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Emergency Relief System Evaluation Report
Emergency Relief System Evaluation Report
Client Company A
Client site location Site A
Contact Mr. Gentleman
Contact job title Operation Manager
Report issue date Feb 9th, 2018
Report number R/XXXXX/0218/GZ Final Report
List of Tables
Table 1: Operation procedure of RX in Company A manufacturing plant 9
Table 2: Details on seven storage tanks 11
Table 3: Details of Reactor RX 20
Table 4: Existing vent line and PRV details of RX 20
Table 5: Existing vent line details of seven storage tanks 21
Table 6: Physical properties of chemicals used in RC1 and RC1 testing mass loading ratio 23
Table 7: ARC testing condition 25
Table 8: Material charging design chart for VSP test 27
Table 9: Relief system sizing for RX at the failure scenario of nitrogen overflow 36
Table 10: Relief system sizing for RX at the failure scenario of loss cooling 39
Table 11: Physical properties of mixture at relief pressure and the maximum accumulated pressure
40
Table 12: Relief system sizing for RX under external fire 41
Table 13: Physical properties of solvents at relieving pressure and the maximum accumulated pressure
42
Table 14: Vapor relief calculation for seven storage tanks 44
Table 15: Churn-turbulent relief calculation for seven storage tanks 47
Table 16: Homogeneous relief calculation for seven storage tanks 48
Table 17: Summary of vent size of seven storage tanks 48
List of Figures
Figure 1: Sketch of temperature in RX as a function of time with chemical addition 10
Figure 2: P&ID of Reactor RX 12
Figure 3: Pressure relief valve installed on Reactor RX 12
Figure 4: Relief line layout of Reactor RX 13
Figure 5: Tank Farm with three (3) below-grade tanks Each in the separated dike area and four (4)
above-grade tanks in one dike area. 13
Figure 6: Relief line layout of four above-grade storage tanks 13
Figure 7: Relief line layout of three below-grade storage tanks 14
Client Address
Site A
DEKRA Insight Address Chilworth Technology Inc., 113 Campus Drive, Princeton, NJ 08540
This report has been issued in digital format. In order to maintain the integrity of the data, the secure
digital copy held in the DEKRA Insight archive will be considered the source document; all other
versions will be considered uncontrolled copies.
1
Chilworth report# R/XXXXX/0816/GZ, “Preliminary Assessment of Emergency Relief System for Company A.”,
issued on August 8, 2016
2
Chilworth testing report # POXXXXAR
Safety in chemical manufacture requires that all possible operational hazards (i.e. the presence and
possible ignition of flammable atmospheres) and chemical reaction hazards are evaluated and that a
suitable basis for safe operation is determined and implemented. Should the reaction conditions or
plant details be changed (e.g. temperature, times, reaction concentrations, scale, materials of
construction or mal-operations not covered by this assessment) then consideration should be given to
re-assessment of the process.
Figure 2 shows P&ID of the reactor RX that Company A provided. RX has a flooded volume of 4.173 m3
and design pressure of 2 barg. A pressure relief valve (DN50, lot# xxx) as shown in Figure 3 is installed
on RX. The supplier of this valve is xxxx, China. Chilworth contacted the supplier and found out that this
valve has a nozzle size of 48mm and a discharge coefficient of 0.22 for either gas or liquid. Open
pressure of this relief valve is 1.5 barg.
Figure 7. Three below-grade storage tanks are horizontal vessels and four above-grade storage tanks
are vertical vessels. The details on seven storage tanks are shown in Table 2. Each of these seven
storage tanks has open vent and a flame arrester installed at the exit of vent. All flame arresters are 2-
inch xxxx-type from xxxx Steel Power Corp. as shown in Figure 8. Chilworth contacted xxxx Steel Power
Corp. and calculated the flow resistance of this type of flame arrester according to the volumetric flow
rate of air and pressure drop across the flame arrester provided by xxxx Steel Power Corp. as shown in
Figure 9. It was found that the flow resistance of this type of flame arrestor is 3.
Design Pressure barg 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0
Carbon Carbon Carbon Carbon Carbon Carbon Carbon
material
steel steel steel steel steel steel steel
Top Dish Height mm 130 130 130 130 70 70 70
Dished End Type Cone Cone Cone Cone Ellipse Ellipse Ellipse
Dished End Volume m3 0.91 0.90 0.90 0.90 0.85 0.85 0.85
Top DE external Surface
m2 7.00 6.77 6.82 6.79 6.08 6.08 6.08
area
Bottom Dish Height mm 0 0 0 0 70 70 70
Dished End Type Flat Flat Flat Flat Ellipse Ellipse Ellipse
Cylindrical Surface Area m² 30.788 30.788 30.788 30.788 38.408 38.408 38.408
Total Surface Area m² 37.790 37.561 37.609 37.580 50.561 50.561 50.561
Total Vessel Volume (2
m³ 22.466 22.451 22.454 22.452 26.785 26.785 26.785
HS3ds)
Liquid Fill Details
MW, kg/mol xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx
Fill Volume ( Max) m³ 18.500 17.800 17.800 17.800 21.300 21.300 21.300
Fill ratio 0.823 0.793 0.793 0.793 0.795 0.795 0.795
Filled height ( Max) m 3.004 2.891 2.891 2.891 2.925 2.925 2.925
Liquid density @ RT kg/m3 805.0 800.0 902.0 735.0 792.0 805.0 900.0
Solvent weight kg 14893 14240 16056 13083 16870 17147 19170
confidential
confidential confidential
Figure 5: Tank Farm with three (3) below-grade tanks each in the separated dike area and four (4)
above-grade tanks in one dike area.
confidential
confidential
1) 6 barg N2 inerting overpressure at the maximum N2 flow rate of 90 liters/minute at 6 barg and
ambient temperature.
2) Loss of cooling for normal xxxxxx reaction initiated at 75 °C (no external fire)
3) Loss of cooling for normal xxxxxx reaction initiated at 120 °C (no external fire)
4) External fire with solvent addition
These constitutes the design base of this project. The scenario of loss of cooling and the associated
runaway reaction has been simulated in RC1, VSPII, and ARC calorimetry studies. These data are used
Figure 7, while the flow resistances of these relief lines are shown in Table 5.
310
Raw6 11.35 2.33 1.06@20 °C -60
initial
ARC testing results as shown in Figure 14 indicate that decomposition of this gelation is endothermic
without exothermic reaction/decomposition up to 400 °C. Product decomposition occurs at about 190
°C, as shown in Figure 15, where cell pressure increases as temperature increases higher than about
190 °C.
Item Value
Mass of gelation, g 3.34
Heat capacity of sample, J⋅g-1⋅k-1 3.21
Mass of bomb, g 15.56
Heat capacity of bomb, J⋅g-1⋅k-1 0.414
Phi factor (φ): 1.60
Figure 14: ARC testing temperature and pressure vs. time of xxxx
Inject xxxxx
Theory3 of the adiabatic reaction kinetics demonstrates that the temperature rise rate of an adiabatic
reaction system can be described as
Equation 1: ∙ ∙ ∙
where is the measured temperature of reaction system, t is time, n is the reaction order, E is the
reaction activation energy, R is the gas constant, is the initial concentration of a limited reagent,
3
DIERS, 1992
Equation 2: ′ with ∙
Equation 3: ∙
Keeping in mind that total 33.1 g S1 is added into the testing cell to reduce the viscosity of the reaction
system as shown in Table 8, while in plant reactor only is added 8.42 g S1 in total 767.23 kg reagents in
Step 5 as shown in Table 1. Although the Phi factor of the current VSP test is small, about 1.08 as below
the calculation
while the Phi factor for simulating the reaction system in the plant reactor RX is
0∙ 10 ; < = ∙ 1< = 3 .56 .3 ;::. 6 .
Equation 5: ∅ / / .5
∙ 1 78.9 ::. 6:.
since the added S1 performs as an inert without participating reaction, but has a thermal capacity to
reduce the overall system temperature rise (rate) during the runaway reaction.
Figure 20: T & dT/dt vs. time, tested data and predicted data
Figure 21: ln(dT/dt) vs. -1000/T, tested data and predicted data
where Ki is the flow resistance of pipe fittings, f is the Fanning flow friction coefficient, usually taken as
0.005 for two phase emergency relief, L is the physical length of relief line, and D is the internal pipe
diameter. Flow resistances of pipe fittings for RX are shown in Table 4, which are taken from literature4.
Q∙R S
M = ∙ FN O + N O G − M ∙ P + ∙∆ U =
2 ∙T S
Equation 9:
(V = FN O + N O G)
2
where WX is the initial mass of mixture in reactor; q is heat relS3se from exothermic reaction in W/kg,
&' &'
YZ is the heat capacity of liquid in the reactor; N &* O and N &* O are temperature rise rate at PRV full-lift
[ "
pressure (10% over the Pset) and the maximum accumulated pressure, respectively; \Z] is the specific
calculated from phase-equilibrium software6 for true fluid of solvent; and ∆! = !" − ![ is the
volume change due to vaporization; V is the reactor volume; hfg is the vaporization heat, which can be
temperature rise from PRV full-lift pressure, ![ , to the maximum accumulated pressure, !" .
For a runaway reaction with a single phase vapor relief, the relief vent mass flowrate, w, can be
calculated through solving the following equation
V TJ R S MR S TJ
M = − 2 − + % − -=
M T S VT S
Equation 10:
4
CCPS Guidelines for Pressure Relief and Effluent Handling Systems, 2017
5
J.C. Leung, Simplified Vent Sizing Equations for Emergency Relief Requirements in Reactors and Storage Vessels,
AIChE, J., 1986, V32, p1622-1634
6
Multiflash program supplied by Infochem Computer Services Ltd, Unit 4, The Flag Store, 23 Queen Elisabeth
Street, London SE1 2LP
where Q is the external heating rate in W, which can be calculated according to API 521.
where = is the discharge coefficient. For a preliminary sizing estimation, a discharge coefficient of
0.85 can be used for a two-phase mixture or saturated liquid entering the PRV inlet. The relief capacity,
G, is calculated from an average value of G at relief pressure and at the maximum accumulated
pressure, which are calculated using the OMEGA method7, as shown in Appendix D. The choked mass
flux, ab , through an orifice can be calculated from
e
`0 = c0 d
f⋅ T
Equation 13:
where = is the effective coefficient of discharge, 0.975, when a PRV is installed with or without a
rupture disk in combination for preliminary sizing; hj the upstrS3m relieving pressure, kPa; T is the
relieving temperature of the inlet gas or vapor, K, Z is the compressibility factor for the deviation of the
actual gas from a perfect gas. C is
lm
= . :839kl Nl; O
ln
Equation 16:
7
J.C. Leung, Easily size Relief Devices and Piping for Two-Phase Flow, Chemical Engineering Progress, 1996,
December, p28-50
_
Equation 17: ∆eJ = HJ N O TJ
J
where qop is flow resistance of the inlet piping, rop is the flow area of the inlet piping, and \op is the
average specific volume in the inlet pipe section. If ∆hop is greater than 3% of PRV Pset, the inlet piping
should be redesigned to reduce inlet pressure loss, such as enlarging the pipe diameter, reduce the
piping length and/or piping fittings, etc.
f
KD c v f c ;fcw% `∗ -
3 = − uc c
c
L `∗
Equation 19:
x f c;fy ;c zJ
With a known PRV backpressure, i.e., c = h{ ⁄hX , the choked pressure at the exit of the outlet piping
(c = c 0 = e ⁄e ) can be calculated from the known flow capacity in the piping, `0 = }⁄ ~• , from
Equation 18 as below
M
Equation 20: e = €e fT
~•
KD
the maximum allowable flow resistance, 3
L
, of the outlet piping of the PRV can therefore be
calculated from Equation 19. If the existing flow resistance is greater than the maximum allowable flow
resistance, the outlet piping should be redesigned to reduce flow resistance, such as enlarging the pipe
diameter, reducing the piping length and/or piping fittings, etc.
where P is pressure from source (7.013 bara), V is volumetric flowrate of 90 liters/minute (0.0015 m3⋅s-
1
), Mw is molecular weight of nitrogen (0.028 kg/mol), R is gas constant of 8.314 J⋅mol-1⋅K-1, and T is
temperature, i.e., 303.15K. The calculated mass relief rate is therefore 0.0117 kg⋅s-1.
Table 9: Relief system sizing for RX at the failure scenario of nitrogen overflow
Max. Accumulated
Relieving Pressure Existing PRV
pressure
P, bara 2.66 3.21
Temperature, K 303.15 303.15
Gas density, kg/m3 2.96 3.57
Latent heat, kJ/kg [-] [-]
k = Cp/Cv 1.4 1.4
Omega 1 1
Power input, kW [-] [-]
Mass relieving rate, kg/s 0.0117 0.0117
Compressibility, Z 1 1
Orifice flow capacity, kg/m2s 607.1 733.3
Calculated Orifice area, mm2 19.75 16.35
Calculated Orifice diameter, mm 5.0 4.6
Selected API 526 orifice D (9.51mm) D (9.51mm)
Selected API 526 orifice flow area, mm2 70.97 70.97
Vapor discharge rate, kg/s 0.042 0.051 0.324
∆Pinlet, % 0.025 1.0
Is the inlet piping adequate for pressure
Yes Yes
loss?
PRV outlet backpressure, bara 1.02 1.33
Allowable Max. PRV backpressure, bara 1.71 1.71
Is the outlet piping adequate for
Yes Yes
backpressure?
8.4 Failure Scenario 3: Loss of Cooling for Runaway Reaction Initiated at 120 °C
In this case, the maximum temperature of the reaction system that can reach is 120 + 42 = 162 °C if the
onset temperature of runaway reaction due to loss of cooling is 120 °C. As shown in Table 6, the only
component that has the boiling point less than 162 °C is S1 (its boiling point is 80 °C). In addition, as
shown in Figure 15, temperature of 162 °C would not trigger product decomposition. Vapor pressure of
S1 at 162 °C is about 8.0 bara, which would cause overpressure to RX if the emergency relief vent is
inadequately sized.
At the maximum accumulated pressure of 3.21 bara (boiling temperature of S1 is 120.8 °C), the vapor
density of S1 is 7.1 kg/m3. Volume of the head spS5 in RX during synthesis reaction is about 3.5 m3. The
minimum quantity of S1 is needed to build pressure of 3.21 bara is therefore 24.9 kg. However, as
shown in Table 1, the quantity of S1 in RX during synthesis reaction is 8.42 g at normal operation, which
is far less than 24.9 kg. In other words, no over pressure source due to vapor generation or gas
generation from the reaction system can be identified for this scenario at normal material loading
condition in RX.
Mass of RX is about 2500 kg by a conservative estimation. By assuming that the quantity of S1 in RX
during runaway is at the minimum of 24.9 kg, the Phi factor of the reaction system is therefore 1.9. The
phi-corrected temperature rise is 22.1 °C due to runaway reaction in RX and the final temperature is
therefore T0 + 22.1 °C (T0 is reactor temperature at the time when catalyst is charged, i.e., the initial
temperature of runaway reaction). According to Equation 7, the temperature rise rate can be expressed
as
j.ƒ
=x + . − y DE1 F 5. :8 + •‚ − G
j.„…
Equation 22:
PRV open
prior to
charging
Pressure
catalyst
containment, no
need for relief
Figure 22: Final temperature and nozzle size of PRV as a function of initial temperature of runaway
reaction
As shown in Figure 22, the required nozzle size of PRV at the worst case relief condition is about 8
inches (about 203 mm). The current PRV with a nozzle size of 48 mm and the associated relief line are
obviously inadequate to protect RX from overpressure.
A spreadsheet of the detailed calculation including relief line sizing are shown in Appendix B. Table 10
summarizes the main results, which indicates
(1) For the existing PRV (48 mm orifice) for single-phase vapor relief,
• The currently installed PRV is undersized for runaway reaction due to loss of cooling.
• The inlet piping pressure loss is greater than 3%. Therefore the inlet piping is inadequate for
emergency relief.
• The backpressure at PRV outlet is greater than 1.71 bara. Therefore the outlet piping is not
adequate for pressure relief.
(2) For the properly sized API526 PRV orifice (with a larger discharge coefficient of 0.975, as indicated
in API 520),
• The calculated orifice area of PRV that can adequately prevent overpressure is 29784 mm2.
• Two balanced-bellows PRVs with the “T” orifice (total effective flow area 33548.3 mm2) is
therefore adequate to prevent overpressure.
Table 10: Relief system sizing for RX at the failure scenario of loss cooling
Relieving Max. Accumulated Existing
Pressure pressure PRV
P, bara 2.66 3.21
Temperature, K 386.4 393.9
Vapor density, kg/m3 5.98 7.08
Latent heat, kJ/kg 405.2 397.6
k = Cp/Cv 1.09 1.09
Omega 1 1
dT/dt, K/s 12.3 8.9
Mass relieving rate, kg/s 27.4 27.4
Compressibility, Z 1 1
Orifice flow capacity, kg/m2s 790.3 944.5
Calculated Orifice area, mm2 29784.0
Calculated Orifice diameter, mm 194.7 48
Selected API 526 orifice 2 “T” orifice
Selected API 526 orifice flow area, mm2 33548.3
Vapor discharge rate, kg/s 28.4 1.53
Selected Inlet Pipe NPS 12 inch (Sch10S)
Selected outlet Pipe NPS 12 inch (Sch10S)
∆Pinlet, % 3
Is the inlet piping adequate for pressure loss? Yes No
PRV outlet backpressure, bara 1.65
Allowable Max. PRV backpressure, bara 1.71
Is the outlet piping adequate for backpressure? Yes No
8
Multiflash program supplied by Infochem Computer Services Ltd, Unit 4, The Flag Store, 23 Queen Elisabeth
Street, London SE1 2LP
Table 11: Physical properties of mixture at relief pressure and the maximum accumulated pressure
Relief Device Opening / Maximum Pressure (bara) 2.66 3.43
Relief Set / Maximum Temperature (C) 100.98 110.71
Relief Set / Maximum Temperature (K) 374.13 383.86
Liquid Density (kg/m3) 754.0 742.0
Vapor Density (kg/m3) 6.330 8.074
Latent heat of Vaporization (J/kg) 397800 387430.0
Specific Volume Difference Vap/Liq (m3/kg) 0.1567 0.1225
Liquid Specific Heat Capacity, Cp (J/kgK) 2429 2472
Liquid Specific Heat Capacity, Cv (J/kgK) 2429 2472
Ratio of Specific Heats, Cp/Cv, of vapor 1.101 1.103
Omega (one-point method) 17.89 15.59
Omega (Two-point method, 0.8 P0) 16.60 14.37
Omega (Two-point method, 0.9 P0) 16.29 14.12
To simulate plant reactor RX under external fire, power input to the plant-scale reactor under external
fire engulfment needs to be determined first. According to API 5219, the power input from an external
fire with poor drainage can be calculated from
Equation 23: ^ = 7 ,8 ∙ .9
M2
where Aws is the wetted heat transfer area from external fire up to the top tangent line (10.3 m2 for RX,
calculated based on the information in Table 3) and Q is the heat input (watt). The calculated power
input to RX under external fire is therefore 479.5 kW.
Thus, solving Equation 11 gives the mass relief rate under external fire, which is 16.1 kg/s. A
sprS3dsheet of the detailed calculation for vapor-liquid two-phase relief including relief line pipe sizing
is shown in Appendix C.
Table 12 summarizes the main results, which indicates
(1) For the existing PRV (48 mm orifice),
• The currently installed PRV orifice is too small to properly relieve overpressure.
• The inlet piping pressure loss is 23% that is far larger than 3%. Therefore the inlet piping is
inadequate for pressure relief.
• To maintain proper mass relief rate, the backpressure at PRV outlet is huge for 2 inch pipe.
Therefore the outlet piping is not adequate for pressure relief.
• Using the existing PRV would lead to burst of RX.
(2) For the properly sized PRV orifice,
9
API Standard 521 Pressure-relieving and Depressuring Systems, Six Ed., January 2014
Figure 7, those storage tanks have open vents to atmosphere without any relief devices such as rupture
disc or PRV. Vessel details are shown in Table 2 and flow resistances of each relief line for those seven
storage tanks are shown in Table 5. Those storage tanks have the similar design pressure of 1 barg, in
which four of them are vertically installed in one dike area and each of the other three is horizontally
installed in an individual below-grade dike area.
The following three design strategies are considered:
(1) Single phase vapor relief;
(2) Two phase relief with phase separation (disengagement);
(3) Homogeneous two-phase relief.
Prior to proceeding, the physical properties of all solvents at relieving pressure and the maximum
accumulated pressure should be determined. The relieving pressure for seven tanks is 1.01 bara, i.e.,
atmospheric pressure, while the maximum accumulated pressure is 1×1.2 + 1.01 = 2.21 bara, according
to API 650. Multi-flash phase-equilibrium software8 is used for generating all physical properties of
solvents in seven storage tanks, as shown in Table 13.
Vent size of Each storage tank should be taken based on the maximum size from strategy (1) and (2),
since all solvents has low viscosity of less than 100 cP (assume nonfoamy) as shown in Table 13.
Homogeneous two-phase relief from strategy (3) are used for comparison of vent size.
Table 13: Physical properties of solvents at relieving pressure and the maximum accumulated pressure
Solvent S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6
P = 101325 Pa
Boiling Point at 1 bara, °C 79.3 100.3 76.7 93.0 55.7 110.3
Viscosity @BP, cP 0.235 0.330 0.254 0.232 0.236 0.240
Heat capacity @BP, J/g/K 2.400 2.320 2.160 2.500 2.340 2.050
Liquid density @BP, kg/m3 752.0 697.0 841.0 637.0 756.0 794.0
surface tension @BP, N/m 0.0180 0.0151 0.0173 0.0133 0.0193 0.0182
Latent Heat @BP, kJ/kg 437.66 318.94 366.14 313.74 502.61 362.42
P = 221325 Pa
Boiling Point at 2.21 bara, °C 106.4 131.2 102.9 122.6 80.9 140.7
Viscosity @BP, cP 0.190 0.294 0.199 0.192 0.196 0.168
Heat capacity @BP, J/g/K 2.520 2.495 2.268 2.669 2.453 2.182
Liquid density @BP, kg/m3 723.9 665.2 809.4 607.2 729.7 765.4
Surface tension @BP, N/m 0.0151 0.012 0.014 0.011 0.016 0.015
where w is the vapor mass venting rate from reactor at the maximum accumulated pressure of 2.21
bara and boiling point of the solvent in Each specific storage tank, which is
^
Equation 25: M=R
S
where hfg is the vaporization heat, which can be calculated from thermodynamic phase equilibrium
fS3ture of Each solvent as shown in Table 13. Q in here is the heat input from external fire calculated
from API 2000 for storage tank (not for pressure vessel as shown in Equation 23), as below
Equation 26: ^= 3, ∙ .†55
M2
Results in Table 14 indicate that the calculated vent sizes of seven storage tanks under external fire
from both OMEGA method and adiabatic flow are almost the same.
10
Guibing Zhao, An easy method to design gas/vapor relief system with rupture disk, Journal of Loss Prevention in
the Process Industries, 2015, Vol.35, 321-328
Total Surface Area, m² 37.790 37.561 37.609 37.580 50.561 50.561 50.561
OMEGA method
Relief Diameter, D, inch 5.64 6.23 5.69 6.05 6.20 6.60 7.07
Adiabatic Flow
Relief Diameter, D, inch 5.63 6.22 5.68 6.05 6.19 6.59 7.07
where rŠ‹ is the cross-sectional area of equivalent vertical cylinder. For horizontal cylinder rŠ‹ =
ŒLK/3. Physical properties in Equation 27 are evaluated at peak conditions.
A vessel characteristic single bubble rise velocity for churn-turbulent onset/disengagement can be
estimated by
/3
vŽS ‰ ‰S w
•ˆ = . †: /
‰
Equation 28:
where • is the Surface tension of the solvent and g is acceleration of the gravity (9.82 m/s2).
A churn-turbulent dimensionless superficial vapor velocity can be defined as
‡S‘
Equation 29: •ˆ = •‘
bound equations for void fraction αŠ' of swelling liquid in tank under external fire as a function Ψˆ
For external fire exposure, vapor generation occurs at the vessel walls. Simple, conservative upper
have been established by application of the complex models. These upper hound equations are
presented below.
Right Circular Cylindrical Vessel with Fire on Vertical Sides Only
•‘
Equation 30: ” = :F ; .†•‘
G
Horizontal vessels
•‘
Equation 31: ” = ; .†•‘
flow pattern at the vent entrance. The void fraction required to avoid this entrainment in terms of Ψˆ
In addition to the level swell, severe entrainment can occur at high liquid levels due to the convergent
The total average void fraction for disengagement of a churn-turbulent fluid including consideration of
both level swell and entrainment is given by
Equation 33: ”L =” H + −” H ”
The vessel average void fraction can be calculated using
›
–Q ˜
”Q =
—
Equation 34: š Q
=
£ ` n¤L
Equation 35: R S ‰S
2; ‰ n¤L n¤J
where ¥¦ = ¥¦Š' and ¥o = αŸ ¡ , ![ and !" are solvent boiling point at pressure of 1.01 bara and 2.21
bara, respectively.
The calculated vent size is shown in Table 15. After disengagement of two-phase relief, a single phase
vapor relief would follow. The greater vent size from both Table 15 and Table 14 should be selected for
respective storage tanks.
Total Surface Area, m² 37.790 37.561 37.609 37.580 50.561 50.561 50.561
Integrate to disengagement
Relief Diameter, D, inch 1.81 2.79 0.59 2.82 5.71 5.95 6.77
9.4 Summary
Table 17 shows the summary of vent sizing of seven storage tanks for three calculation scenarios. As
expected, the vent sizes of homogeneous flow for all seven storage tanks are far greater than those for
single phase vapor relief or churn-turbulent flow. Industrial practices as shown in API 2000 and NFPA 30
indicate that it is not necessary to adopt the vent size calculated from homogeneous relief for clean,
nonfoamy solvent in storage tank without chemical reactions during relief. Therefore vent sizes in bold
as shown in Table 17 are recommended for seven storage tanks. The currently installed relief lines are
therefore inadequate for emergency relief under external fire.
Total Surface Area, m² 37.790 37.561 37.609 37.580 50.561 50.561 50.561
hfg average, J/kg 424928.4 308645.0 355134.9 303329.5 488613 424928.4 351916.5
vfg average, m3/kg 0.263 0.205 0.214 0.198 0.305 0.264 0.225
Relief Diameter, D, inch 14.62 14.67 14.61 14.11 17.66 17.73 18.43
¥X YZ !X h¬X \Z]X
…
g= + – ˜
« \X ℎZ]X
Where:
α0 Initial vessel void fraction (dimensionless)
k Ratio of specific heats for gas and liquid phases (dimensionless)
Cf Heat capacity of liquid phase (J kg-1 K-1)
T0 Relief opening temperature (K)
Pv0 Set pressure of relief device (N m-2)
ν0 Initial specific volume of discharge strS3m (m³ kg-1)
νfg0 Difference between liquid and vapour specific volume (m³ kg-1)
hfg0 Latent heat of vaporisation of liquid (J kg-1)
®b
and
ab ∗ =
√g
The value of ηc can be obtained from the former equation using an iterative method. Having
subsequently determined the value of Gc*, the value of G for choked flow (Gc) can be obtained from:
Where:
θ Angle of inclination to the vertical (°)
g Acceleration due to gravity (m s-2)
D Diameter of vent line (m)
∗… g
À, x 1 − g ® + g®y %1 − a -
…
½ ®…
4º = − ¾ ¿®
´ ÀÁ a
∗…
x
2 1 − g ® + gy + ® ±²
… …
Leung has presented the integration of this equation in closed form [x]. Due to the complexity of this
equation, design charts are generally employed for known values of 4fL/D, Fi and Omega to extract
G*/Gc*. It is, however, possible to sprS3dsheet the calculation to provide a more accurate evaluation
(this procedure is employed at DEKRA Insight). Further equations within the Omega method are
available to account for other situations (such as hybrid pressure regimes, non-choked flow and sub-
cooled inlet liquid regimes).
 = 43.2 ± ∙ rÄ X.Å…
Where:
Q heat absorbed (kW)
AW wetted Surface area of vessel (m2)
F environmental factor
This equation assumes that the area around the vessel is well drained, and that prompt and effective
fire-fighting measures are available. If these criteria are not fulfilled, the constant in the equation
changes to become:
 = 70.9 ± ∙ rÄ X.Å…
The wetted Surface area is that Surface in contact with the liquid, up to a height of 7.62 m (25 ft.) above
any Surface which could sustain a fire. Thus any vessel sited at the top of a tall structure where open
grate flooring is used, for example, would not be capable of sustaining a prolonged pool fire. In vessels
such as reactors the fill level is normally taken as the highest normal working level, whilst for storage
tanks the average fill level is employed. For small vessels (e.g. transportable containers), the total
Surface area is often used as a conservative approach.
The environmental factor, F, is taken as:
Bare vessels above ground 1.0
Underground vessels 0
S3rth-covered vessels above ground 0.03
Vessels lagged with fire-resistant insulation 0.3
Vessels protected by water sprays 1.0
Where:
U∞ Bubble rise velocity (m s-1)
σ Surface tension (N m-1)
K Constant (churn-turbulent flow regime = 1.53) (bubbly flow regime = 1.18)
G Acceleration due to gravity (9.81 m s-2)
ρf Liquid density (kg m-3)
ρg Vapour density (kg m-3)
For churn-turbulent flow, the dimensionless superficial vapour velocity is given by:
2¥
Ñ=
1 − YX ¥
For bubbly flow, the superficial vapour velocity is given by:
¥ 1−¥ …
Ñ=
1 − ¥ Ó 1 − YX ¥
Where:
α The initial void fraction
C0 Correlating parameter (1.0 is a conservative value for tempered systems
while 1.5 is a conservative value for untempered systems).
It should be understood that the physical properties assumed for a solvent may be considerably
affected by the presence of other materials. Where there is any doubt about the nature of a material,
laboratory testing using correctly designed simulation experiments (boil-up or blowdown tests) can
definitively characterise a system.
At DEKRA Insight, two general methods of sizing relief systems are employed:
Â] + ¬ ∙ W
r=
a∙œ
ClS3rly, the principal parameter required for use in these equations is the maximum gas generation
rate. This value should be experimentally determined under adiabatic reaction conditions. Values of
gas generation rate collected under isothermal conditions will significantly underestimate the maximum
rate. The value of Qg can be determined directly from the maximum rate of pressure rise (dP/dtmax)
during adiabatic pressure Dewar trials using the equation:
¿h W
∙ Nœ*á[* − *á[*
¿ß "Bà » O ∙ W‹
Â] =
h"Bà ∙ W*á[*
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