Analysis of Pipe Supports

[AlbertaMecchie]

Hello,

I am working on designing some pipe supports for a small bore piping system.

These pipe supports will likely consist of columns with small length cantilevers coming out of the columns and the pipes anchored to the cantilevers. The columns would be supported on the bottom with anchor bolts and the top end free.

The piping will exert forces in 3 dimensions and moments in 3 dimensions on the top and midpoint of one of the columns. I am wondering what is a good resource (textbook or online) for help with analyzing the stresses in the column / cantilevers and the baseplate / anchors.

Thanks.

 

[JedClampett]

I doubt you're going to find something exactly pertinent in a textbook. But all you have to do is apply the loads to a cantilever column. If you use pipe sections, you can combine the moments and shears vectorially. Then go to your big old AISC Steel Construction Manual and check the columns for a load and moments. For the base plate, DeWalt and Simpson has free software and Hilti has some you can buy. The weld throat should match the pipe wall thickness.
I like to use a "k" of 2 or 2.1 to get kl/r in these cases. That makes the design comfortably conservative.

 

[TLHS]

I will try to grab a couple of resources later. If by small bore you mean 3 inch and under, that type of support in structural steel is generally governed by the thing you are connecting to or aesthetics as long as your support has a reasonable load path.

The one issue with the strength for the style of support you are talking about is torsion. If you anchor the pipe on so that it tends to twist the support around the column you can have trouble with the types of members that are often used for this kind of support (angles and very light wide flanges). This is pretty dependent on the loading, though. Pipes or tubes are less of a concern.

The other concern that often gets run into is a designer who has not thought about the item that the support is being anchored into. An unreinforced slab on grade does not match well with a pipe support that is primarily loaded in moment, for instance. You have to follow the load path of the support back into the main structure to something that you can decide is acceptable by inspection. That is not necessarily the point of anchorage into concrete.

Do you have access to the PIP standard pipe supports, or something similar? They don't cover every scenario, but they're a nice tool you can use when you're trying to decide if your own design is comparable to standard practice.

 

[JoshPlumSE]

One bit of advice. Be cautious of torsion in the columns is you're using Wide Flanges or Channels for the column.

ASCE has a task committee that has put together a number of books on the design of petrochemical facilities. These books would be a good place to start.

https://ascelibrary.org/doi/book/10.1061/petrochemicalfacilities

 

[HTURKAK]

I will suggest you to look the docs;

- Process Industry Practices PIP PNC00001 Pipe Support Criteria for ASME B31.3

- Process Industry Practices PIP PNFS0001 Pipe Supports Details

I hope you will find one of the typical supports at PIP PNFS0001 will be suitable for you.
In general, the pipe support details are in house typical details of related engineering companies.
If you post a sketch showing the dim, pipe sizes, load , you may get better responds.

 

[1503-44]

Here you go...

https://www.sefindia.org/forum/files/design_of_structural_steel_pipe_racks_115.pdf