DEVELOPMENT OF A SIMPLIFIED METHODOLOGY FOR EVALUATION OF PIPING VIBRATION DUE TO MULTI-PHASE FLOW

摘要

Excessive piping vibration is a major cause of idleness, leaks, failures, fires and explosions in the petrochemical industry. One of the causes of vibration in piping is the occurrence of multiphase flow regimes, specially the one called slug flow. The main purpose of this work is the verification and improvement of a methodology for evaluation of excessive piping vibration caused by multiphase flow. This methodology is capable of generating, from the measured acceleration signals, forces equivalent to those induced by the two-phase flow. In other words, this methodology enables simplified models to represent adequately the dynamic structural behavior of the piping system when new boundary conditions are imposed, allowing to estimate the risk of failure in operation of piping system or to propose technically feasible solution to mitigate the vibration problem. A physical model made of acrylic pipes and PVC bends was assembled and used to measure, simultaneously, the accelerations at four points of this loop when subjected to multiphase flow and with two different boundary conditions. The methodology could therefore be applied, refined, and validated with the data obtained from the experiment and with the aid of numerical simulation.