Investigation of Burst Pressure in T-Joints With Wall-Thinning by Using FEA

Abstract

Boilers and pressure vessels are heavily used in numerous industrial plants, and damaged equipment in the plants is often detected by visual inspection or non-destructive inspection techniques. The most common type of damage is wall thinning due to corrosion under insulation (CUI) or flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC), or both. Any damaged equipment must be repaired or replaced as necessary as soon as possible after damage has been detected. Moreover, optimization of the time required to replace damaged equipment by evaluating the load carrying capacity of boilers and pressure vessels with wall thinning is expected by engineers in the chemical industrial field. In the present study, finite element analysis (FEA) is used to evaluate the load carrying capacity in T-joints with wall thinning. Burst pressure is a measure of the load carrying capacity in T-joints with wall thinning. The T-joints subjected to burst testing are carbon steel tubes for pressure service STPG370 (JIS G3454). The burst pressure is investigated by comparing the results of burst testing with the results of FEA. Moreover, the maximum allowable working pressure (MAWP) of T-joints with wall thinning is calculated, and the safety margin for the burst pressure is investigated. The burst pressure in T-joints with wall thinning can be estimated the safety side using FEA regardless of whether the model is a shell model or a solid model. The MAWP is 2.6 MPa and has a safety margin 7.5 for burst pressure. Moreover, the MAWP is assessed the as a safety side, although the evaluation is too conservative for the burst pressure.