Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Pressure Vessel
Technology
Technical Briefs
standard, the decision was made to perform a clean sheet rewrite.
By doing so, it was felt that not only could the standard be modernized with regard to the latest technical advances in pressure
vessel construction but it could be structured in a way to make it
more user friendly for both users and the committees that maintain
it.
Development Process
D. A. Osage
P.E.
The Equity Engineering Group, Inc.,
Shaker Heights, OH 44122
The technology for pressure equipment design continues to advance each and every day. The ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel
Code has been keeping pace with these advances over the last 92
years. As far back as the 1960s, it was recognized that the special
requirements for design of pressure vessels operating at pressures
over 2000 psi (13.7 MPa) called for special rules, and ASME
issued Sec. VIII, Division 2 of Alternative Rules for Pressure Vessels. Since that time, the understanding of failure mechanisms and
advances in material science, nondestructive testing, and
computer-aided design has progressed to the stage where a new
approach was needed not only in the content of design codes but
in the way they are presented and organized. This paper introduces the newly issued ASME Sec. VIII, Division 2 of 2007 edition
and explores the technical concepts included and the new format
designed for ease of use. Included are results of test exercises
sponsored by ASME giving actual applications of the new Code
for design of vessels. This paper demonstrates ASMEs commitment to provide manufacturers and users of pressure equipment
with the most up-to-date technology in easy to use standards that
service the international market. DOI: 10.1115/1.2794737
Introduction
In 1998, the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Committee authorized a project to rewrite Sec. VIII, Division 2 of Pressure
Vessel Code. This decision was made shortly after the design margin on ultimate tensile strength was lowered from 4.0 to 3.5 in
Secs. I and VIII, Division 1 VIII-1. ASME saw the need to
update Sec. VIII, Division 2 VIII-2 to be more competitive with
other international standards, and in lieu of revising the existing
Contributed by the Pressure Vessel and Piping Division of ASME for publication
in the JOURNAL OF PRESSURE VESSEL TECHNOLOGY. Manuscript received July 26, 2007;
final manuscript received September 14, 2007. Review conducted by G. E. Otto
Widera.
toughness requirements
material procurement table
design by rule for the creep range
conical transition reinforcement requirements
opening reinforcement rules
Downloaded 12 Nov 2007 to 130.64.2.235. Redistribution subject to ASME license or copyright, see http://www.asme.org/terms/Terms_Use.cfm
Part
Part
Part
Part
Part
Part
Part
Part
Part
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
7:
8:
9:
General Requirements
Responsibilities and Duties
Material Requirements
Design-by-Rule Requirements
Design-by-Analysis Requirements
Fabrication Requirements
Inspection and Examination Requirements
Pressure Testing Requirements
Pressure Vessel Overpressure Protection
In addition to these nine parts, normative and informative annexes are utilized within each part, eliminating the use of mandatory and nonmandatory appendixes that are traditionally placed in
the back of the standard.
Part 1: General Requirements. Part 1 addresses the scope of
the standard with respect to the types of pressure vessels covered,
as well as the definition of the geometric boundary for the
stamped item. In addition, this part covers units of measurement,
reference standards, technical inquiries, and global definitions.
Similar to other ASME BPV standards, US Customary, Systme
Internationale SI, or local customary units may be used to demonstrate compliance with the standard. Guidance for the use of US
Customary and SI units is also provided.
Part 2: Responsibilities and Duties. Part 2 consolidates responsibilities and duties of the user, Manufacturer, and Authorized
inspector. The most significant change in this area has to do with
Registered Professional Engineer RPE certification of the Manufacturers Design Report MDR and the Users Design Specification UDS. An alternative to RPE certification is provided, which
will facilitate the use of the new VIII-2 outside of North America.
This alternative will require that the engineer certifying either the
UDS or MDR has the requisite technical and legal stature, and
jurisdictional authority to certify such a document.
One other significant change concerns maintenance of records.
The Manufacturer needs to supply to the user the complete technical file containing all pertinent documentation related to the
construction of the vessel, as well as retain these records for a
minimum period of 3 years after the vessel is stamped. Some of
the records that must be retained by the Manufacturer are the
following:
Part 3: Material Requirements. Part 3 contains several significant enhancements relative to the existing VIII-2.
Part 5: Design-By-Analysis Requirements. Part 5, the designby-analysis section, was reorganized based on the mode of failure
as follows:
protection
protection
protection
protection
against
against
against
against
plastic collapse
local failure
collapse from buckling, and
failure due to cyclic loading
Downloaded 12 Nov 2007 to 130.64.2.235. Redistribution subject to ASME license or copyright, see http://www.asme.org/terms/Terms_Use.cfm
Part 6: Fabrication Requirements. Part 6 contains a consolidation of fabrication requirements from the original VIII-2 Part
AM and Part AF, as well as some fabrication rules from VIII-1.
Similar PWHT requirements are planned for the initial release;
however, new time-temperature-thickness criterion for PWHT is
under development.
Part 7: Examination Requirements. Rules for examination of
welded joints have been completely rewritten in Part 7. The concept of defining examination groups for pressure vessels, based
on the practice used in several European standards, has been utilized. Also with the introduction of weld joint efficiencies in the
new VIII-2, the option for partial radiography is now available.
However, unlike the spot RT rules of VIII-1 where 1% of a weld
joint is examined, when permitted in Part 7, the partial radiography rules will require between 10% and 25% of the weld to be
examined.
Other significant features of Part 7 include the following:
Provision for UT in lieu of RT; requirements are given regarding when manual versus automated UT shall be performed.
More extensive visual examination requirements.
For vessels for which the fatigue analysis is mandatory, all
surfaces of pressure boundary components internal and external shall be examined by MT or PT following a hydrostatic pressure test; this requirement is taken from Sec. VIII,
Division 3, KE-400.
Part 7 also contains a normative annex outlining Inspector
and Manufacturer duties for inspection and examination.
ST
S
The ratio ST / S in Eq. 1 is the lowest ratio for the pressureboundary materials, excluding bolting materials, of which the vessel is constructed.
The pneumatic pressure test option is retained. However, when
used, the vessel must be monitored by acoustic emission examination during the test. Finally, the Manufacturer must maintain
complete records of the final pressure test.
Part 9: Overpressure Protection. Basic rules for overpressure
756 / Vol. 129, NOVEMBER 2007
protection in Part 9 are virtually identical to that currently published in VIII-1. For this reason, most rules for overpressure protection in the new VIII-2 will reference VIII-1. Rules not covered
in VIII-1, such as Overpressure Protection by Design Code Case
2211, will be presented in Part 9. An annex covering best practices for the installation and operation of pressure relief devices,
which is based on the latest revision to Appendix M of VIII-1, is
also provided.
Downloaded 12 Nov 2007 to 130.64.2.235. Redistribution subject to ASME license or copyright, see http://www.asme.org/terms/Terms_Use.cfm
Shell
Heads
Material
SA-387 Gr11 Cl 2 SA-387 Gr11 Cl 2
Design temperature C
410
410
Allowable stress-old MPa
151.38
151.38
Allowable stress-new MPa
151.38
151.38
Required thickness-old mm
34.38
38.43
Required thickness-new mm
34.59
33
Change in vessel weight as a %
2
Reduction in production time
N/A
as a %
Reduction in overall vessel cost
2.5
as a %
Beta Test Results. Overall, the beta test of this new standard
was a resounding success and provided validation of many of the
goals set forth when this project was initiated. In general, the
results are as follows.
All of the beta testers reported the standard was easy to use,
and that the design rules were clear and concise.
Several beta testers reported that they prefer the new format
of the document whereby the nomenclature, figures, and
tables are all placed at the end of each part and that all of the
weld joint figures are assembled in one place.
The beta test generated numerous questions on the standard,
but no significant errors in the standard were identified during the test.
As expected, significant cost savings were reported due to
the increase in allowable stress for many carbon and low
alloy steels. Of equal importance, most of the testers also
reported a reduced amount of reinforcement required for
openings, resulting in a reduction in forged nozzle thickness.
A summary of the beta test results is provided in Tables 15.
Table 3 Summary of beta test results: hydroprocessing reactor. Comments: 1 The beta test has confirmed the quality of
the new code. 2 The revised design margins and related increased allowable stresses for some materials will result in significant savings in both time and cost.
Item
Shell
Material
Design temperature C
Allowable stress-old MPa
Allowable stress-new MPa
Required thickness-old mm
Required thickness-new mm
Change in vessel weight as a %
Reduction in production time
Reduction in overall vessel cost
as a %
SA-336 F22V
454
169
199
290
244
Shell
Shell
SA-738 Gr B
120
195
244
42.74
33
Heads
Material
Heads
Forging
Material
Material
Design temperature C
Allowable stress-old MPa
Allowable stress-new MPa
Required thickness-old mm
Required thickness-new mm
Change in vessel weight kg
Reduction in production time
as a %
Reduction in overall vessel cost
as a %
SA-542 Tp D Cl 4a
454
169
199
145
125
13.8
2 weeks
12
Summary
Item
Item
Heads
SA-387 Gr11 Cl 2
120
148.9
148.9
N/A
N/A
51,000
8
12.2
SA-336M F22V
Design temperature C
Allowable stress-old MPa
Allowable stress-new MPa
Required thickness-old mm
Required thickness-new mm
Change in vessel weight as a %
Reduction in production time
as a %
Reduction in overall vessel cost
as a %
454
168
199.8
304
254
SA-542M Gr D Cl
4a
454
168
199.8
152
128
17
1
N/A
Downloaded 12 Nov 2007 to 130.64.2.235. Redistribution subject to ASME license or copyright, see http://www.asme.org/terms/Terms_Use.cfm
Nomenclature
MAWP the maximum allowable working pressure
Downloaded 12 Nov 2007 to 130.64.2.235. Redistribution subject to ASME license or copyright, see http://www.asme.org/terms/Terms_Use.cfm