New Fatigue Screening Criteria for the Fitness-for-Service Assessment of In-Service Process Piping Vibrations

Abstract

Commonly used piping vibration screening limits are typically justified by experience and lack a well-documented technical basis. This paper presents technical background for future Level 1 Fitness-for-Service (FFS) vibration screening criteria. The criteria assess the risk of fatigue in process piping due to bending mode type vibrations. Finite element analysis (FEA) of 20,000 randomly generated candidate-piping models and high-cycle welded joint fatigue curves for both constant amplitude and variable amplitude loading form the stress limits and basis for the proposed criteria. Most importantly, the proposed criteria aligns with historically used allowable vibration limits rooted in substantial experience. The allowable stress basis implemented in this paper considers periodic and random vibrations making it applicable to situations of mechanically induced, two-phase flow induced, turbulent-induced vibration of single-phase process fluid, or wind-induced, which may be manifested as either periodic or random. To reduce conservatism, limits are set for butt-welded and non-butt welded mainline piping to prevent use of a single blanket limit that may lead to unnecessary piping support alterations/additions, or costly piping configuration changes and unit downtime. Furthermore, the proposed Level 1-type criteria are consistent with previously proposed FFS Level 2 and 3 piping vibration fatigue evaluations [1] intended for inclusion in the ASME FFS-1/API 579 (API 579) Fitness for Service Standard [2].