CODE ASME SEC. VIII DIV I Air Storage Pressure Vessel 3

[Ezgi Yildirim]

Hello everyone,

We have a new project for turbine gas supply system.

For a gas supply system project designed to supply air to the turbine system, we need to manufacture 2 cylindrical pressure vessels. All the data calculated for the tanks are as follows.
Pressure: 150 barg
Test pressure: 225 barg
Volume: 3000 liters
Material Thickness: 50 mm
OD* Shell length: 800*6000 mm
Material: P355GH
We are looking for a solution on how we can produce these tanks economically and with high quality.
Can we make this production by supplying a pipe with this material thickness? Or can we rolled a plate of this thickness and material into a cylindrical tank by bending? What are the risks that may occur while doing these operations?

I will be glad if you can help and share your ideas.

 

[saplanti]

Ezgi,

You need to talk to several local manufacturers about manufacturers’ facilities to make the heads and the cylindrical shell. I trust you will provide them a concept vessel drawing with nozzle arrangement and support type and location(s). I guess the head thickness is different than you provided and you have full design calculation. Otherwise you need to ask the manufacturer to provide them all in accordance with the required code.

Hope it helps.

 

[Ezgi Yildirim]

Dear Saplanti

Thank you for your feedback.

Actually we have been talk with manufacturer company in our country. Their quatotaion very expensive and we have to minimize project budget.

We have a pressure vessel designer and welder for manufacturing but we do not have any equipments for bending plate. If we decided to manufacturing by self we will purchase plate then rolled/bending at a small company and weld in our factory. But as you said vessels head's shape and thickness is different from cylindrical sheel. Vessel head should be manufactured different company.

Or we can use pipe for clindrical sheel. Is it possible?

We have decided to use P355GH material. Do you have an experience about other material for using that pressure conditions?

 

[JStephen]

Usually, how this would work is that the user/purchaser would specify required pressure, capacity, temperatures, corrosion allowance, etc. The designer/fabricator, based on their expertise and experience, would select optimal dimensions, material, and other details.
It is common to use pipe for smaller pressure vessels, but whether rolled plate or pipe is used is an economic decision based on availability, pricing, etc. If pipe is to be used, the vessel diameter would be optimized based on available pipe.
There may not be an economical solution here. This is not a good application for a do-it-yourself approach.
If you have to import the materials, there may be minimal cost difference in doing that or importing the finished vessel.

 

[saplanti]

The design pressure is not small, therefore there will be some consequences.
You need to be in compliance with code rules in design, manufacture and testing.

Using pipe with suitable material, of course within the code acceptance, is the best. However, you need to change diameter to suit standard pipe diameter. But finding material with the required thickness is not easy. Pipe wall thickness has 12.5% of negative tolerance for manufacture (using plate this tolerance can be reduced to 0.3 mm), so the thickness will be increased by that much to order the pipe with nominal wall thickness.
Selecting pipe will increase the chance to find a manufacturer for the diameter, but the thickness still might be a problem and selected by the manufacturer since forming allowance is to be decided by manufacturer. But with the required thickness range manufacture is not easy.

You need to be good in design and manufacture to change direction easily. I suggest, in case you are the designer, write a spreadsheet for possible materials, diameters, and wall thicknesses.
I guess you need to do your homework adequately before going to the manufacturer.

 

[MJCronin]

You are describing a commercially available medium sized (3000 liter/800 gallon) air receiver..... I suggest that you consider purchasing either a new or used unit of that size.

HANSON TANK makes a nice Horizontal Axis unit .... Coated, with ASME design and full certification

https://hansontank.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/48vp1060r-asme-tank-specs.pdf

https://hansontank.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/48hp1060w-asme-tank-specs.pdf

Yes. yes, yes !!!.... we know and understand that you desperately want to build your own and that you live in a place so very, very far away ...

The cost of a new or used vessel is modest and you can purchase a fully equipped unit with all of the required accessories (i.e. supporting ring, relief valve, automatic drain etc)

You have not told us if you desire a vertical axis or horizontal axis unit

In my opinion, once you have procured, designed, fabricated, inspected and tested your "homemade" carbon-steel pressure vessel, you will discover other important system features that you need.

How about internal/external coatings ? ..... How about the accumulation and disposal of condensate ? ....

How are you sizing your relief device ? ... Do you want to have a pressure gauge/transmitter ?

How will your two vessels be supported ? .... Is this a seismic zone ? ....Will you need to inspect the internals ? ... how about a small manway (18" ?) or inspection port ?

Buy a unit built, certified and designed as a pressure vessel .....

When you need a new car or truck, do you go into the mountains to look for iron ore ?

Let us know about your final decision ...



MJCronin
Sr. Process Engineer

 

[SnTMan]

OP, pay close attention to those recommending buy over make. Excellent advice, and most likely least cost as well.

Does your shop have the ASME Certification? If not, then there's that to address if you want to stamp the vessels.

Experienced fabricators have access to a wide range of suppliers and services that they spend years to develop. Want to do that on top of everything else?

BUY 'EM

Regards

Mike


The problem with sloppy work is that the supply FAR EXCEEDS the demand

 

[r6155]

@ Ezgi Yildirim
1) P335GH material is not ASME
2) OD= 800mm or 812.8mm (32") ?
3) Pressure= 150 bar and test pressure= 225 barg? Are you sure?
4) Did you consider PWHT and RT at 100%?
5) Did you consult with your pressure vessel designer?

Regards

 

[GD2]

Ezgi,
If you are looking for air supply tanks, these are very simple pressure vessels. Look for simple CS material with ellipsoidal heads to keep the cost most economical. You don’t need P335 expensive material. These are generally used for high temperature service. Go for normal SA 516 gr 70 plates. You might need normalized grade for the thickness you are looking for. Normalized grade will also lower the MDMT. These should be commonly available in the market.
You won’t get standard CS pipes with the WT you are looking for in the market.

GDD
Canada

 

[abangbikerz]

I had seen a few shortcoming because of a pressure vessel end user refuse to hire an experienced contractor for their pressure vessel jobs and end up doing it by themselves. Turns out they have to pay a lot more to fix their own mistake. Unless your organisation have an experienced personnel, better just give the job to an experienced contractor. Air Compressor tank may be simple in design, but air under compression store a lot of potential energy. Explosion due to fail air tank is usually catastrophic especially at the pressure you mentioned. And also does your country dont have any rule regarding design, fabrication and commissioning of a pressure vessel?