Pressure Vessel Management: A Plant Perspective

This paper addresses a methodology to maintain pressure vessels per ASME Section VIII, Division 1 Code and jurisdictional requirements, for new and existing pressure vessels. The pressure vessels discussed are drums, towers, shell & tube heat exchangers, and air-cooled exchangers, all designed and built per ASME Section VIII, Division 1. The methodology applies to vessels in refineries, gas plants, oilfield facilities, and chemical plants. Vessel adequacy is maintained via Codes, non-destructive testing, materials, inspection, company standards, welding procedures, inspection/maintenance standards, and jurisdictional requirements. Unique maintenance software, “PVCalc”, can aid in vessel calculations, to calculate the pressure rating, and remaining life, per the original edition of the Code under which the vessel was built. New vessel designs should be thoroughly reviewed, as the author’s experience over the last eight years is that approximately 65 to 80 percent of all vessel designs contain design errors (mostly minor) per ASME Code.