I am working on a project which will entail designing some critical piping to withstand occasional tropical cyclonic wind loading.This piping is connected to high pressure vessels,at elevations of 25 to 30 meters above grade on independent structural steel supports.The vessels are open to wind loading. The piping will contain hot acid slurries in lines with numerous lap joint type flanged joints.

Our main process criteria, is to maintain piping integrity, and plant operation when possible and to prevent leakage if at all possible from a design point.
The fundamental frequencies of these lines already appears very low, i.e. in the same range as the expected structural oscillation frequencies. Resonance may be a serious problem during these cyclones.Leakage from the flanged joints is obviously our main concern

Other than the mechanics of the pipe modelling and stress evaluations for the piping and the flanged joints, would anyone out there be able to direct me to some relevant design criteria for this type of loading (say, in the offshore gas or petroleum industry, nuclear)or have any direct experince on what design criteria to use for realistic evaluation of this piping?. Any ideas where I might find procedures for comparable situations. How do designers for open air process plants in tropical climates deal with these parameters? [LIST][EMAIL]rkolk@hatch.ca