Rapid depressurization of pressure vessels

Afzal Haque, Stephen Richardson, Graham Saville and Geoffrey Chamberlain*

Department of Chemical Engineering, imperial college, London SW72BY, UK
‘“Shell Expro, 1 Altens Farm Road, Aberdeen AB9 2HY, UK

Experiments were conducted on the rapid depressurization of large pressure vessels. Measure-
ments taken included the pressure, temperatures at a large number of positions both within the
fluid phase(s) and on the wall of the vessel, and composition, all as a function of time during the
blowdown process. The systems studied included subcritical and supercritical, condensing and
non-condensing. From these experiments, an understanding of the physical processes involved
during blowdown was evolved. This was incorporated into a mathematical model of blowdown,
and implemented in a computer program. The model correctly predicts all the major phenomena
observed in.the experiments, as a function of time.

(Keywords: pressure vessels; hazards; physical processes)

Rapid depressurization of pressure vessels, usually to predict how the system will behave.
called ‘blowdown’, is a hazardous operation, at least as In process plant, particularly in the petroleum
far as large pressure vessels are concerned. The hazard industry, there are many large vessels operating under
arises because of the very low temperatures generated pressure and containing hydrocarbon mixtures. ‘These
within the fluid during rapid depressurization. This vessels may be horizontal or vertical, and have inlet and
inevitably leads to a reduction in the temperature of the exit pipes at the top, bottom or sides. Depressurization
vessel itself and possibly to a temperature below the is frequently necessary, and in an emergency it may
ductile-brittle transition temperature of the steel from have to be rapid. It is under these circumstances that
which the vessel was fabricated. the lowest wall temperatures will be observed. The
In the release of gas from a vessel at high pressure, objective of this paper is to describe some of the work
the thermodynamic path taken by the gas inside the performed to predict the behaviour of a vessel during
vessel is one of constant specific entropy if the process blowdown.
is adiabatic. This would result in the production of very
low temperatures (78 K) for the release of, e.g. Experimental
nitrogen at 150 bar down to ambient pressure. This
should lead to substantial heat transfer from the walls The physical processes taking place during blowdown
of the containing vessel, and hence to the removal of are a complicated mix of several phenomena. To
the adiabaticity of the process. As far as the wall is determine the more important of these, a programme
concerned. there are a number of competing processes: of experimental work was carried out involving the
heat transfer by convection to the cold gas inside the depressurization of three vessels ranging in diameter
vessel; heat conduction through the wall of the vessel; from 5 to 110 cm, with length to diameter ratios from
and heat transfer by convection between the surround- 10 to 3 respectively.
ings and the vessel. In the case of a gas-filled vessel, experiments
If the state inside the vessel, either initially or at showed that the dominant mode of heat transfer at high
any stage in the blowdown, is one in which the vessel pressures was natural convection. This was most clearly
contains e.g. liquid condensate with a vapour phase illustrated by examining the blowdown of a horizontal
above, there is the additional complication of heat vessel through an exit on the axis of the end closure of
transfer from the vessel wall to the liquid by boiling. the vessel. The vessel was 1.5 m long, with 0.27 m i.d.
This will result in the evaporation of material from the and walls 2.5 cm thick: It was instrumented with a
liquid phase and its transfer into the vapour phase. All pressure transducer to measure the internal pressure,
the time this is happening, depressurization is taking and = 80 bare wire thermocouples to measure the
place through an exit pipe that could be removing temperature within the gas space in the vessel and the
either the vapour phase or the liquid phase, according surface temperatures of the vessel wall, both inside and
to its position in the vessel. It is therefore quite difficult out. Pressurization was with nitrogen to 150 bar, and
depressurization was through an orifice of diameter
Received 12 September I989 6.35 mm. A data logger was used to record all the
Presented at the First Int. Conf. on Loss of Containment, 12-14 September 1989. temperatures and the pressure once every 3 s. Blow-
London. UK

09504230/90/010004-0463.00
0 1990 Butterwort~ &Co. (Publishers) Lfd

4 J. Loss Prev. Process Ind., 1990, Vol3, January

 Rapid depressurization of pressure vessels: A. Haque et al.

TOP 0

-20

Y
-?
, -40
z
b
E
d -60
5
rn
.c
Q -80

s
5
-100

-120
0 20 40 60 80 100

Time/s

Figure 2 Variation of temperature with time during blowdown

of nitrogen: the upper band refers to inner wall temperatures
BOTTOM
and the lower band to gas temperatures; the solid lines indicate
Figure 1 Isotherms (left hand side) and schematic streamlines predictions made using the BLOWDOWN package
induced by natural convection (right hand side) in a vertical
plane parallel to the ends of a horizontal vessel
20
I I I I I I I I I I
down to atmospheric pressure was essentially complete
after = 100 s. Figure I (left hand side) shows a plot of
isotherms in a vertical plane parallel to the ends of the
horizontal vessel, obtained by interpolation and
smoothing of the raw experimental measurements. It
indicates the presence of natural convection with -20
streamlines roughly as shown on the right hand side of d-,
-ii
Figure I. The isotherms are essentially the same on all 5
such vertical planes within the vessel, indicating that z
k -40
the axial forced convecting component, due to flow of
8
gas towards the exit port, is dwarfed by the natural ;
convection circulating component. Measurements
made with this vessel in a vertical position indicate that
natural convection also dominates in this case.
Apart from the region close to the wall, the
temperature gradients within the gas space were quite
small and the band of temperatures shown in Figure 2 is
typical of those observed during blowdown of a
gas-filled vessel. Figure 2 also shows the corresponding 0 20 40 60 80
variation of the inner wall temperature. This too varied Time/s
little over the whole of the vessel.
Multicomponent mixtures behave in a similar Figure 3 Variation of temperature with time during blowdown
of a 70% nitrogen/30% carbon dioxide mixture: the upper band
manner at high temperatures, where the mixture is
refers to bottom zone temperatures and the lower band to top
single phase gas, but show a markedly different zone temperatures; the solid lines indicate predictions made
behavjour once condensation takes place. Figure 3 using the BLOWDOWN package
shows the bulk fluid temperature measured within the
same vertical vessel when a 70% nitrogen/30% carbon the lower band in the diagram. The temperatures
dioxide mixture (molar composition) was blown down measured near the bottom of the vessel, however,
from the top, with initial conditions of 150 bar, 20°C. showed first a rise and then a steady fall. This
At first, when the mixture was single phase, the behaviour was caused by the onset of condensation. At
temperature fell in an essentially spatially uniform first, the amount of condensate formed was small and
manner within the vessel. After = 10 s, the tempera- as it reached the bottom wall of the vessel, which was
tures split into two bands, with those recorded in the still relatively warm, it partially evaporated, driving off
top part of the vessel continuing to fall and following the more volatile components and thereby raising the

J. Loss Prev. Process Ind., 1990, Vol3, January 5

Rapid depressorization of pressure vessels: A. Haque et al.

boiling temperature. However, more and more conde- The continuous depressurization process is re-
nsate was formed in the upper part of the vessel, due to placed in the computer model by a series of discrete
expansion. This fell to the bottom, and, as the bottom time steps. Each time step is sub-divided into a number
of the vessel itself was cooled, the evaporation rate fell of simple thermodynamic and heat transfer sub-steps
off and a pool of liquid gradually accumulated. Since according to the following algorithm:
the pressure in the system was still falling, this liquid Select a pressure decrement.
experienced evaporative cooling. Clearly, a very com- Perform an isentropic flash on each zone.
plex and competitive process is going on in this liquid Calculate the rate of discharge through the choke.
pool, but the experimental evidence indicates that Calculate the duration of the time step and the
eventually evaporative cooling dominates the be- amount of fluid discharged.
haviour and the liquid temperature falls, as shown in Calculate the heat transfer coefficients for each
Figure 3. zone.
Only a few centimetres depth of liquid were Perform energy and mass balances over the contents
formed during this experiment, but the evaporative of each zone and an energy balance over the vessel
cooling was sufficient to reduce the inner wall temper- wall.
ature at the bottom of the vessel to - 10°C (at the top of If depressurization is complete, stop; otherwise,
the vessel the corresponding temperature was 15°C) repeat this process.
before the pressure reached 5 bar, at which point the
liquid layer, which was now almost pure carbon During blowdown from the top of the vessel, the rate of
dioxide, solidified to form carbon dioxide snow. discharge through a choke is calculated by requiring the
Similar behaviour was observed during blowdown fluid to follow an isentropic path, the fluid emerging
of natural gas/propane mixtures from the 1.1 m dia- from the choke with a speed equal to the local speed of
meter vessel. However, the much closer volatilities of sound of the gas-phase component. The speed of sound
methane and propane, as compared with nitrogen and in the choke, V,, is determined by the simultaneous
carbon dioxide, did produce some quantitative differ- solution of the equations:
ences. Thus, the depth of liquid condensate foimed Hi = H, + :VIC
when depressurizing a 30 mole ‘/o propane mixture was.
in relative terms. an order of magnitude larger. Since
propane has a triple point pressure < 1 bar. this
condensate remained liquid until atmospheric pressure s, = s,
was reached. at which stage its temperature was close where H denotes enthalpy, S entropy, p pressure, o
to the normal boiling point of pure propane, indicating volume and T temperature; subscripts i and c refer to
that almost all of the volatile components had been conditions far upstream of the choke (where the flow is
driven out. The inside wall temperature at the bottom essentially stagnant) and in the choke, repectively; and
of the vessel was almost identical to that of the liquid. C, and C,, denote specific heats at constant pressure
The extensive series of measurements made on the and at constant volume, respectively.
blowdown of the two larger vessels for various com- A number of possible situations could arise in
positions provided the data base for modelling blow- practice, since the fluid approaching a choke could be
down. Most of the measurements were made on one phase (vapour) or two phase (liquid and vapour)
vertical vessels blown down from the top. and the and the fluid in the choke could be in a metastable state
model described applies specifically to this. However, or in thermodynamic and phase equilibrium. (The fluid
measurements were made on vertical vessels blown approaching the choke is assumed to be in equilib-
down from the bottom and also on horizontal vessels rium). Any combination of these phase states can be
blown down from the end, but these are not discussed handled, but as a result of comparison with the
here. experimental measurements, the preferred method is
to use one phase or two phase, as appropriate for the
fluid approaching the choke, and equilibrium for that
Computer model within the choke. In all cases, once the state within the
A computer package called BLOWDOWN has been choke is evaluated, the mass flow rate through it
developed to simulate rapid depressurization of vessels. follows from a knowledge of the density and speed of
The vessel is divided into two zones: the top zone sound in this state, together with the cross-sectional
contains all of the vapour together with any suspended area of the orifice.
liquid-phase droplets; and the bottom zone contains all Heat transfer in the top zone allows for forced
of the liquid phase that has dropped out of the top convection I and natural convection’; in the bottom
zone, forming a pool on the bottom of the vessel. If no zone, it allows for nucleate3 and film4 boiling; outside
liquid is present the bottom zone is eliminated, but it the vessel, it allows for natural convection2. Energy
reappears if condensation occurs at any time. Each balances over the contents and wall of the vessel are
zone is assumed to be at a spatially uniform temper- always carried out using standard numerical methodsj
ature and composition; all zones are assumed to be at a and solved by a matrix inversion methodh. A mass
spatially uniform pressure. balance over the contents is required only if liquid is

6 J. Loss Prev. Process Ind., 1990, Vol3, January

 Rapid depressurization of pressure vessels: A. Haque et al.

present, since mass transfer between zones only occurs during blowdown, especially offshore; pipe lines, over
as a result of evaporation from the liquid pool in the which there is a significant pressure drop during
bottom zone, and sedimentation from the top zone. blowdown; and arbitrary combinations of vessels and
Figures 2 and 3 show predicted and measured pipe lines, to simulate real systems more effectively.
temperatures. It can be seen from Figure 2 that
BLOWDOWN successfully predicts the temperature of Acknowledgements
the gas and of the inner wall. Similarly, Figure 3 shows
that it successfully predicts the temperatures in the top This work was sponsored by Shell UK Exploration &
and bottom zones when condensation occurs. The Production, under contract number C/22225.
package for depressurization has also been validated
for natural gas and for natural gas containing up to 30% References
propane. I ‘Chcmicol Engineers Handbook‘ (Eds. R. H. Perry and C.H.
Chilton). 5th edition. McGraw-Hill. New York. USA. IY73. pp.
10.12- 10. IS
2 ‘Chemical Engineers Handbook‘ (Eds. R. H. Perry and C.H.
Conclusion Chilton). Sth edition. McGraw-Hill. New York, USA, 1973, pp.
10. IO- 10. 12
The experiments undertaken and the model developed 3 Rosenhow. W. M. Trutts ASME 1952.74. Y6Y
have given a good understanding of the physical 4 Jordan-. D. P. Advunces Heut Trunsfcr 196X. 5. 55
processes occuring during blowdown, even for multi- 5 Incropera. F. P. and De Witt. D. P. in ‘Fundamentals of Heat &
Mass Transfer’. 2nd edition. Wiley. New York. USA. IYRS.
component multiphase systems. This work is now being chapter5
extended to cover: free water, which often forms h Thomas. L. H. C~mnt Pure Marh 1954.7. 195

J. Loss Prev. Process Ind., 1990, Vol3, January 7