Efficient Intensity Measures for Probabilistic Seismic Response Analysis of Anchored Above-Ground Liquid Steel Storage Tanks

Liquid storage tanks are vital lifeline structures and have been widely used in industries and nuclear power plants. In performance-based earthquake engineering, the assessment of probabilistic seismic risk of structural components at a site is significantly affected by the choice of ground motion intensity measures (IMs). However, at present there is no specific widely accepted procedure to evaluate the efficiency of IMs used in assessing the seismic performance of steel storage tanks. The study presented herein concerns the probabilistic seismic analysis of anchored above-ground steel storage tanks subjected to several sets of ground motion records. The engineering demand parameters for the analysis are the compressive meridional stress in the tank wall and the sloshing wave height of the liquid free surface. The efficiency and sufficiency of each alternative IM are quantified by results of time history analyses for the structural response and a proper regression analysis. According to the comparative study results, this paper proposes the most efficient and sufficient IMs with respect to the above demand parameters for a portfolio of anchored steel storage tanks.

Failure Analysis of High Pressure Rupture Discs and Effective Counter Measures

For the production of LDPE, high process pressures (>1000 bar up to 3500 bar and above) as well as high temperatures (>100 °C up to 300 °C and above) are required. In order to ensure a safe production process the autoclaves and compressors have to be protected against dangerous overpressure. Rupture discs are typically used to protect this high pressure process itself, as well as the employees, and the environment. Traditionally rupture discs for high pressure applications are manufactured by a weld seam which has an influence on the burst pressure. After installation the applied pressure is nearly fully-loaded on the welding joint. Additionally, the welding joint is another unwanted influencing factor. This increases the possibility of an unexpected failure which leads to an unwanted rupture disc response or, in critical cases, to a rupture disc failure recently after initial operation of the process even at lower pressures than the defined burst pressure. This, in turn, leads to a reduced life time of the disc. A special version of a rupture disc, a High Pressure Rupture Disc (HPRD) is developed specifically for this application. This long life version for high pressure applications has a lifetime which is 5–10 times higher than that of a standard rupture disc, that saves money and installation time. The differences are explained in some minor geometrical changes. This safety device allows a protection of high pressures up to 4000 bar and beyond. The HPRD is a forward acting rupture disc and the burst pressure is adjusted by a combination of material thickness, the height of the dome, and, of course, of the chosen material. An easy and simple geometrical change eliminates the welding joint as an influencing factor, thus eliminating any unwanted responding of the rupture disc. The tolerances for high pressure rupture discs are +/−3% and lower and the HPRD can be used for all kind of different high pressure applications.

The Effect of Carbon Diffusion on Creep Behaviours for a Dissimilar Joint Between P91 and 12Cr1MoV Steels

Dissimilar joints have been widely used in many applications, especially for steam piping in the superheater and reheater of power plants. However, these dissimilar metal welds tend to fail less than half of their design life, and carbon diffusion is the main cause of the premature failure. Dissimilar joints operated at high temperature or after post-weld heat treatment (PWHT) exhibit carbon-enriched zone (CEZ) in the high alloy part and carbon-depleted zone (CDZ) in the low alloy part, causing by the chemical potential gradients across the weld interface. The carbides dissolute in the low alloy part while precipitate in the high alloy part. At the same time, a consequent of strength gradients are generated between the CEZ and CDE. The CDZ results in a loss of creep strength due to the carbides dissolution while an increase of strength due to the carbides precipitation. In this work, welding consumable of GTR-2CM was used to join P91 and 12Cr1MoV metals together. The stable phases and carbon activities of these metals are calculated by THERMO-CALC software. Carbon diffusion between P91/GTR-2CM/12Cr1MoV dissimilar joint after aging at 550 °C for varying time are predicted by employing dispersed multiphase model in DICTRA software. Volume fractions of carbides varying with distance from both sides of the weld interfaces were also investigated, showing that the formation of CDZs and CEZs is related to the dissolution and precipitation of M23C6 and M7C3 carbides. The dissolution and coarsening of M7C3 and M23C6 particles in the CDZ and CEZ were also modelled by DICTRA software. The creep properties of base metals, weld metal and the dissimilar joint were investigated at 550 °C. The stress dependence of minimum creep rate and rupture life obeyed the Norton’s power law, and the stress exponents can be used to identify the creep mechanism. Monkman-Grant (MG) relations were also used to study the creep rupture data. The simulation results of carbon diffusion can be used to study the creep properties of CDZ and CEZ for the P91/GTR-2CM/12Cr1MoV dissimilar joint. The threshold stress concept can be incorporated into the analysis of creep power law. The magnitudes of threshold stress within CEZ and CDZ can be calculated according to the volume fraction and average diameter of carbides from carbon diffusion.

Numerical and Experimental Studies of Pipe Vibration Generated by Elongated Orifice

Hydraulic tests for elongated orifice-induced wall pressure fluctuations and vibration in pipeline have been carried out. The regulating modes of test system consist of maintaining outlet pressure to increase flow rate and maintaining flow rate to decrease outlet pressure. Both regulating modes would increase the possibility of cavitation within elongated orifice, which has been confirmed by numerical simulation in present study. Statistical characteristics of the fluctuating pressure and structure vibration response have been studied. The standard deviation analyses indicate that the amplitude of fluctuating pressure is mainly determined by flow rate. The power spectral density analyses show that the energy of the fluctuating pressure behind elongated orifice is concentrated in lower frequency range and it can be divided into two parts in this test: the pressure pulsation excited by plunger pump and the random fluctuating pressure produced by elongated orifice’s disturbance. The power spectral density of pipe vibration response shows that the lower frequency of pipe vibration response can be ascribed to the fluctuating pressure behind elongated orifice and the characteristic frequencies corresponding to cavitation within elongated orifice are in the higher frequency range.

Development of a Quick and Easy-to-Install Strain Measurement Tool for Both Bending and Torsional Piping Stress Assessment

To assess the stresses on small-bore piping, we have developed a new tool that can be easily installed on a piping surface without adhesive bonding and that measures strains on piping quickly and accurately. This tool, which we call a “strain gauge holder,” is patented in Japan. As the tool can contain four strain gauge rosettes, with each rosette comprising three elements, the longitudinal strains and sheer strains can be measured synchronously at any four points precisely 90 degrees apart, with one point in each quadrant. By mockup testing, we confirmed that the measured bending and torsional strains by the holder were almost equivalent to the measured strains by the bonded gauges with adhesive, and that the holder made it possible to synchronously measure all of the strains resulting from the moment of force acting in three axes on the piping by measuring the bending and torsional strains in each quadrant. The strain gauge holder is expected to significantly reduce the pre- and post-working time required for strain measurement and stress assessment of piping in real plants.

Determination of the Creep-Fatigue Interaction Diagram for Alloy 617

Alloy 617 is the leading candidate material for an intermediate heat exchanger for the very high temperature reactor (VHTR). As part of evaluating the behavior of this material in the expected service conditions, creep–fatigue testing was performed. The cycles to failure decreased compared to fatigue values when a hold time was added at peak tensile strain. At 850°C, increasing the tensile hold duration continued to degrade the creep–fatigue resistance, at least to the investigated strain–controlled hold time of up to 60 minutes at the 0.3% strain range and 240 minutes at the 1.0% strain range. At 950°C, the creep–fatigue cycles to failure are not further reduced with increasing hold duration, indicating saturation occurs at relatively short hold times. The creep and fatigue damage fractions have been calculated and plotted on a creep–fatigue interaction D–diagram. Test data from creep–fatigue tests at 800 and 1000°C on an additional heat of Alloy 617 are also plotted on the D–diagram.

Corrosion of Coated Pipe Samples: An Overview and Statistical Analysis of NBS-API Data

The National Bureau of Standards (NBS) had undertaken a comprehensive study of underground soil corrosion of iron pipes and plates. The maximum pit depth data for different types of wrought iron and carbon steel pipes have been widely analyzed and utilized in the corrosion literature. There is another important but relatively obscure data set about the testing of pipes with bituminous coating that NBS carried out in collaboration with the American Petroleum Institute (API). This program tested dozens of coatings on operating line pipes as well as short sections of pipes at 15 soil sites over a 10 year period (1930–1940). This paper presents an overview of this data and presents statistical analysis of protection offered by coatings.

Influence of Residual Stress due to Prior Overloading on the Fatigue Life of a Notched Plate

During autofrettage, pressure vessels are subjected to high internal pressure, causing the internal wall to yield plastically. When the internal pressure is released, the inner wall of the vessel develops compressive residual stress. Similarly, when a subsea component is hydrotested, some of the highly stressed regions yield during hydrotesting and, when the pressure is released, these regions develop compressive residual stress. Fatigue life is greatly influenced by local stress on the component surface. Fatigue crack initiation primarily depends on the cyclic stress or strain and the residual stress state. Tensile residual stress decreases fatigue life and the compressive residual stress significantly increases fatigue life. This is true for both fatigue crack initiation and propagation. In this paper, effects of residual stress on a notched plate are studied by subjecting it to an initial overload cycle and subsequent low loading cycles. Tensile and compressive overloads on the notched plate induce compressive and tensile residual stresses, respectively. An elastic-plastic finite element analysis (FEA) was performed to simulate the overload and low loading cycles on the notched plate. The stress and strain from the FEA is used to perform strain-based fatigue analysis. ASME VIII-3, Brown-Miller (B-M), Maximum shear strain, Socie-Bannantine, and Fatemi-Socie methods are used for calculating the fatigue life of the notched plate. Fatigue life predicted by both stress and strain methods matches well with the test fatigue data.

Dissimilar Metal Analysis and Issues

Detailed analysis of dissimilar metal welds (DMWs) is difficult and the accuracy of the results is often limited by the availability of materials data and knowledge of operating conditions. There are few design or assessment procedures that explicitly take account of the presence of DMWs under high temperature creep and fatigue conditions. One that does is the UK R5 procedure, which provides a simplified assessment approach based on laboratory testing and stress analysis supported by service experience. This paper briefly summarises the R5 approach. Then, more recent work on performance of DMWs operating at high temperature and issues for development of analysis methods is discussed.