Ignore Seismic

[dozer]

The owner of a plant outside of the US is telling the pipe stress engineer to just ignore seismic. His reasoning is in the unlikely event of a major earthquake in which a pipe breaks the system will automatically shut down. The pipe can then be repaired and the plant brought back on line. This would never fly in the US. Is this common in developing counties? If the owner absolutely cannot be persuaded to spring for the extra cost of earthquake protection, what can the engineer do to protect himself?

 

[nickelkid]

When seismic is known not to be a significant load it is often ignored, but that is only in areas as stated. If your client has in an active or potentially active seismic area all you can do is qualify your analysis and clearly state what the analysis does and does not include, as well what should be performed by others.

 

[saplanti]

The seismic application in the pipe stress analysis needs to be proven to be negligible in accordance with the applied standard of the specific country/place and filed even though the client says/confirms it is negligible. If the pipe stress engineer ignores this part he/she will be responsible for the consequence. Additionally, I guess, this analysis will be checked/verified by an independent engineer, The checker/verifier will ask the same question, and will be responsible for the consequence if ignored.

Just ask the client about local seismic code to be able to go through the procedure and see if the analysis is not required. In most seismic codes there are clauses to see the criteria/requirements of the seismic analysis.

 

[Ziggypump]

Find the code. This will tell you how to handle the situation. If the owner still balks, it's not his name going on the plans.

 

[C2it]

We are designing a major North Sea field development ... not an area known for seismic activity .... for a 1 in 10,000 year probability seismic event. It takes no time to add it to a Caesar II type analysis as a static equivalent load.

Quoting Dozer ... If the owner absolutely cannot be persuaded to spring for the extra cost of earthquake protection, what can the engineer do to protect himself?

Remember who may be held responsible for inadequate work ... So, what steps to take ? Big ones.

 

[dozer]

Thanks for the replies. The decision has been made to include seismic in the design despite the owner's objections. As some of you said, it's the engineers name on the design. It just gets tiring always fighting owners on these small plants that want to do everything on a shoestring budget.