Guidelines for PRD Sizing

If a pressure relief device needs to relieve 2-phase flow, it may require a relief area several times larger than the area required for just the vapor portion of the flow. Many older relief system devices and their inlet/outlet piping have been found to be undersized for this reason. API STD 521, Sect. 5.15.3.3 and 3.4, indicate that, in most cases, even fire scenarios beginning with liquid-full vessels do not normally need to be sized for 2-phase flow. The main fire scenario exceptions that do require 2-phase analysis are highly foamy systems and runaway chemical reactions. Other, less frequent 2-phase scenarios are venting below the liquid surface and venting from vessels with narrow-flow passages (such as vessel jackets) where liquid disengagement does not occur. If the relief valves inlet piping begins below the liquid surface (for example, at the base of a distillation column after its trays dump), liquid is forced out the relief valve at a volumetric rate equal to the vapor generation rate, and the saturated liquid then flashes as it passes through the relief valve and its outlet piping. Equity engineers have extensive experience both in determining whether or not 2-phase relief is likely to occur and in sizing PRDs and their inlet/outlet piping for 2-phase flow. AIChEs DIERS guidelines can be used to determine whether the liquid level inside a vessel may be high enough to expect 2-phase relief, as well as the 2-phase flow regime (e.g., bubbly, churn turbulent, homogeneous). Many Owner/Operators have guidelines that require 2-phase analysis for a fire scenario if the vessels contents have high toxicity and/or a high fire hazard, or the vessel contains a large volume. If your company does not have such guidelines, we can help you establish them. If PRD sizing for 2-phase relief is required, we have used both the methods of Appendix D in API RP 520 (the Omega methods), as well as the more precise direct integration methods. All these methods are based on the Homogeneous Equilibrium Model (HEM), which assumes thermodynamic and mechanical equilibrium between phases. The correct 2-phase value for the relief valve discharge coefficient, KD, must also be selected. The direct integration method using the HEM may also be used to conservatively determine pressure drops in inlet/outlet piping. A wide variety of other 2-phase flow models not based on the HEM may also be used to calculate piping pressure drops, depending on the flow regime and the relieving fluids physical properties.