Process Equipment Design-I

(CB208)

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology Patna

Atanu K Metya
[email protected]
 Design of Support for Process Vessels
• Design of a process vessel depends on the selection and design of
suitable support.
• Requires the examination of the effect of support on the shell.
• Depending upon the process requirement, a pressure vessel is supported
either in vertical or horizontal position.
• Vertical way: distillation column or absorption tower or evaporators
• vertical or horizontal: A heat exchanger or condensers or storage
vessels
• The selection of a particular type of support depends on the size, shape
and weight of the vessel; design temperature or pressure; location and
arrangement of internal/external structures.
 Design of Support for Process Vessels
• For vertical vessels the common supports are:
• Skirt support
• Bracket or lug support
• Leg support

• For horizontal vessels the common supports are:

• Saddle support
• Leg support
 Design of skirt support
• Skirt supports are cylindrical or conical steel
sheets attached to the bottom tangent of the
vertical vessels.
• Most suitable for tall vessels subjected to
longitudinal bending stresses.
• This type of supports is used for vessels
subjected to wind, seismic and other loadings
which can cause bending moment at the base Cylindrical skirt Conical skirt
of the vessel. or Straight skirt or Angular skirt

• Unlike pressure vessels, no internal/external pressure contribution to the

stress calculation in skirt supports.
• The maximum stress (resultant) will be induced in the skirt due to dead
weight of the vessel and wind/seismic bending moment.
 Design of skirt support

In absence of eccentric loads

• The maximum tensile stress in skirt wall:
!" (tensile) = (!",- or !"0- ) − !",
• The maximum compressive stress in skirt wall:
!" (compressive) = (!",- or !"0- ) + !",

!",- = the stress due to wind moment at the base of the skirt
!"0- = the stress due to seismic bending forces
!", = the stress due to total dead weight supported by the skirt
 Design of skirt support
• From design considerations: skirt thickness
!" (tensile) ≤ ,- cos 0
!" (compressive) ≤ 0.125: ;/= cos 0
f = maximum allowable stress of skirt material (usually at room temperature)
J = circumferential weld-joint efficiency
= 1 (if made of single length, i.e., no circumferential joint)
= 0.7 (if double welded butt-joint with full penetration)
D = skirt diameter E = Young’s modulus of elasticity
t = skirt thickness
α = half of top angle of conical skirt
= 10o (maximum)
= 0o for cylindrical skirt

• The minimum thickness of skirt wall in corroded condition should not be

less than 7 mm as per IS: 2825-1969
 Design of skirt-bearing-plate
• The bearing-plate welded at the bottom of the skirt is essential to
increase the load-bearing contact area with the foundation.
• Bearing-plate is anchored to the concrete foundation by means of
anchor bolts to prevent overturning from the bending moments
induced by wind or seismic loads.
• The maximum compressive stress between the bearing plate and
concrete foundation: s (max) = Wmax + M w,max or M s ,max
c
A Z
Wmax = maximum weight of vessel (including liquid content and attachments)
Mw = bending moment due to wind load
Ms = bending moment due to seismic load
A = area of contact between bearing plate and concrete foundation= π(Do - l)l
l = outer radius of bearing plate minus outer radius of skirt
Z = section modulus of area A, = πR2ml , where Rm = (Do-l)/2
 Design of skirt-bearing-plate
• The maximum compressive stress σc (max) must be less than the
allowable bearing strength of the foundation.
• The thickness of the bearing plate is determined by considering it as a
uniformly loaded cantilever beam with σc (max) as the uniform load.
• The maximum bending moment occurs at the junction of the skirt and
bearing plate and is determined for unit circumferential width (b = 1):
l2
M (max) = s c bl (l / 2) = s c (for b = 1)
2
• The maximum stress due to maximum bending moment in an elemental
strip of unit width: 6 M (max) 3s l 2
s max = 2
= 2
c
(for b = 1)
bt bp t bp

where tbp = thickness of the bearing-plate without gussets

 Design of skirt-bearing-plate
• Assuming that σmax = f (allowable stress),
• If bearing plate thickness is t = l 3s / f
bp c

• > 20 mm, gussets are used to

• reinforce the plate
• The deflection and bending moments in a bearing
plate with gussets can be calculated as:
• The section of the plate between two gussets may
be considered as uniformly loaded rectangular plate
supported by gussets at two opposite edges, third
edge is joint to shell and fourth edge is free.
where, b = gusset spacing (x-direction)
l = bearing plate outside radius minus skirt outside radius (y-dir.)
My = maximum bending moment at the junction of skirt and bearing-plate caused by
deflection of the plane in y-direction.
 Design of skirt-bearing-plate and anchor-bolt
• It may be noted that for l/b = 0 (no gusset i.e., gusset spacing b = ∞),
the bending moment reduces to M y = s cl 2 / 2 and the thickness of
bearing plate is t = l 3s / f
bp c

• The bearing-plate thickness from the bending moments given in

previous Table,
6 M (max)
tbp =
f

• Anchor-bolts prevent overturning of the vessel from the action of

wind/seismic forces, therefore, they are subjected to tensile stress only.
• The requirement of anchor bolts is determined from the stability of
tall vertical vessel.
 Design of anchor bolts
• Minimum stress between the bearing plate and concrete foundation,
Wmin M w,min or M s ,min
s min = -
A Z
where Wmin = minimum weight of empty vessel without any attachments.
• If σmin ⩾ 0, the stability factor can be calculated as:
M weight Wmin R
j= =
M w (or M s ) M w (or M s )

where Mweight = moment of minimum weight of vessel

R = moment arm for minimum weight of vessel = 0.42Do′
Do′ = outer diameter of bearing plate

If j > 1.5, the vessel need not be anchored.

 Design of anchor bolts
• If σmin < 0, the vessel must be anchored to the concrete foundation by
anchor-bolts to prevent overturning.
• The approximate value of the load on one bolt may be determined as:
A
Pbolt = s min
n
where Pbolt = load on one anchor bolt
n = number of anchor bolts
σmin = minimum stress b/w bearing plate and concrete foundation
A = area of contact b/w bearing plate and concrete foundation = π(Do-l)l

• Root area (ar) of one bolt,

ar fbolt = Pbolt
Design example
For a vertical tall vessel of thickness ts = 0.014 m and filled with water,
design a cylindrical skirt support and bearing-plate for which f = 96 MN/m2
and E = 2x105 MN/m2. Determine the dimensions of bearing-plate if gussets
are required. Also, evaluate the root area of equally distributed anchor bolts
(n = 8) if fbolt = 57.3 MN/m2. Ignore eccentric and seismic loads.
Data:
Shell outside diameter = 2.0 m and height = 16.0 m; Skirt height = 4 m,
Design temperature = 320 oC, design pressure = 0.8 MN/mm2
Corrosion allowance for skirt = 2 mm, K1 = 0.7, K2 = 1,
Weight of each head = 7.5 kN, Wt. of insulation = 42 kN, Attachment wt. = 71 kN,
Insulation thickness = 75 mm Wind pressure = 1000 N/m2
Weld joint efficiency factor = 0.7 for double-welded butt joint,
Shell and skirt density = 7850 kg/m3, Gusset spacing = 0.1 m,
Outer radius of bearing plate minus outer radius of skirt = 0.1 m.
• The minimum weight of the vessel with two heads and shell:
!"#$ = &'" () * − 4 -.) + 2×7500=123 kN
• Wmax = Wshell,test+Winsulation+Wattachments+Wwater = 108+42+71+244 = 465kN
• Period of vibration at minimum dead weight is ts = shell wall thickness, m
D = Do
-5
T = 6.35 ´10 ( H / D) (W / ts )
3/2 1/2
,s W = total weight of tower in kN
H = tower height including skirt

• Tmin (0.185) < 0.5 s

• K2 = 1 (since period of vibration is <0.5s)
• Tmax = 0.36 s < 0.5 s, Hence K2 = 1
• Load due to wind acting on the vessel Pw = K1 K 2 p1h1 Do
p1 = wind pressure for bottom part of vessel;
h1 = height of the vessel equal to or less than 20 m
K1 = coefficient depending upon the shape factor (i.e. 1.4 for flat plate 90o to the wind; 0.7 for cylindrical surface)
• For minimum weight condition, Do = 2 m and for maximum weight
condition, Do = 2.15 m (insulated)
• Pw (min) = 28000 N and Pw (max) = 30100 N
• Wind moments are H
Mw (min) = 280 kJ and Mw (max) = 301 kJ M w = Pw (for H £ 20 m)
2
• As the thickness of the skirt is expected to be small, assume
Di = Do = 2m
4M w
• Bending stress due to wind load: s =
wm
p D 2t
σzwm(min) = 0.09/t MN/m2 and σzwm(max) = 0.096/t MN/m2
• Dead load stresses are %
!"# =
σzw(min) = 0.02/t MN/m and σzw(max) = 0.074/t MN/m
2 2 &'(
• Maximum tensile stress without eccentric load is
!" (tensile) = !",- (./0) − !", (min)= 0.07/t
• σz(tensile) = fJ = 96*0.7 = 67.2 MN/m2
• Equating, 67.2 = 0.07/t t = 1.02 mm
• Maximum compression load without eccentric load is
!" compression = !",- max + !", (max)= 0.17/t
• σz(compressive) = 0.125E(t/Do) = 1.25*103t
• Equating, 1.25*103t = 0.17/t t = 3.7 mm

• As per IS: 2825-1969, minimum corroded skirt thickness is 7 mm.

Providing 1 mm corrosion allowance, a standard 8 mm thick plate can
be considered for skirt.
 Design of skirt-bearing-plate

• The maximum compressive stress between bearing-plate and foundation is:

A = π(Do - l)l W M or M s ,max
s c (max) = max + w,max
l = outer radius of bearing plate minus outer radius of skirt A Z

Z = section modulus of area A, = πR2ml , where Rm = (Do-l)/2

• The allowable compressive strength of concrete foundation varies from 5.5

to 9.5 MN/m2. Assuming σc = 5.5 and calculate l from the above expression.
• l is found to be equal to 35 nm. As the required with of the bearing-plate is
small, we consider 100 mm width (i.e., l = 0.1m) and σc = 1.86 MN/m2
• The thickness of the bearing plate tbp = 25 mm
tbp = l 3s c / f

• As the plate thickness required is larger than 20 mm, gussets may be used
to reinforce the plate.
• For Gusset spacing b = 0.1m, l/b = 1
• M (max) = My = -0.119 σcl2 = - 0.0022 MJ
• tbp = 0.0118 m tbp =
6 M (max)
f

• Thus, for the 100mm gussets spacing, the plate

thickness of 12 mm will be sufficient.
• Therefore, rolled-angle bearing plate of size 100mm
x 100mm x 12 mm with 62 gussets may be used. If
number of the gussets are reduced, thicker plate will
be required.
 Anchor-bolt design
• Minimum stress between the bearing plate and concrete foundation
• σmin = 0.003 MN/m2 s min =
Wmin M w,min or M s ,min
-
A Z
• As σmin ⩾ 0 the stability factor
M weight Wmin R
• j = 0.4 j = =
M w (or M s ) M w (or M s )
• As this j value is <1.5, the vessel will not be steady by its own weight.
Therefore, anchor bolts are to be used.
• If hot rolled carbon steel is selected for bolt, f = 57.3 MN/m2
A
Pbolt = s min
n
ar fbolt = Pbolt
• For M12 X 1.5 bolts, ar = 63 mm2
• Calculate n.
• However, as the wind may blow from any side, 8 such bolts are to be
used equally distributed