I am trying to find the min wall requirement for a 12 ft dia meter condenser. TEMA does not apply since the diameter is greater than 100 inches and ASME section VIII 16 doest not apply to heat exchangers.
If indeed this is a Steam Surface Condenser, then the wall thickness and general design is controlled by external pressure. But there are many other details that you must become aware of
As mentioned above, these are peculiar beasts and the structural design requirements are outlined in HEI standards. (SSCs designs can be simple or very complex .... search eng-tips to get an idea of some of the issues discussed)
Since your question implies that you have never designed one of these before and your unwitting MBA boss has assigned you to "find the wall thickness" ..... I think that you may be over your head.
I have specified and purchased Steam Surface Condensers for small power plants in years past. The best thing you can do is to fill out the standard datasheet and contact some of the major SSC fabricators.
This is the standard for design (mechanical and thermal) for steam surface condensers.
The standard has a data sheet that fill out to give the application conditions, then manufacturers can design to that.
Thanks everyone for the useful answers.
Yes, it is a steam surface condenser. It is 3/4 inch thick and under 14.1 psi pressure. I will check out the codes.
As mentioned, we got it in 1968 from a company that went out of business 20 years back. And, I could not find any minimum wall requiremnt from the calculation or drawings. I could not locate the material certificate or anything from manufacturer.
I have never designed one before. I tried to find min wall thickness requiremnt in ASME VIII and TEMA. But could not find anything applicable to this condenser.
Have you checked ASME VIII-1 UG-28 for vessels subject to external pressure? Its not as quick as an internal pressure, you have to follow along and go to some tables in the Appendices. Since mode of failure is a buckling response, you need to look to location of any stiffeners. I've used it to determine minimum wall thickness for a heater drain tank that had water at saturation. The internal sparger could meant the tank needed to be rated for nearly full vacuum.