Piping Systems Are Critical To Many Processing Plants Or Facilities, And Because Of That They Need To

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Piping systems are critical to many processing plants or facilities, and because of that they need to be designed and fabricated with precision and care. The efficiency and operational flexibility of many plants and facilities depends greatly on the ability, flexibility and efficiency to transport fluid through the piping to equipment and machineries functioning collectively. A piping system, owing to its crucial role of fluid transport, requires a systematic approach by various engineering tools and methods prior to its construction and commissioning. Piping should be supported to prevent failure due to various loading conditions such as self-weight, operating pressure, temperature differences and dynamic loads.

This article discusses piping stress analysis for processing plants with a focus on practical notes and useful technical guidelines. Complex formulations or numerical aspect of analysis are not discussed in favor of practical guidelines.

Stresses in piping systems: primary and secondary

For most piping systems including nozzles and branch connections, two major types of stresses are encountered. These are classified as primary and secondary stresses. Primary stresses are generated by primary loadings such as pressure and weight. The secondary stresses are associated with cyclic conditions such as temperature changes or imposed displacements.

There have been two major criteria for primary stresses. The hoop stresses due to internal pressure should be safe and within specified limits considering the wall thickness of the piping components, including any reinforcement. The sum of the longitudinal stresses due to pressure, weight and other sustained loadings should be less than the specified limit. These limits are also function of operating temperature. Allowable stresses are reduced at high or low temperatures.

Considering secondary stresses, there have been specific sets of allowable stresses that are repetitive and cyclic. One set is the range of (secondary) stress in a piping system subjected to thermal movements. The temperature range for this condition is the total range from minimum to maximum or vice versa. The region of highest thermal stress is usually where the system absorbs most of the thermal movements. This can be the place with highest temperature difference.

Relatively high initial thermal stresses may decrease with time because of plastic strains. However, thermal stresses might reappear, probably in reversed direction, when the operation is shifted to another operating case with a different temperature. This phenomenon forms the basic difference between thermal stresses (secondary stress) and pressure or weight stresses (primary stress). Plastic strains can release the magnitude of thermal stresses by a change in the shape of the piping center-line or permanent deformations. This change in the shape has no practical effect on the sustained pressure or weight stresses. For this reason, sustained stresses are typically limited to the lowest allowable stress at maximum/minimum normal operating temperature.

The degree of the above-mentioned effect will depend on the magnitude of the initial thermal stresses and the temperature. For example, the initial hot stress will in general decrease with time, and the sum of the hot and cold stresses will stay about the same. This sum is called the displacement (or expansion) stress range and is, therefore, independent of the initial state of piping during erection.

As a rough indication, for materials below the creep range, the allowable stresses are somewhere between 60% to 66% of the yield stress. Therefore, a rough safety factor of 1.5 - 1.6 was considered before reaching the yield. Too often, this is the bending stress at which plastic flow starts.

Nozzle loads

Nozzles serve to connect an equipment or machinery with adjoining piping network. These are relatively weak points which could be under considerable loads from piping. Nozzles whether nozzles of fix equipment (such as vessels, heat exchangers, reactors, etc). or nozzles of machineries (pumps, compressors, etc) are one of the most sensitive and critical components of piping stress analysis. A set of allowable loads for each nozzle in the form of forces and moments is usually provided by the manufacturer. Actual forces and moments imposed by the adjacent piping system on the nozzles should be less than the allowable limits. This is an important consideration particularly for delicate machineries that usually can only tolerate very low nozzle loads. This imposed many limitations on the piping systems connected to such machineries.

How to support piping?

The answer to this question needs many considerations and studies. However, a few rules are noted to start the supporting. Firstly, an optimum value of piping span should be estimated considering the weight load, temperature and pressure. As the focus is on weight load, rest supports should be inserted at each length of span calculated to restrict the downward displacements and associated stresses to recommended values. At this stage, restricting displacements in lateral and axial directions should be limited to only necessary locations.

Guide supports and stop supports should subsequently be used to limit the piping displacements in the lateral and axial direction, respectively. Anchor support and a set of supports limiting lateral movement should be specifically placed somewhere near sensitive equipment (such as a delicate machinery) to limit loadings on nozzles of such an equipment or machinery.

An important case is where the piping is lifted from the support (resting support, guide, etc). In numerical terms, this might be seen as reaction forces of zero magnitude. In that case, either those supports should be removed if estimated allowable span and other considerations allow this or adjustments of nearby supports made to account for efficient load distribution. Alternatively, if a support is needed in the location with lift-off due to any reason, for instance, to control modal/dynamic movements, a gripping or clamping supported (such a clamp) may be in that place.

How to reduce stresses and reaction loads

High reaction force is a major issue in piping and equipment nozzles. There are different methods to deal with this problem. One possible approach to alleviate the high stresses or high nozzle loads would be to accommodate thermal movements by changing the routing of the piping system by using a few additional bends, “Z” loops, U-turns, expansion loops or others. If not possible or not successful, other expensive options such as expansion joints and hangers might be used. These devices use spring effects to reduce the stresses, reactions and nozzle loads. These options impose considerable initial and operating costs to the piping systems and the plant. They reduce overall reliability. They should be used as the last option when other simpler and cheaper options cannot be applied.

Typically, hangers accommodate expansion along a vertical line only. They have been used to accommodate the weight of piping spool on the nozzles of equipment or machinery where rigid supports cannot be used due to thermal movement considerations. Expansion joints are restricted by a very high price range and thus expansion loops or similar turn are always the best options. Expansion joints can accommodate for all the axial movements, but requires special fittings, and many provisions. They have been maintenance-intensive. They are delicate pieces of equipment and only used in special circumstances.

Battery limits and connected piping

Often to have a clear picture of stresses and loads of piping systems of a unit and proper optimization of the piping, all surrounding and connecting piping systems should be considered. This is a critical consideration. How far of connecting piping should be included is a matter of debate.

The analysis of the piping in a unit should include a portion of the connected and surrounding piping systems so that the true response of the piping system under consideration is captured. The best approach is to model the interaction between all different piping, equipment and facilities as far as possible. The amount of piping to include in the model will vary from case to case but in general it should include:

The piping up to at least three supports past a change in direction from the orientation of the battery limit of the unit under study. This is just an estimate, if required, a larger portion of the surrounding piping should be considered. For instance, sometimes, there are three guides or resting supports and there are configured in a way that axial movement can still be transferred to or from the unit.

The flexibility of supports. When the flexibility of a support is considered, a support load and associated stresses are reduced. Such as reduction might be negligible or significant depending on many factors such as the flexibility of the support compared to the flexibility of the piping and overall system.

The flexibility of the nozzle-shell intersection at any connection of equipment.

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FUNDAMENTALS OF COMPANY CULTURE — BEHAVIORS ASSOCIATED

Everyone wants to improve their company culture. Culture has become the ultimate buzzword these days. Leaders also seem to talk about it all the time. Let’s look past the buzz and grasp the roots of organizational culture. If we want to influence our company culture, we have to start with a keen understanding of what culture actually is.

What Is Company Culture?

Culture is the thing we cannot necessarily touch and feel — it is the invisible binds and unspoken rules that enforce “how people do things around here.” However, this definition can be insufficient at times. “The way we do things” feels awfully vague and amorphous, especially when it comes to thinking about how to intentionally create a company culture we’re proud of. As a result, our attempts to influence culture get muddled. We conflate culture with surface-level relics, confusing culture with “Things To Make People Feel Good.” - ping pong tables, happy hours and free lunches. Sure, those are part of “the way we do things” — but it doesn’t explain why we are doing those things. Culture includes that why.

Measuring Company Culture

We can’t. And we don’t want to. Culture isn’t meant to be measured. Why? Because culture, technically defined, is the artefacts, espoused values and beliefs, and basic underlying assumptions that people have. And that can’t be measured quantitatively. Measuring/ quantifying it may erode the point of culture. Culture is an organization’s compass for behaviour. It’s what people use to decide what actions are acceptable, and what are not. For example, at some places it may guide people to publicly report a mistake. At other places, it nudges people to brush a similar mistake under the rug.

Measuring culture is like saying we want to measure a compass. We can pick it up and say, “Hmm, let me rate the shininess of this compass, or weigh how heavy it is.” But, really, what we care about is if the compass points us to where we want to go. Measuring the compass itself doesn’t do you much good. Because if we don’t see culture as a lever that influences what we are trying to accomplish as a team, and instead as the thing itself we are trying to maintain, we lose sight of culture’s power in the first place: Culture helps a group of people get what they want done, done.

As a result, what we can measure are the outputs of culture. The observable behaviors and indicators we see as the consequences of our culture. Possibly the most important output to gauge is progress. Studies show how progress, more than anything, influences employee motivation. This means defining what “progress” looks like on a day-to-day basis. Is it the speed by which things are happening? Is it the quality of the work being produced? Is it the number of people we are helping because our work product exists? It could also mean asking questions like how helpful managers are in supporting people to make progress, or how frequently they encounter frustrating obstacles in a given week. Therefore: If we want to measure culture, we need to start with clearly defining what the outputs of a successful, healthy culture looks like in our context.

Levels of culture

Why this matters

More often than not, there is a misalignment between the invisible and visible layers. The things we actually believe, versus the things we say we believe and the things we do to show it.

A Sample Case Study: Perhaps the most glaring case has been Uber. A company that no doubt had visible signs as “proof” that they valued their employees — lavish office parties and state-of-the-art offices. A company that had 14 cultural values it touted, including that employees should “be themselves.” And yet the basic underlying assumption persisted: Win at all costs, by any means necessary. We saw this in countless of examples of questionable ethics and sexual harassment issues ignored. At its core, Uber’s culture was rooted in this aggressive, toxic mindset — and that manifested in how they treated their people, regardless of what superficial artifacts or espoused values they trumpeted.

If we are looking to truly shift our company’s culture, we have to zoom in on this bottom most layer: our basic underlying assumptions. What we truly believe — not always what we say or outwardly show — is what drives the company’s culture. Changing the company culture is not about just changing the visible signs. Getting beer taps installed in the kitchens doesn’t make the culture more friendly. Nor does building an onsite gym mean the culture all of sudden cares about employees’ health and well-being. Changing the company culture also is not about just changing the espoused values and beliefs. Saying at all-company meetings, “We believe in honesty and transparency” or writing “We believe in diversity and inclusion” on a website doesn’t automatically make those things true.

Changing company culture is about tapping into the core beliefs of each individual, understanding what their basic underlying assumptions are, and creating an environment where those can be listened to, brought together, and reacted to. If we can understand company culture, we can improve it.

Classification of Culture Types: The Schneider Model

The Schneider cultural model isn’t a new approach but it is relevant today. William Schneider describes culture as the answer of “How we do things around here to succeed?” No one culture type is better than another. They only have strengths and weaknesses. Depending on the type and nature of work, different types of culture may be a better ﬁt. Companies typically have a dominant culture with aspects from other cultures. Different departments or groups may have different cultures. (e.g. development vs. operations), and these differences can lead to conﬂict.

Four Main Types of Culture

The Schneider Model identifies the primary, underlying culture which shapes the organisation. There are 4 main types: - Control - Cultivation - Collaboration – Competence

Control cultures (COMPANY/REALITY oriented) are process-driven; the company’s success depends on data, processes, etc. Many energy, aviation and defence companies have control cultures. Control cultures prize objectivity. Emotions, subjectivity, and ‘soft’ concepts take everyone’s eye off the ball and potentially get the organization in trouble. Empiricism and the systematic examination of externally generated facts are highly valued. Control cultures want no competition – they want to be the only players in town. Control cultures are command-and-control/ hierarchical- Leaders manage the work. Examples: The military, Police, Exxon.

Collaboration cultures (PEOPLE/REALITY oriented) – people work together towards a shared goal. The Collaboration culture springs from the household. Relationships are key to getting things accomplished. Google is an example, though it also has cultivation culture elements. The way to success is to put a collection of people together, to build these people into a team, to create their positive touching relationship with one another and to trust them with fully applying one another as resources. Status and rank take a back seat.

Cultivation Cultures (PEOPLE/POSSIBILITY oriented) are often cantered around a greater mission. Cultivation Culture is about learning and growing with a sense of purpose. Examples include religious organizations, non-proﬁts, social impact organizations. Leaders remove obstacles that impede attaining the company’s mission. Example – Zappos.

Competence Cultures (COMPANY/POSSIBILITY oriented) are innovative (possibility) and utilize the best talent to bring ideas to bear. Examples: Deloitte, Apple. In a competence culture, being superior or the best is chief. This can mean having the best product, service, process or technology in the marketplace. This culture gains its uniqueness by combining possibility with rationalism. What might be and the logic for getting there are what count.

Fundamental values are knowledge and information. Formalities and emotional considerations are not important compared to proven accomplishment.