Non-destructive testing and assessment of a piping system with excessive vibration and recurrence crack issue: An industrial case study.

Abstract

Flow in piping generates random excitation which is non-periodic and that means resonance will not be the key factor to pipe failure. One of the main causes of pipe failure is weak supports. Due to their dissimilar stiffness in the piping system, it leads to low frequency and high amplitude flow induced vibration that causes high cyclic stress resulting in high cycle fatigue failure of the joints. Other contributing factors in pipe failure are poor or inadequate design, poor workmanship during installations or maintenance and inadequate or weak and flexible support. These pipes are usually required to work non-stop for 24 hours a day 7 days a week for weeks, months or years at a time. Regular monitoring and in-service dynamic analysis should ensure continuous and safe operation. This paper presents a case study on monitoring, diagnosis, and maintenance of a piping system. High vibration was observed during routine maintenance, in a 30 m high, 24 inch diameter amine pipes at an oil and gas processing plant in southern Thailand. Amine liquid leakage due to high cycle fatigue crack was reported at the piping bearing and this remained a major concern for the personnel at the plant. A non-destructive testing approach which relies on a combined experimental techniques (i.e. Operating Deflection Shapes (ODS)) and computational mechanics (i.e. Finite Element (FE) modal analysis, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Analysis, Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) Analysis) was used to assess the structural integrity of the piping and in the effort of proposing a suitable recommendation in rectifying the high vibration issue. The analyses concluded that the root cause of high vibration was due to inadequate and weak piping support. As a result, additional supports were proposed to counter the deflection of the piping generated by the flow. The supports were found effective in reducing vibration in which the stress concentration at the new supports and the piping was considered relatively low.