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DEPRESSURING STUDY AND

APPLICATION ON
BP-A PROJECT
PTSC MECHANICAL & CONSTRUCTION
Vung Tau, May 22
rd
2014
Prepared Checked Approved
Full Name Truong Minh Hoang Nguyen Cong Hai -
Signature
Date 22 May 2014 May 2014 May 2014
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CONTENT
INTRODUCTION PEAK STUDY
LOW TEMP
STUDY
3/27
INTRODUCTION
Depressuring is a process of releasing pressure from an isolated system, it can
be manually or automatically operated.
Depressuring is considered for high pressure (> 1700 kPag as recommended in
API 521 Section 5.20.1) systems or systems with large volatile liquid
inventory (e.g LPG) usually when other pressure safety devices such as PSV
can not satisfy requirements of releasing pressure in a given period of time in
case of emergency:
Emergency Depressuring with Fire (Fire Case): External Fire in Process Area.
Emergency Depressuring without Fire (Adiabatic Case): process malfunction (valve
failure).
System depressuring/drainage for maintenance after long shut-down (Isochoric Case).
In wellhead platform, typically the following systems are considered for
depressuring:
Production/test manifolds
Fuel gas header
Pig launcher system
Gas Booster Compressor
4/27
INTRODUCTION
Depressuring system consists of one Blowdown valve (BDV) and one
Restriction Orifice (RO).










System description: In case of emergency, shutdown valves (SDVs) close to
isolate the system from other process area, BDV opens to release pressure
from system to flare header, RO is used downstream of BDV to restrict the flow
and decrease pressure of the relieving stream.

Typical depressuring system with SDV and BDV-RO
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INTRODUCTION
Typical criteria for depressuring in Fire Case: vessel is required to
depressurize from design pressure to 6.9 barg (100 psig) or design pressure
in 15 minutes.
Depressuring calculation objectives:
PEAK STUDY: To determine peak flow rate for Vent/Flare network line sizing and RO
bore sizing based on the depressuring time requirement - Fire Case is used.
LOW TEMP STUDY: To determine minimum design temperature for proper material
selection - Adiabatic or Isochoric Case is used.
Depressuring simulation can be performed by using different dedicated
softwares. Among them, Hysys is the most common tool. However, if client
require or a higher accuracy needed, softwares such as LNGDYN (Technip
France) or BLOWDOWN (Imperial College London) are preferred for LOW TEMP
STUDY.

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INTRODUCTION
Dynamic depressuring utility in HYSYS is used to simulate the
depressurization of gas, gas-liquid filled vessels and systems with several
connected vessels or piping volumes depressuring through a single valve.
Steps to calculate depressuring:


Simulate in HYSYS
Information about liquid level on the vessel
Calculate total piping and equipment inventory.
Determine basic composition and conditions
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APPLICATION ON BP-A PROJECT
System illustration:









Pipe lengths are estimated as follows:
FWS Gas Flowline U/S choke valve (HPW/MPW): 5m
FWS Gas Flowline D/S choke valve (HPW/MPW): 10m
FWS Production Header: 35m
FWG Export Line: 25 m
Pig Launcher: 0.5 m
3


PZA
HH SET @ 7100 kPag
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APPLICATION ON BP-A PROJECT
System Inventory calculation:
Line No 1 2 3 4 5 6
Description
FWS Gas Flowline
U/S choke valve
(HPW)
FWS Gas Flowline
D/S choke valve
(HPW)
FWS Gas Flowline U/S
choke valve (MPW)
FWS Gas Flowline
D/S choke valve
(MPW)
FWS Production
Header
FWG Export
Line
Service PG PG PG PG PG PG
DN, mm 150 150 150 150 300 600
Piping Spec 253470X 153470X 153470X 153470X 153470X 15WWWW
Pipe Schedule 160 80S 80S 80S 100 -
OD, mm 168 168 168 168 324 610
ID, mm 131.75 146.33 146.33 146.33 280.97 541.12
Thickness, mm 18.13 10.84 10.84 10.84 21.51 34.24
Liquid Fraction 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000
Pipe Length, m 5 10 5 10 35 25
Quantity 2 2 16 16 1 1
Pipe Volume, m
3
0.14 0.34 1.35 2.69 2.17 5.75
Volume margin 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%
Pipe volume + margin, m
3
0.14 0.34 1.35 2.69 2.17 5.75
Pipe metal volume, m
3
0.04 0.05 0.03 0.05 0.72 1.56
Total Pipe Volume
12.43
m
3
Total pipe metal volume 2.45 m
3
Total Pipe Volume + margin
12.43
Metal density 7801 kg/m
3
Gas Inventory
12.43
m
3
Total metal weight 19102.86 kg
Liquid Inventory
0.00
m
3
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APPLICATION ON BP-A PROJECT
Feed Composition and Conditions:
Composition and conditions of stream holdup in the
Production Header are used as Feed Stream.
Initial Condition:
Fire Case: design pressure or PZAHH
Adiabatic Case: design pressure or PZAHH
Isochoric Case: relevant pressure with T (minimum
ambient temperature)

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DEPRESSURING USING HYSYS
Tool + Utility or Ctrl + U
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PEAK STUDY
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PEAK STUDY
1. SPECIFYING CONNECTIONS
Feed stream
Specify the composition and
conditions of the fluid holdup
in the system right prior to
depressuring.

Case Name
Horizontal
for system in which piping is
dominant.
Volume of the system
the cylindrical portion only.
Vessel Dimensions
Metal mass in contact with
liquid and vapor
Hysys will use the heat content
of this metal when performing
the calculation (for Fire Case,
this is optional).
The cylindrical area
calculated from input vessel geometry.
Head surface area can be specified.
Initial liquid inventory
based on NLL or HLL
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PEAK STUDY
2. CONFIGURING STRIP CHART
Strip chart is used to store all the data of the depressuring calculation.


Sampling Interval = 0.5s
The length of time between data
samples taken from the strip
chart. Smaller interval is
preferred if more details needed
or if the relieving flow rate is
significantly larger than the
volume or if vessel
depressurizes in a short amount
of time.
Tick to active the variable

Add a new variables
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PEAK STUDY
3. SPECIFYING HEAT FLUX
Select: Fire API 521
models heat from a fire using
an equation based on API 521:
Q = 21000.F.A
0.82

(Btu/hr)
C
1
, C
2
Constants from API 521
Environmental factor = 1
C
3
depends on insulation
method of system. 1 for bare
vessel is used as conservative
value.
Heat loss = None
None heat loss model is used
for worst case.
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PEAK STUDY
4. SPECIFYING VALVE PARAMETER
Back pressure = 0 kPag
For initial value: P
b
= 0 kPag
P
b
has significant effect on
Subsonic valve model only.
General vapor flow equation
should be used for systems
that are depressurized through
a fixed orifice.
C
d
= 0.85 for vapor relief
Estimated RO area
No liquid relief
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PEAK STUDY
5. SPECIFYING OPTIONS
0% for conservative results
PV Work Term Contribution is
used to approximate the
isentropic efficiency. 100%
indicates isentropic
processes while 0% means
isenthalpic processes.
Hysys recommends common
values range from 87% to
98%.
A higher isentropic efficiency results in a lower final temperature
A lower isentropic efficiency results in a higher peak flow rate

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PEAK STUDY
6. SPECIFYING OPERATING CONDITIONS
PZAHH set point
This value is specified in Feed
Stream.
Depressuring time = 15 minutes
Select Calculate Area:
Orifice area/ valve C
v
is
iterated to meet depressuring
requirements (final pressure
and time).
Time step size = 0.5s (default)
the integration step size
Final Pressure = 690 kPag
Initial area estimate
Run simulation after all data are filled
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PEAK STUDY
RESULTS
Vapor peak flow rate = 9402 kg/h
Valve area = 187.3 mm
2
Vapor peak info

Composition and
conditions of peak flow

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LOW TEMP STUDY
LOW TEMP STUDY is based on Adiabatic or
Isochoric Case, whichever results in lower temp.
Most Options are the same with those of PEAK
STUDY, except the followings.
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LOW TEMP STUDY
1. SPECIFYING CONNECTIONS
Case Name
Initial liquid inventory
based on LLL
Metal mass in contact with
liquid and vapor
This values should be
specified. If not, Hysys will
assumes no metal mass and
this definitely results in over
design.
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LOW TEMP STUDY
3. SPECIFYING HEAT FLUX
Select: Adiabatic
No external heat is applied
Heat loss = Detailed - Conduction
The conduction parameters allow
the user to manipulate the
conductive properties of the wall
and insulation.
It is recommended to use detailed heat loss model and specify the thickness of the metal wall.
If not, Hysys assumes no metal mass and this definitely results in over design.
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LOW TEMP STUDY
5. SPECIFYING OPTIONS
100% for conservative results
A higher isentropic efficiency
results in a lower final
temperature.
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LOW TEMP STUDY
6. SPECIFYING OPERATING CONDITIONS
PZAHH set point
For Adiabatic Case: design
pressure or PZAHH.
For Isochoric Case: relevant
pressure with T (minimum
ambient temperature).
Depressuring time = 30 minutes
Trial depressuring time to meet
final pressure of 0 kPag.
Select Calculate Pressure:
Final pressure is calculated
from specified orifice area and
depressuring time.
Valve Area = 187.3 mm
2

Valve area is obtained from
PEAK STUDY.
Run simulation after all data are filled
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LOW TEMP STUDY
RESULTS
ADIABATIC CASE
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LOW TEMP STUDY
RESULTS
ISOCHORIC CASE
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DEPRESSURING STUDY
References:
PTSCMC-000-WI-F-0030 - WI Report.docx - Low Temp Study - Nguyen Cong Hai
Depressurisation - A practical guide, HYPROTECH.
Aspen HYSYS 7.2 - Unit operations guide, 14.8 Dynamic Depressuring.
API RP 521, 5
th
Edition, 2008.
API RP 520 Part I, 7
th
Edition, 2000.
BN-MLS-21-PTSC-308012_CN - Depressurisation_Full

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APPENDIX A
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APPENDIX B
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APPENDIX B-1
Heat flux: specify heat model
Fire API 521: models heat from a fire using an equation based on API 521.
Adiabatic: no external heat is applied, this is used for LOW TEMP STUDY.
Fire Mode: models heat from a fire using a general equation.
Fire - Stefan Boltzmann: models heat from a fire using a radiation equation.
Use Spreadsheet: allows the user to customize the equation used.
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APPENDIX C
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APPENDIX D
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APPENDIX E
1. Supersonic: is used when no
detailed information available on
the valve and supercritical flow
(generally P
upstream
> 2P
downstream
)
2. Subsonic: is used for sub-
critical flow (usually P
upstream
<
2P
downstream
).
3. Manesolian: Taken from the
Masoneilan catalogue, this
equation can be used for general
depressuring valves to flare.
Often the C
v
or a valve is known
from vendor data.
4. No Flow: indicates there is
now flow through the valve.


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APPENDIX F
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APPENDIX G
153470X
13470X
153470X
15WWWW