Archon has performed hundreds of pipe stress analysis for both the fossil and nuclear power industry. The need for piping and support analysis can be required for a host of reasons, including plant modifications, unexpected water hammers, excessive pipe erosion, long term thermal shake-down, changes in operating temperature, and pressure and maintenance activities. In many Fossil plants the piping systems have not been reviewed for decades and the existing systems do not reflect the original design configurations. Spring can supports may be bottomed out, supports may be damaged or missing, valves and other equipment may have been replaced or additional equipment may have been added. In high temperature and pressure systems, such as main steam or heater blow-down systems, the lack of long term maintenance and review can cause significant safety concerns.
Replacement of Main Steam Stop Valve:
This project was performed for a fossil power plant. The system was reviewed for the replacement and re-location of a main steam stop valve. Because of the analysis results, an additional support and support design were required.
Review of Propane Line for Support Loading:
Another engineering firm was designing supports for a new propane line filling system at a process plant. Archon was contracted to perform a pipe stress analysis of the system and provide them with the support loads.
After performing this analysis, we provided the client with the requested support loads. We also determined that the existing design would over stress the piping due to high thermal movements. The client was provided with recommended support design modifications that would eliminate the high thermal stresses in the system and prevent long term pipe failure due to fatigue.
