Blowdown Analysis for a Single-Vessel System

Aspen HYSYS

© 2019 Aspen Technology, Inc. AspenTech®, aspenONE®, the Aspen leaf logo,
the aspenONE logo and OPTIMIZE are trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Blowdown Analysis for a Single-Vessel
System

Contents
Blowdown Analysis for a Single-Vessel System ................................................................. 2
Steps...................................................................................................................................... 2
Answers ................................................................................................................................17
Challenge .............................................................................................................................17
Additional Resources ...........................................................................................................18

© 2019 Aspen Technology, Inc. AspenTech®, aspenONE®, the Aspen leaf logo, the aspenONE logo,
and OPTIMIZE are trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. 1
 Blowdown Analysis for a Single-Vessel
System

Blowdown Analysis for a Single-Vessel System

Significant challenges arise in the process industry to reduce the capital cost of
pressure relief systems while still ensuring the required safety standards are met.
Although conservative approaches are often desirable for safety considerations,
uncertainties and inaccuracies can lead to gross overdesign. Overdesign of
blowdown valves for the fire case can lead to cold temperatures and brittle fracture
in equipment during routine (cold-case) depressurization.

Blowdown studies are a critical activity in the design and operation of every plant
because they can reduce capital costs while ensuring the safety of the plant. In this
exercise, you will be introduced to the BLOWDOWNTM analysis tool. You will
model a single-vessel blowdown system and determine if, in case of fire, the orifice
can sufficiently depressurize the vessel to half of the vessel’s design pressure
within 15 minutes.

A pool fire on a system often represents the worst-case scenario that results in the
greatest peak mass flow rate that the blowdown valve must handle. The liquid will
likely vaporize over the course of the fire and cause a rise in system pressure.

This workshop will introduce the key steps of creating an analysis with the Single-
Vessel template. The Fuel Gas Receiver in your Main Flowsheet has been targeted
for some additional study. In this task, you will determine if the existing 7.62 mm
(0.3 in) blowdown orifice satisfies the API 521 design criteria, which is to
depressurize the system to half of the design pressure within 15 minutes.

Steps

1. Open the starter file SingleVesselStarter.hsc.

2. On the Home ribbon, under the Safety Analysis group, click the BLOWDOWN and
Depressuring button. On the Depressuring form, click the dropdown arrow next to
Add and select BLOWDOWN Analysis.

© 2019 Aspen Technology, Inc. AspenTech®, aspenONE®, the Aspen leaf logo, the aspenONE logo,
and OPTIMIZE are trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. 2
 Blowdown Analysis for a Single-Vessel
System

A template sets up the geometry and connections on the BLOWDOWN flowsheet.

This template is for a single vessel system with inlet and outlet piping along with a
blowdown line for vapor-side depressurization. Each template includes notes
regarding its usage.

Note: The button lets you import additional BLOWDOWN templates, which
you can download from the Support site and aspenONE Exchange.

3. Click the Start Analysis button. This will take you to the BLOWDOWN™
environment and add a BLOWDOWN™ sub-flowsheet to the Main Flowsheet.

© 2019 Aspen Technology, Inc. AspenTech®, aspenONE®, the Aspen leaf logo, the aspenONE logo,
and OPTIMIZE are trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. 3
 Blowdown Analysis for a Single-Vessel
System

4. On the Design tab, select the With pocket radial button for Inlet Line. Observe that
this causes the vertical section to be added to the inlet piping elements.

5. Select the System tab. Start by selecting Template Parameters from the left-hand
pane. The inputs here will apply to the entire template.

© 2019 Aspen Technology, Inc. AspenTech®, aspenONE®, the Aspen leaf logo, the aspenONE logo,
and OPTIMIZE are trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. 4
 Blowdown Analysis for a Single-Vessel
System

6. In the Ambient Air Properties section, specify the Air Temperature as 32.22 °C
(90 °F) and Air Speed as 0 m/s (0 ft/s).

7. Under the Define Fire Zone section, check the box next to Main Vessel in the
column In Fire Zone?

8. On the left-hand side of the System tab, expand Initial Inventory and select
Main Vessel.

© 2019 Aspen Technology, Inc. AspenTech®, aspenONE®, the Aspen leaf logo, the aspenONE logo,
and OPTIMIZE are trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. 5
 Blowdown Analysis for a Single-Vessel
System

9. Choose the Manual option and click the Copy from Stream button.
10. On the Select Process Stream dialog box, select the Feed _RP stream, then click
OK. HYSYS copies the composition of the selected stream.

© 2019 Aspen Technology, Inc. AspenTech®, aspenONE®, the Aspen leaf logo, the aspenONE logo,
and OPTIMIZE are trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. 6
 Blowdown Analysis for a Single-Vessel
System

11. Click the Copy to Initial Conditions button. This transfers the stream’s
temperature and pressure to the initial conditions of the vessel.

Now the Template Parameters section will have the icon to indicate the inputs
are complete.

Next, you must specify the vessel information.

12. Expand the Fire Zone Vessels section and select Main Vessel in the left-hand
pane.

© 2019 Aspen Technology, Inc. AspenTech®, aspenONE®, the Aspen leaf logo, the aspenONE logo,
and OPTIMIZE are trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. 7
 Blowdown Analysis for a Single-Vessel
System

13. On the Geometry tab, provide the following geometry specifications:

In this field… Enter…

Orientation Vertical
T/T Length 4.572 m (15.0 ft)
Cylinder Inner Diameter 1.524 m (5.0 ft)
Wall Material Carbon Steel
Cylinder Wall Thickness 25.40mm (1.0 in)
Head Geometry Hemispherical
Head Wall Thickness 25.40mm (1.0 in)
Min Design Metal Temperature -20.0 ̊C (-4 ̊F)
Max Design Metal Temperature 593.3 ̊C (1100 ̊F)

© 2019 Aspen Technology, Inc. AspenTech®, aspenONE®, the Aspen leaf logo, the aspenONE logo,
and OPTIMIZE are trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. 8
 Blowdown Analysis for a Single-Vessel
System

14. On the Simple Fire tab, make sure Apply to liquid is selected as the Fire Heat
Flux Method.

15. On the Initial Conditions tab, specify the Initial Liq. Volume Percent (%) as
50%, which is the percentage of total volume that is filled by the liquid at the
beginning of the blowdown event.

© 2019 Aspen Technology, Inc. AspenTech®, aspenONE®, the Aspen leaf logo, the aspenONE logo,
and OPTIMIZE are trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. 9
 Blowdown Analysis for a Single-Vessel
System

Next, you must specify the Pipes Information.

16. Use the following table to fill out the Geometry tab for each pipe. In addition,
input an elevation change of 0 for the Tail Pipe_Boundary:

© 2019 Aspen Technology, Inc. AspenTech®, aspenONE®, the Aspen leaf logo, the aspenONE logo,
and OPTIMIZE are trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. 10
 Blowdown Analysis for a Single-Vessel
System

17. On the Initial Conditions tab for the Pipes, fill out the required inputs based on
some general assumptions. In practice, you should validate all assumptions
based on any available plant data.
a. The Inlet H-1 pipe has a 50% liquid level (since there is pocketing on the
system that prevents free drainage to the vessel).
b. All other inlet pipes are assumed to have 0% liquid level.
c. The Tail Pipe temperature is assumed to be 32.22 °C (90 °F).

Next, you must specify the Restriction Orifice Information.

18. For the Restriction Orifice geometry information, provide an orifice diameter of
7.62 mm (0.30 in). Leave the discharge coefficient at 0.9000.

© 2019 Aspen Technology, Inc. AspenTech®, aspenONE®, the Aspen leaf logo, the aspenONE logo,
and OPTIMIZE are trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. 11
 Blowdown Analysis for a Single-Vessel
System

19. Once all of the icons appear as , you can move on to the Mapping tab. Recall
that BLOWDOWN™ uses a proprietary component list. Therefore, HYSYS
components must be mapped to corresponding BLOWDOWN™ components. It is
highly recommended to always examine the mapping messages for any warnings,
errors, or notifications. Observe that BLOWDOWN™ is giving a message about
water.

Special consideration must be given to water. BLOWDOWN™ assumes that water

is miscible in the hydrocarbon phase; it does not predict the presence of two liquid
phases. However, the solubility of water in hydrocarbons is very low. If water
becomes immiscible in hydrocarbons, it can lead to severe flash errors.

© 2019 Aspen Technology, Inc. AspenTech®, aspenONE®, the Aspen leaf logo, the aspenONE logo,
and OPTIMIZE are trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. 12
 Blowdown Analysis for a Single-Vessel
System

For this reason, it is not recommended to model water as miscible in hydrocarbons.

In V10.0, water is by default excluded from the BLOWDOWN™ component list.
Removing all water from the analysis also has the advantage of providing the most
conservative temperature predictions. Because water has a high heat capacity, it
moderates the wall temperatures and results in less extreme high and low
temperatures.

A global free water phase option exists. This option can be toggled on by checking
the box located on the System | Initial Inventory | Main Vessel page. You can
choose this option if you would like a more rigorous heat transfer analysis that
considers the temperature-moderating effects of water. However, bear in mind that
BLOWDOWN™ only models water as a liquid; it does not perform a flash
calculation to obtain the vapor-liquid equilibrium of water.

The third water handling option is to model it as miscible in hydrocarbons. This can
be done by clicking on the Edit Map button and manually adding water to the
component maps. Keep in mind that this is generally not recommended practice
because this assumption only holds true for very low (generally <1% mole) water
concentrations.

For now, you will accept the default component mapping. All components from
the HYSYS simulation were correctly mapped to the BLOWDOWN™ component
list.

Next, you must specify the Halt Conditions. BLOWDOWN can solve the simulation
and report results for any time range. Keep in mind the question that you are
hoping to answer when defining halt conditions. In your case, you want to know if
the system can depressurize the vessel to half of the design pressure (or 3337
kPa/484 psia) within 15 minutes. Thus, there are two ways you could confirm your
design: you could depressurize the system until it reaches 3337 kPa/484 psia and
see if that takes less than 15 minutes, or you can depressurize the system for 15
minutes and see if the final pressure is lower than 3337 kPa/484 psia.

20. Select the Run Controls tab.

21. In the Halt Conditions group, enter a halt time of 900 seconds and halt pressure
of 3337 kPa (484 psia). The simulation will stop when the first of these two
conditions are encountered.

© 2019 Aspen Technology, Inc. AspenTech®, aspenONE®, the Aspen leaf logo, the aspenONE logo,
and OPTIMIZE are trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. 13
 Blowdown Analysis for a Single-Vessel
System

22. The case has all the necessary inputs for it to run. To run the simulation, click the
Run BLOWDOWN button on the bottom edge of the BLOWDOWN Analysis
form, or click the Run button on the BLOWDOWN ribbon.

23. When the BLOWDOWN simulation is finished, a message appears in the status
bar, indicating that the simulation run is complete.

© 2019 Aspen Technology, Inc. AspenTech®, aspenONE®, the Aspen leaf logo, the aspenONE logo,
and OPTIMIZE are trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. 14
 Blowdown Analysis for a Single-Vessel
System

24. On the Results Summary tab of the BLOWDOWN Analysis form, you can review
overall system plots and key results or warnings from the simulation.

25. On the Results Summary tab | Major Findings page, you can view major findings
from your BLOWDOWN simulation.

26. On the Results Summary tab | Plots page, you can view BLOWDOWN results in
a graphical format.

© 2019 Aspen Technology, Inc. AspenTech®, aspenONE®, the Aspen leaf logo, the aspenONE logo,
and OPTIMIZE are trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. 15
 Blowdown Analysis for a Single-Vessel
System

QUESTION 1: At what time and vessel pressure did the depressurization stop?

QUESTION 2: Is the orifice sufficiently sized for your design criteria?

© 2019 Aspen Technology, Inc. AspenTech®, aspenONE®, the Aspen leaf logo, the aspenONE logo,
and OPTIMIZE are trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. 16
 Blowdown Analysis for a Single-Vessel
System

Answers
QUESTION 1: The simulation stopped at 900 seconds, and the final vessel pressure is
4074 kPa (590.8 psia).

QUESTION 2: No, the orifice is undersized. It cannot depressurize to the desired final
pressure within the allotted time of 15 minutes.

Challenge
Design a Blowdown Orifice for the Fire Case

In the previous exercise, the blowdown orifice is not properly sized to satisfy the design
criteria, which is to depressurize the system to 50% of the design pressure in 15
minutes.

You can use HYSYS to iterate on the restriction orifice size to find the minimum orifice
diameter which will meet the design criteria. The restriction orifice can be designed in
BLOWDOWNTM by adding an Adjust unit operation on the Main Flowsheet.

The Adjust will have the Orifice Diameter as Adjusted Variable and Final Pressure as
Target Variable. For the Target Value group, select the User Specified option and
specify 3337 kPa (484 psia):

The accurate size of the orifice should be around 8.0708 mm (0.3428 in).

© 2019 Aspen Technology, Inc. AspenTech®, aspenONE®, the Aspen leaf logo, the aspenONE logo,
and OPTIMIZE are trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. 17
 Blowdown Analysis for a Single-Vessel
System

Additional Resources
For more information, visit the pages below:

Public Website
www.aspentech.com

Resource Center
www.aspentech.com/en/resource-center

Customer Support Portal

esupport.aspentech.com

Training
training.aspentech.com

AspenTech eLearning
www.aspentech.com/eLearning

About AspenTech
AspenTech is a leading softw are supplier for optimizing asset performance. Our products thrive in complex, industrial
environments w here it is critical to optimize the asset design, operation and maintenance lifecycle. AspenTech
uniquely combines decades of process modeling expertise w ith big data machine learning. Our purpose-built
softw are platform automates know ledge w ork and builds sustainable competitive advantage by delivering high returns
over the entire asset lifecycle. As a result, companies in capital-intensive industries can maximize uptime and push
the limits of performance, running their assets faster, safer, longer and greener.

© 2019 Aspen Technology, Inc. AspenTech®, aspenONE®, the Aspen leaf logo, the aspenONE logo,
and OPTIMIZE are trademarks of Aspen Technology, Inc. All rights reserved. 18