Over Conservatism in Relief Analysis

Over conservatism in relief analysis

Relief devices are reliable means of overpressure protection commonly used in industry. In a typical relief analysis all potential overpressure scenarios are documented for each piece of equipment. Required relief rate calculations are performed to determine how much a system will need to relieve in order to not exceed pressure above what is allowable by code. Due to lack of data or time pressure, designers often tend to make simplified conservative assumptions which can lead to overdesigning of new relief system or render existing system inadequate. Just like under design, overdesign has its own negative consequences in terms of performance and cost. This paper shades light on some of these over conservative assumptions and in order to avoid overdesign, how a designer can refine relief calculations further.

Submitted by: Shailesh H Saraykar

Co-author: Jim Brigman

Company: Ingenero Inc.

4615 Southwest Freeway suite 320

Houston TX 77027

Mobile: 832 841 9070

Email: ssaraykar@ingenero.com, jbrigman@ingenero.com