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Month: May 2017

Fire Water Pump Capacity Calculation Part 1 – Fire Zones Determination

Rifka Aisyah 2 Comments

Process safety and pressure relieving and depressuring system are two areas that I want to master. Since the topic is quite big, in this post I want to share you what I learnt about fire water pump capacity calculation, specifically how to determine fire zones.

Fire water pump capacity calculation begins with fire zones determination. The whole pictures of fire water pump capacity calculation is expressed in figure below.

Fire water pump capacity calculation
Fire water pump capacity calculation

To determine fire water pump capacity, we can say we determine fire water demand. Maximum fire water demand is summation of fire water required for fixed system (water spray, foam, sprinkler) and fire water required for manual fire fighting equipment (fire hydrant, fire monitor, and hose reel). Read More

Design of Shell and Tube Heat Exchanger

Rifka Aisyah 2 Comments

It’s been quite a long time since the last time I saw and designed shell and tube heat exchanger. Recently, I got opportunity to dig and refresh knowledge that type of heat exchanger. In this post, I want to share you about design of shell and tube heat exchanger.

This figure shows you general step-by-step method of design of shell and tube heat exchanger.

Design of shell and tube heat exchanger
Design of shell and tube heat exchanger

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Application Range of Variety of Compressors and Compressor Selection

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When I was involved in pre-FEED of well production and gas treatment, one of key deliverable is compressor study. In this post, I want to share you about application range of variety of compressors (reciprocating, compressor, and axial-flow). In addition, I will also share the differences between those compressors.

Application Range of Variety of Compressors

Figure below can estimate application range of variety of compressors. It is a function of inlet flow in actual cubic feet per minute and discharge pressure in psia. 

Application range of variety of compressors
Application range of variety of compressors (source: Rules of Thumb of Chemical Engineers, Branan)

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Quantitative Risk Analysis Techniques Part 3 – Risk Results and Risk Mitigation

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In the first part of quantitative risk analysis techniques, we learnt about crucial step of the analysis which are hazard identification and cause and frequency analysis. In second part, we learnt continuation of the first part, which are fault tree analysis or event tree analysis as an approach to estimate frequency. After that we learnt about consequence modeling and several potential consequences.

In this post we will learn about risk results and risk reduction and mitigation.

Risk Results

There are two graphic forms that are usually used to present risk result: individual risk contours and societal risk F-N curves (Frequency-Number of fatalities).

Individual risk is the risk to a person in the vicinity of a hazard. This includes nature of the injury to the individual, likelihood of injury occurring, and time period of injury occur.

Societal risk is a measure of risk to a group of people. It is mostly expressed as frequency distribution of multiple casualty events. Read More

I Participated in Lokakarya Sertifikasi Insinyur Profesional LSIP

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Yesterday I participated in “Lokakarya Sertifikasi Insinyur Profesional LSIP” or Professional Engineers Certification Workshop held by “Persatuan Insinyur Indonesia” (Indonesian Engineers Association) in Jakarta. It was very awesome experience and I will tell you why.

At the beginning my motivation behind participating in this workshop was simply to get certified as professional engineer. Maybe if I get certificate, it will add value to myself. After I participated the workshop, being professional engineer is more than that. Being professional means to always work safely, to continuously improve oneself, and to contribute to the society. I am sure there are more than that, but those three points are what I remembered.

What did I get in Lokakarya Sertifikasi Insinyur Profesional LSIP?

In this lokakarya I got explanation about:

  • Indonesian Law no 11/2014 about engineering
  • Organization structure of Persatuan Insinyur Indonesia (Indonesian Engineers Association)
  • Engineer ethics code
  • Professional engineer application form – how to fill the application

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Quantitative Risk Analysis Techniques Part 2

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In previous post, quantitative risk analysis techniques is started with hazard identification then frequency analysis. Frequency itself can be estimated by two approaches, which are generic data approach and modeling approach. The first approach is already described in previous post.

Modeling approach is used to estimate leak frequency when general statistics data is not available. Modeling approach use fault tree analysis or event tree analysis. 

Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)

Fault Tree Analysis provide estimated frequency/likelihood of even for events that have never occurred by combining all possible basic failure mode (collision, dropped object, human error). These modes are combined and we tract how these initiating events can propagate to the top event by progressive failures of safeguard or by combining with other events. We use AND or OR gate. Read More

Quantitative Risk Analysis Techniques Part 1

Rifka Aisyah 1 Comment

Last time I involved in quantitative risk analysis (QRA) project in LNG regasification facility as supporting process engineer. Actually, I did not involve in QRA project itself, but I involved in back pressure study. In order to get to know about this field, I want to share you some basics quantitative risk analysis techniques as mentioned in several literatures, such as BS EN standards and AiChE publications.

Quantitative Risk Analysis is a procedure to accommodate management with event scenarios, measure of likelihood, and magnitute of potential losses. After risk analysis, we want to manage the risk by several means.

  • Reduce the frequency of accidents
  • Reduce the consequence of accidents
  • Provide insurance 

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How to Calculate NSPH of Pump with Examples and Illustrations

Rifka Aisyah 4 Comments

NPSH of pump (net positive suction head) should be calculated/predicted in the beginning of pump sizing. The purpose is to check if the pump will work appropriately. Liquid pressure will lower right in inlet of pump impeller. If pressure reduction is lower than vapor pressure, liquid phase will change to vapor phase. The impeller rapidly collapses vapor bubbles which cause cavitation and damage.

In this post I will share you how to calculate NPSH available, which is net positive suction head calculated based on system arrangement. The value of NPSH available (NPSHA) shall be greater than NPSH required (NPSHR), which is a function of pump and to be specified by pump manufacturer.

NSPH of pump is calculated as follow:

NPSH available (ft, m) = absolute pressure (ft, m) – vapor pressure (ft, m) –  line loss (ft, m) ± elevation difference (ft, m) Read More

Cooling Tower Makeup Water Calculation with Example

Rifka Aisyah 15 Comments

It’s been a while since the last time I write an article about utility system. In this post I want to share you how to calculate cooling tower makeup water.

Cooling tower must be made up because the water level decrease by the time during operation. There are aspect that contribute to calculation of cooling tower makeup water. Those are:

  • Evaporation loss
  • Drift loss
  • Blow down

Total cooling water makeup water requirement = evaporation loss + drift loss + blow down.

Let’s take a look one by one how to calculate each component.

Evaporation Loss

Evaporation loss is loss of water due to evaporation. It is calculated by this equation:

Evaporation loss = 0.00085 Wc (T1-T2)

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Natural Gas Line Sizing using General Pressure Drop Equation

Rifka Aisyah 9 Comments

Line sizing is a part of every engineering activity. Although it is not major part, line sizing is required when we prepare piping and instrumentation diagram. In this post, I want to share you how to do natural gas line sizing (actually the method is applicable for all kind of gases).

I usually use process simulator when it came to natural gas line sizing. Long time ago, I tried to size manually. But the result is not the same as from simulator. But, I tried again and yesterday I got a satisfied results.

Natural gas line sizing calculated in this post will be from manual calculation and from process simulator. API RP 14E is used as reference.

Based on API RP 14E, single-phase gas lines should be sized so that the resulting end pressure is high enough to satisfy the requirements of the next piece of equipment. So, the point is the end pressure. The velocity is also a noise problem if it exceeds 60 ft/s. However the velocity of 60 ft/s should not be interpreted as an absolute criteria. Higher velocities are acceptable when pipe routing, valve choice and placement are done to minimize or isolate noise.

API RP 14E mentioned several approach to calculate pressure drop, but in this post I will use general pressure drop equation. 

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