Case Studies

Deltamarin used FluidFlow to size all pipelines without pressure reducing valves as well as balance the flow through all nozzles to quickly design and dimension the cooling system

Company Profile:
Deltamarin is a ship design, offshore engineering, and construction group operating in the marine and offshore industries worldwide. Services offered include the full range of consulting, design and engineering as well as procurement, construction, and installation. All phases and all disciplines in new-building and conversion projects as well as project management and operational support are covered.

Deltamarin’s customers include major international ship owners, offshore contractors, shipyards, equipment and system suppliers. The Group employs around 400 experts in its own and associated companies located in Europe and Asia.

https://deltamarin.com/

Projects Overview:
The main purpose of the project was to design and dimension a cooling system for chemical tanker propylene oxide piping. Propylene oxide is a volatile liquid which is why the propylene oxide cargo piping has to be cooled during the load and offload. This system consists of 185 sprinkler nozzles, 923 M of pipework, and associated ancillary fittings. A part-plan overview of the system is provided below in Figure 1.

Challenge
To design and dimension a cooling system for chemical tanker propylene oxide piping.

• The balancing of the flow between the sprinkler nozzles.
• Arranging the system without pressure reducing valves.
• Sizing of all pipes throughout the system.

FluidFlow & Deltamarin

The cooling system had to comply with the US Coast Guard rules (46 CFR 153.530 – Special requirements for alkylene oxides). Propylene oxide cargo piping had to be covered with a uniform water spray of 0.175 l/m2 sec. The system was arranged with the sprinkler nozzles and total water flow in the system was defined by calculating the sprinkler nozzle protected area with required water spray. Calculated flow in each nozzle was 31.5 l/min.

FluidFlow helped Deltamarin with:

• Performance Analysis: Identified potential issues and optimized system performance.
• Detailed Modeling: Enabled visualization of the system for better understanding.
• Pump and Pipe Sizing: Determined the appropriate size for circulating pumps and network of pipes.
• Accelerated and Accurate Design: Speeded up the overall design process.

By using FluidFlow on this project, we had the ability to size all pipelines without pressure reducing valves as well as balance the flow through all nozzles. Balancing the flow distribution between the nozzles was easy and fast. Using FluidFlow for the design and development of this system allowed us to make significant savings on time.

Aleksi Aurivuo
Deltamarin

Solution

Deltamarin’s engineers utilized FluidFlow to design the system and develop an understanding of the plant operating performance. Through detailed modelling, the team was able to identify any potential performance issues, size the circulating pump, consider line velocities, and size the network of pipes.

FluidFlow helped the team develop and accelerate the overall system design whilst eliminating the potential pitfalls of other design methodologies such as spreadsheets.