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Cooling Water GRP Pipe Network

A hands-on Approach of System Monitoring and Prevention of Failure

By

Ahmad M. Al-Zain /Ramireddy Annapureddy

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OUTLINE

Tasnee Highlights, Capacity Introduction

CW GRP pipe failure incidents

Investigation & RCA for GRP pipe ruptures

Factors for GRP pipe ruptures

Mitigation & Monitoring Measures

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TASNEE Highlights

Established in the 1985 , first Industrialization Joint-Stock Wholly Owned by Private Sector .

Major Businesses : Petrochemicals, Titanium dioxide and downstream products and services.

Fully integrated operations including project development and implementation, operations and marketing.

Over 7,000 Employees in five continents.

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TASNEE’s Production Capacity

Chemicals

TiO2

Acrylics

Total: 570 KTA

80 KTASuper

Absorbent Polymer

160 KTAButyl

Acrylate

330 KTAn-Butanol (Project)

Total: 1,555 KTA

Plastics

400 KTAHDPE

400 KTALDPE

720 KTAPP

35 KTACompound

Recycled Lead Alloys42 KTA 2.4 million Batteries

BOPP30 KTA

32 KTA Plastic Sheets(PC, PMMA, ABS, HIPS)

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Introduction: Description of TASNEE Cooling water Network

18 cells

SW cooling Tower F

SW / CW Exch (x 23)

x 5

CW drum

City water make up

Gas vent

EC users

LDPE users

HDPE users

PP Line 1

x 5

CW pumps

Vital CW pumps

EC vital CW users

Vital SW pumps

All CW/SW piping is Underground except:• Suction / Discharge lines of pump• Inlet / outlet of CW/SW exchangers

All CW/SW piping are made of GRP material

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CW GRP pipe failure incidents

CW Pumps

A

S

D

B

C

SW / CW Exchangers (Total no's: 23) CW Users100” CW header

#1

#2#3

#5

#4

CW drum

Incident in CW/SW exchanger & CW pump

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CW GRP pipe failure incidents

SW / CW Exchangers (Total No's: 23)100” CW header 76” CW supply header to EC

76” CW Return header from EC to CWR main header

100” CWS header

72” CW supply header to PE/PP

28” CW header

#6

3E-3713 (RGH reactor Methanol condenser)

Incident in EC plant Process area

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Investigation & RCA for GRP pipe ruptures

Investigation & RCA used Fishbone Diagram methodology and Fact Tree Analysis for finding the possible causes leading towards GRP pipe failures.

Using Fish Bone Diagram the identified root causes are as follows:

Category Identified root cause

Operation Water surge/hammering

CW users leakage

Process Gas ingress into system

Maintenance & Reliability Maintenance & Inspection procedures

Materials Lack of industrial QC procedures for GRP elements.

Design Supports for Pipe & Pump and Soil settlement issues

Flexibility of the system for load variations

GRP header dynamic compatibility

Degassing system compatibility

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Factors for GRP pipe ruptures

Deficiency in the Design of the existing CW network

• Soil Settlement issues- Soil compaction & Proper back filling

- Monitoring system for soil settlement

• Support for GRP lines - Surge/Stress analysis to find the dynamic load variation in pipe network- Piping system flexibility to handle the dynamic loads

• Gas relieving system adequacy to release the gas/vapors entered into the CW system

- Large amount of gases ingress into the CW system - Venting system is not sufficient at individual CW user side

System Design Factors are recognized from Fact Tree Analysis

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Factors for GRP pipe ruptures

People/Manpower/Skills are recognized from Fact Tree Analysis

Poor Workmanship Leading to GRP Line Failure

• GRP Workmanship skills during the project execution stage & maintenance time

- Time & Capital cost constraints during project period - Availability of trained maintenance and inspection personnel for GRP work • Lack of compliance with GRP manufactures standard with Execution

Contractors

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Factors for GRP pipe ruptures

The following Policies/Procedures Factors are recognized.

Availability of industrial standards with Reliability & Maintenance for GRP Pipes

Lack of QC &QA procedures for GRP maintenance & inspection

The following Process Factors are recognized.

GRP is not the suitable application for two phase Flow service

Effective monitoring tools for detecting gas ingress into CW system

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Mitigation & Monitoring Measures GRP failure Mitigation Measures & System Monitoring points are recognized from investigation &

RCA study for new and existing CW GRP systems .

CW GRP System Design Measures

Proper design study (Surge & Stress analysis) to be performed & validated during project stage :o To find the dynamic load variation in the GRP network as the analysis will identify the stress

concentrated areas in the pipe network & for additional supports allocation.o To have the system flexible enough to handle the dynamic loads.

Soil Settlement issues shall be rectified for U/G GRP pipe system as continuous Soil settlement will

allow the GRP pipes to settle further more than the allowable limit and put an additional stress on the GRP line branches and finally will lead to failures/ruptures. So, It is required to have:o Adequate soil compaction based on the varying load bearing capacity of the Soil & Proper soil

back filling.o Continuous monitoring system for soil settlement is made available at the existing set up & the

same has to be considered during design phase.

CW system design has to be considered during project stage with the case of amount of gas ingress and continuous relieving of the same as GRP is not proven for two phase flow.

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Mitigation & Monitoring Measures

Process & Operations Measures

Installing gas monitoring systems at the tactical locations of in CW network & at CW end-users as it will provide an early signal about the gas leakage and will help in troubleshooting exercise to isolate the particular end-user instead of doing the exercise for the whole network.

Proper & immediate Operations response with safety required for mitigation and relieving of the ingress gas into CW GRP system for avoidance of rupture at weak joints of the pipe.

People/Manpower/Skills Measures

Efficiency of GRP Workmanship skills enhancement :o Consideration of Proper Time & Capital cost constraints during project period as it could have

resulted into handing over the jobs to sub-contractors in executing the pipe installation work ending up with less efficiency.

o To have the availability of trained maintenance and inspection personnel for GRP repair work.

o To have the compliance with GRP manufactures standard with Execution Contractors for installation/maintenance job execution.

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Mitigation & Monitoring Measures

Policies/Procedures Measures

Standards for maintenance and inspection procedures are to be made available for Plant existing system GRP repair works.

QC &QA procedures shall be made available with Plant Reliability & Maintenance for GRP pipes inspection.

CW network exchangers inspection plan shall be made available with Plant Reliability & Integrity team.

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