Posted by: boise-nick
Reinforced lateral tees and area replacement calculations - 03/31/10 03:52 PM
Concerning lateral tees and their reinforcement requirements...
This is on a geothermal gathering system which is being qualified against ASME B31.1. The customer wishes not to buy fabricated laterals and instead wants to weld together two pipes to form the branch and header connection. This method of construction requires reinforcement as calculated from an area replacement calculation (BPVC). The area replacement calculations are only applicable if the branch connection diameter is <= half of the header diameter. I believe this is correct so far, please correct me if I am wrong here.
Now my question: What happens if the lateral violates the diameter ratio rule, say if the branch connection is the same size as the header...?
1) The code is violated and the tee cannot be built and satisfy the requirements of B31.1
Or
2) The lateral violates the diameter ratio rule and the area replacement calculation simply does not apply here. However the lateral can still be built if it is qualified by FE analysis.
Which approach is appropriate: 1 or 2?
Thanks for your time...
This is on a geothermal gathering system which is being qualified against ASME B31.1. The customer wishes not to buy fabricated laterals and instead wants to weld together two pipes to form the branch and header connection. This method of construction requires reinforcement as calculated from an area replacement calculation (BPVC). The area replacement calculations are only applicable if the branch connection diameter is <= half of the header diameter. I believe this is correct so far, please correct me if I am wrong here.
Now my question: What happens if the lateral violates the diameter ratio rule, say if the branch connection is the same size as the header...?
1) The code is violated and the tee cannot be built and satisfy the requirements of B31.1
Or
2) The lateral violates the diameter ratio rule and the area replacement calculation simply does not apply here. However the lateral can still be built if it is qualified by FE analysis.
Which approach is appropriate: 1 or 2?
Thanks for your time...