Assessment, testing and adjustment of piping supports

High temperature piping, as often found in power plants and refineries, over time undergoes progressive deformation due to Creep phenomena and increasing hysteresis in spring supports. This leads to an increase in tensions in the piping thus increasing the operational risk and effectively decreasing its remnant life.

Creep phenomena along the piping can also contribute to an improper operation of the spring supports, which will have a negative contribution to the previously mentioned issues. It is recommended that high temperature piping be periodically assessed to determine its condition.

This requires the inspection of the line to gather data for a comprehensive numerical simulation, which will provide the condition of the piping. If deemed necessary the loads on the spring supports will be altered to reduce the stresses to a more appropriate level.

The computation of the most appropriate loads is obtained through a numerical simulation. By applying this methodology the operational risk of the piping will be reduced and the remnant life of the piping will be significantly increased.