PWHT allowable stress

Posted by: FCS16

PWHT allowable stress - 09/19/11 02:37 PM

Hi! I'm doing a numerical simulation of a PWHT to calculate the stresses distribution. I'd like to know if ASME say something about allowable stress for the thermal stresses originating from the PWHT. I want to verify these stresses against some criteria.

Thanks in advanced,
Francisco
Posted by: KunalShah

Re: PWHT allowable stress - 12/07/11 01:22 AM

ASME doesnot say anything about stresses during PWHT. Deformation and stresses during PWHT may be different when 1)a completed vessel is heat treated in a furncae 2)during local PWHT. In either case, the stresses and deformation will depend on the supporting arrangement provided during heat treatment and geometry. Thus it is obvious that ASME will not talk about it. In eithe case, enough supporting arrangement shall be provided to avoid excessive permenant/plastic deformation due to self weight. At the same time, it is important to allow free thermal expansion to minimize the stresses.
This is a concern specially for thin vessels with high D/t ratio. You can go for elastic-plastic finite element analysis for such cases.