Title Page
P ri n ce Mo h a m m a d B in Fa h d Un i ve rs i t y
College of Engineering
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Internship Report
at
Saudi Aramco
Second Biweekly Report For Period:
[13/07/2012 - 27/07/2012]
Submitted by:
Zaki Saad Al-Qarni
ID# 20081484
[submission date 27/07/2012]
Mechanical Engineering Department
Summer 2012
 Background
During the period in-between 13/7/2012 and 27/7/2012, I had deeply
participated to evaluate many pipes dead legs that need either to be removed or
properly reserved for future use. The evaluation of these pipes was conducted by
a team that consists of engineering, maintenance, inspection and operation.
Also the assigned team shall developed official procedures to show how to
protect each pipe and the recommended type of fluid to protect it.
Also in the last two weeks, I continue collecting the required data to be uploaded
in the new steam traps device “Dr. Trap” software. Almost 30 data of each steam
trap should be accurately collected to provide the new software to get accurate
result during the analysis. A total of 3000 steam traps in one division of aramco
Ras Tanura. It is expected to last almost three months to complete the whole data
and upload them to the new software to start using it.
 Progress
I. Planed work:
During the last two weeks, I had worked on two very important
safely and economy issues and they are as the following:
1) Work with assigned team to evaluate very important safety
issue in Aramco Ras Tanura that related to pipe dead legs that
might cause pipe failure at any time and thus create fire. A lot
of complicated procedures need to be review and evaluate to
ensure at the end that we have the correct recommendations.
2) Provide the required data for Dr. Trap device to evaluate the
functionality of steam traps correctly. Aramco Ras Tanura has
almost 3000 steam traps and we should get the data for each
one.
II. Work done:
1) Evaluating Pipes Dead Legs and Provide the proper Recommendations
First I will start with the definition of pipe dead legs which the Piping sections that
are potential for internal corrosion due to flow stagnation. Also any section of a
piping system meeting the following dimensional criteria is considered as a dead
leg:
a) When a pipe section is connected to a flowing stream where it is not self
draining and is not normally flowing.
b) The piping material has the potential for corrosion in service.
c) When the length is longer than three times its pipe diameter, or 1.22 m (4 ft)
whichever is less. The length of the dead leg is the distance measured from the
outside diameter of the header (or run) to the near end of the branch valve.
For branch connections of 1-½ inch NPS and smaller, the length of the dead leg is
the distance measured from the end of the boss to the near end of the valve.
However; a section of a piping system meeting the following criteria is not
considered as a dead leg even if it meets the dimensional criteria above:
a) Piping system that is corrosion resistant by its nature.
b) The service is not corrosive and experience has demonstrated such claim.
c) The service is not wet.
The assigned team relies on the above information in their evaluations and
recommendations. The number of dead leg pipes to be evaluated is huge and
required a lot of time and effort to classify each pipe dead leg. During the last two
weeks, we evaluate some of these dead legs pipes either to remove them or
mothballing them. The definition of mothballing is how to protect currently
unneeded equipment from internal corrosion to be easily reused in the future
therefore; the objectives of mothballing can be stated as follows:
123-
Preservation of the buildings and equipment without a significant loss of
useful operating life and without excessive costs.
The continuation of the preservation state with a minimum of maintenance
attention.
Recommissioning with a minimum cost and delay.
Normally the media that used to mothball the unneeded pipes is different based
on the actual pipe service and the availability of the media. For example, aramco
Ras Tanura is heavily relied on inner gas “Nitrogen” to mothball their unneeded
pipes. The using of nitrogen as mothballing media has advantage and
disadvantage that can be summarized as the following:
The advantages of using nitrogen are:
• Nonflammable and nontoxic.
• Readily available in bulk as liquefied nitrogen type II and gaseous nitrogen
type I.
Disadvantages are:
• tends to dry out seals and packing
• Leaks must be controlled
2) Provide the required data for Dr. Trap device Software:
The device is mainly relayed on the data that provided to help the software
“Processor” to analyze the efficiency of the steam traps. Data requires for each
steam traps is many such as location of steam trap, manufacturing type, upstream
pressure, inlet pipe size, flange, temperature..ect. Based on provided data, the
software can tell what types of failure and the cost of steam losses. The below
graph shows the excel sheet that consolidate the required data to run the analysis
smoothly and accurately.
Also the end result can help to take the proper decisions in timely manner.
Software can be run on a personal computer. It aggregates and analyzes steam
trap data from the processor, identifying faulty steam traps, leaking traps. It
provides details charts and graphs. Survey results are transferred from the
processor to the computer using the Dr. Trap management software. The below
graph shows final analysis.