
H2S is pretty nasty and most of us local have had to go through safety awareness training specifically for it. Many facilities require folks to wear H2S monitors where...
This was quite the hot topic for those of us in the Houston area yesterday:
La Porte Pipeline Explosion
It ended up being a case of an out of control car from the adjacent Wal-Mart parking lot drove into the right-of-way, crashed through the enclosure fence, and broke the line.
It made for an...
I don't have more detail yet other than the pictures in the article:
350,000 LB Process Column falls off of Transporter
I was really surprised to see this, especially on a straight road as this heavy haul transport is a pretty mature business. The last time I saw anything related to a...
Certainly an engineering failure and a financial disaster:
Free Article
Houston Chronicle Article - Paywall
Edward L. Klein
Pipe Stress Engineer
Houston, Texas
"All the world is a Spring"
All opinions expressed here are my own and not my company's.
I'm struggling to find some references on how to approach this particular problem - at what point does a pipe need to be on a shoe/saddle support due to the local stresses at the support location?
For larger lines, I'm used to them being on a saddle for insulation and/or because they need to be...
It will be interesting to see if this catches on elsewhere or leads to the industrial exemption being completely eliminated. It's interesting that the Texas Board has taken pretty much the exact opposite stand as the California PE code...
I've got a question for the Code experts that I'm looking into.
B31.3 section 319.4 discusses flexibility analysis. 319.4.1 (a) indicates that one of the exceptions to allow the designer to avoid a flexibility analysis is that the system under consideration duplicates an existing system.
I'm...
I'm working with a group on a presentation on pneumatic testing procedures so that everyone in the decision chain understands the issues involved and the potential hazards to consider.
As part of that, I'm building a slide show to kick off the presentation illustrating the kinds of catastrophic...
I've been having trouble finding anymore details than what were in the email I received - I embedded the comments into the PDF file to keep it all together. It looks like the yellow pipe originally came off the machine and then went down into the ground.
We've certainly had plenty of...
There's an email going around now with pictures of the aftermath of this incident:
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2009/200902/20090207/article_390150.htm
Here's your key bullet:
The explosion occurred during a pressure test of the equipment, according to the city government media...
Well, now I've seen everything. As of this posting, this bit is currently featured on the home page at PTP
http://www.pipingtech.com/
PT&P custom designed and fabricated these F-type variable springs with rollers to be used in a refinery in Kansas. The variables are fabricated from carbon...
Just had the latest Piping Tech (PTP) newsletter hit my inbox. Their showing a cold shoe/axial stop designed to withstand a 63,000 lb axial load.
http://www.pipingtech.com/
I must confess, I've not worked LNG. However, I see something like that, and my first thought is that there must be a...
Time for me to learn something new. I'm working on a job where I have to spec out some replacements for worn out snubbers in an old FCCU. Thankfully, I've been able to find documenation on the current ones, so getting replacements will be pretty straightforward.
However, I don't know what I...
http://money.cnn.com/2006/02/13/pf/college/starting_salaries/index.htm
I've been out of school for 10 years now and it look like starting salaries for ME's are up about 25% from the time I graduated. Not too shabby. Thankfully, I've stayed well ahead of that.
Edward L. Klein
Pipe Stress...
Alright, I've googled until my eyes bleed with no luck. I have an Alloy 20 duct system that I am specing out an expansion joint for. I cannot for the life of me find a reference on what the thermal expansion of this material is.
If someone in the group has a table, or a source for a table...
Gentlemen,
I've posted this question in the piping design forum to get input from my fellow piping design and stress engineers. But I'm also curious to hear the experiences of you who have to live with and maintain cat crackers, so I am posting this question here as well:
I'm in the process...
I'm in the process of specing out an expansion joint for an FCCU regenerator flue gas duct. I'm talking with vendors, but I'm curious to get the views on the group on the current "state of the art" regarding protection of the bellows from the build-up of catalyst in the bellows.
The two main...
Alright, I need a pointer to a resource to help explain something that I learned a while back.
If you look at a cross section of a pipe (or it could be a disc with a hole in the middle). Now, the metal heats up. Naturally, the OD gets bigger. But, so does the ID. The hole on the inside...
I've got a fair amount of experience in pipe stress analysis for a number of chemical and refinery piping systems.
However, I'm going to be going into an area that I don't have a lot of experience with - an FCC unit. I've worked in FCC units before, but I've not been involved with the reactor...
