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Computing The Partial Volume of Pressure Vessels: Bent Wiencke
Computing The Partial Volume of Pressure Vessels: Bent Wiencke
Computing The Partial Volume of Pressure Vessels: Bent Wiencke
available at www.sciencedirect.com
w w w . i i fi i r . o r g
Bent Wiencke*
Nestle USA, Corporate Engineering, 800 N. Brand Blvd, Glendale, CA 91203, United States
Article history: The computation of the partial and total volume of pressure vessels with various type of
Received 14 July 2009 head profiles requires detailed knowledge of the head profile geometry. Depending on the
Received in revised form type of head profile the derivation of the equations can become very complex and the
14 November 2009 calculation process cumbersome. Certain head profiles require numerical methods to
Accepted 17 November 2009 obtain the partial volume, which for most application is beyond the scope of practicability.
Available online 26 November 2009 This paper suggests a unique method that simplifies the calculation procedure for the
various types of head profiles by using one common set of equations without the need for
Keywords: numerical or complex computation methods. For ease of use, all equations presented in
Refrigeration system Vessel this paper are summarized in a single table format for horizontal and vertical vessels.
Storage 2009 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.
Two-phase mixture Calculation
Volume
Parameter
Geometry
OAL
CL
SL
ID
OD
AH H
VH H t
S
Fig. 2 Partial cross sectional area of a horizontal vessel
Fig. 1 Schematic of a horizontal vessel. shell.
870 international journal of refrigeration 33 (2010) 868876
H
To simplify the calculation process, at this point the assump- p 1 1
VH;Head c$ $ $ID$H2 $H3 (11a)
tion is made that the rounded dished portion of all head profiles 2 2 3 0
t OAL
a b
ITL
r CL
SL
L
b = 2IDD IDD
a = ID
ID
IDD OD ID
OD
r
VH H
SF
SF t
Fig. 3 a and b: Schematic of ellipsoid and vessel head
profile. Fig. 4 Schematic of horizontal vessel.
international journal of refrigeration 33 (2010) 868876 871
2 3 ID
p H H
c$ $ID3 $ 3$ 2$
6 ID ID
SF
H
with 0 H ID or 0 1 and OAL 2$IDD 2$t IDD
ID H
(14)
S
It is not uncommon that the thickness of the vessel shell
differs from the thickness of the heads. But, for all practical Fig. 6 Bottom head of a vertical vessel.
purposes and since the difference is minor compared to the
overall size of the vessel, the assumption can be made that the
2
2 ID2
thickness of the head is equal to the thickness of the vessel S 1 c
$ $ID H (17a)
shell. The resulting error is negligible. 2 c 2 2
1 1
S2 4$ $ID$H 2 $H2 (17b)
3. Vertical vessels c c
p
ASTH;Head $S2 (22)
4
To find an expression for ASTH,Head, as a function of the liquid
level (H ) for a top head the following relationship is introduced:
2 2 2
S 1 ID
$H (23a)
2 c 2
OD 4
S2 ID2 2 $H2 (23b)
c
ID
OAL Substituting (S ) in Eq. (22) with eqn. (23b) gives the following
t expression for ASTH,Head:
ITL
p 4
CL ASTH;Head $ ID2 2 $H2 (24)
4 c
SL
S
H
SF IDD
H
IDD
SF ID
!
The internal liquid volume of the top head can be found by H OAL 2$t IDD
p
VH 24 $ID3 $ 3$c$ c$
integrating Eq. (24) over the height of the liquid level (H ) in the IDD
vessel with respect to dH: !3 !
Z H OAL 2$t IDD OAL 2$t 2$IDD
p H 4 6$ 2$c
VVTH;Head ID2 2 $H2 dH (25) IDD ID
4 0 c
with : IDD > 0
H (31b)
p 4
VVTH;Head $ ID2 $H 2
$H3 (26)
4 3$c 0
2
4. Total volume of a vessel
p 4
VVTH;Head 12$ 3$ID $H c2 $H 3 27
H
with 0 H IDD or 0 IDD 1 To compute the total volume of a vertical or horizontal vessel,
(H ) is substituted with (ID) in Eq. (14) or (H) is substituted with
(OAL - 2$t) in Eq. (31b). Both methods result in the following
3.2. Cylindrical vessel section of vertical vessels equation for the calculation of the total volume of a vessel:
!
The liquid volume occupying the cylindrical portion of the 3$OAL 6$t 6$IDD
p
VTotal 12$ID3 $ 2$c
vessel is simply calculated with the following formula: ID (32)
with OAL 2$IDD 2$t
VH;Cyl p4$ID2 $H IDD 28
When applying Eq. (36) to the method presented in this c) Hemispherical heads (DIN 28011:1993-01)
paper an accuracy can be expected sufficient for practical
purposes. When compared to the total head volume this The same comments made for ASME Hemispherical Heads
method provides results with an error margin of less than apply here:
0.001%. For partially filled heads the error margin is greater. cHemispherical Head 1:
However, when compared to the overall vessel volume the
error margin becomes negligible for all practical purposes. If
accurate results are desired the head section must be calcu- 6. Comparison with approximation method
lated individually for the spherical and the elliptical head
section. Instead of dividing the vertical vessel into 3 sections, Since the volume contained in the vessel heads of a vessel is
it must be divided into 5 sections: spherical section of bottom relatively small when compared to the total volume of a vessel
head, elliptical section of bottom head, cylindrical section, numerous approximation methods have been developed in
elliptical section of top head, and spherical section of top the past. For example, one such approximation is to assume
head. For horizontal vessels, the calculation method is much that the volume of a 2:1 elliptical head is equivalent to
more complex and requires numerical methods. For an a cylinder of the same inside diameter as the head, but only 2/
accurate estimation of c, calculate the exact head volume 3 of the inside dish depth of the head. The partial volume of
using Appendix A and then use Eq. (50) to determine c. a horizontal vessel is therefore approximated by:
874 international journal of refrigeration 33 (2010) 868876
Approximation Method vs. Accurate Method When compared with the exact method presented in this
1.0 paper Eq. (41) will overestimate the volume when the vessel is
(SL + 2 SF)/ID = 0
nearly empty and the level is below the center axis of the
(SL + 2 SF)/ID = 1
0.8 (SL + 2 SF)/ID = 2 vessel, and underestimate the volume when the level is above
(SL + 2 SF)/ID = 4 the center axis of the vessel. The shorter the vessel the greater
(SL + 2 SF)/ID = 8
0.6 the margin of error. Fig. 8 shows the error versus height for
H/ID
(SL + 2 SF)/ID = 16
0.2 7. Conclusions
SL 2$SF 1 Appendix.
VH;Appox ID$ $AH;Cyl (41)
ID 3
t
OAL
ITL
r
CL
SL
L
IDD
ID
IDD
OD ID OD
r
VH H
SF
SF t
Notes: Above formulas assume that the head thickness is equal to the shell thickness. If different, use shell thickness for head thickness.
When using above formulas use units consistently.
For ASME torispherical heads assume <0.001% error margin for completely filled heads. For DIN heads the error margin for completely filled
heads is virtually zero.
international journal of refrigeration 33 (2010) 868876 875
t OD
ID
r OAL
t ITL
L CL
IDD
SL
ID
OD
r H
SF
SF
IDD
Notes: Above formulas assume that the head thickness is equal to the shell thickness. If different, use shell thickness for head thickness.
When using above formulas use units consistently.
For ASME Torispherical heads assume < 0.001% error margin for completely filled heads. For DIN heads the error margin for completely filled
heads is virtually zero.
Appendix A: Exact equations for Using Fig. A1 the inside dish depth (IDD) is calculated to:
torispherical heads
L r2 L IDD2 0:5$OD t r2 (42a)
This method can be applied to any torispherical head profile q
for establishing a value for c and computing IDD. IDD L L r2 OD=2 t r2 (42b)
Fig. A1 shows a schematic of a torispherical head with its
critical dimensions.
876 international journal of refrigeration 33 (2010) 868876
r
p
Vh2 p4$ 8$r2 $h2 43$h32 2$ID$h2 $ r2 h22 2$ID$r2
h3 h1
h2
p
h2 $ arctan p 4$r$h2 $ r2 h22 4$r3
r2 h22
h2
Fig. A1 Schematic of a torispherical head. $arctan p
2 2
ID2 $h2 4$h2 $ID$r 50b
r h2
q
The total head volume is calculated by adding the volume of
IDD L L r2 ID=2 r2 (42c)
the spherical portion to the elliptical portion:
The spherical limit (SSL) is calculated to:
VHead Vh1 Vh2 (51)
SSL =2 ID=2 r
(43a) To determine an exact value for the constant c the following
L L r
equation derived from Eq. (11b) can be used:
ID 2$r
SSL L$ (43b) 12 Vh1 Vh2
L r c $ (52)
p ID3
The height of spherical section (h1) is calculated to:
2 S
2 Nomenclature:
L2 L h1 SL (44a)
4
r
S2 c Constant determined by head type
h1 L L2 SL (44b) h1 Height of spherical head section (m or ft)
4
h2 Height of elliptical head section (m or ft)
The height of elliptical section (h2) is calculated to:
h3 Difference between ID/2 and SSL/2 (m or ft)
r2 SSL =2 ID=2 r2 h22 (45a) ID Inside diameter (m or ft)
IDD Inside dish depth; IDD h1 h2 (m or ft)
s
2 L Inside crown radius (m or ft)
2
SSL ID OD Outside diameter (m or ft)
h2 r r (45b)
2 2
r Inside knuckle radius (m or ft)
The difference between ID/2 and SSL/2 is calculated to: SF Straight flange of head (m or ft)
SSL Spherical limit of head (m or ft)
r h3 ID=2 r t Material thickness of head (m or ft)
(46a)
r L r Vh1 Inside volume of spherical head section (m3 or ft3)
r$L ID=2 Vh2 Inside volume of elliptical head section (m3 or ft3)
h3 (46b)
L r VHead Total inside volume of head (m3 or ft3)