Lateral Expansion Bellow Requirement

Dear All

I would like to ask to some practical problem that we are facing at our Ammonia plant.

A 20" line with SS material runs from an exchanger to a vessel. The pipe is attached to the flange of the exchanger through elbow, that turns the piping by 90 degrees. After the leg of elbow there is lateral expansion bellow. The lateral expansion bellow absorbs the 6mm lateral movement comming from the exchanger.

The bellow leaked at convultion point and necessity of its removal is asked through flexibilty analysis. The analysis showed the that the piping is OK with out the expansion bellow but the nozzle loads has been increased at the nozzle of the vessel.

Now my question is:

1.When the lateral expansion bellow is installed in the piping system
2.What will happen when it is removed.

Best Regards

Ikram

Ikram,

Few more information are required before your question can be answered.
1. What is the operating and design temperature of the pipeline?
2. What is the routing layout of the line?
3 What kind of support are used upstream of the nozzle?
4. Are you planning to take off the bellow permanently or temporarily? If it is a temporary arrangement it should not be much of an issue.

The tank nozzle can be reinforced to take the extra nozzle load. I believe that the expansion bellow is given to take care of the settling issue rather than the force. If the expansion bellow is taken off the line should be rerouted with better flexibility to take care of the settlement but expansion bellow is a better solution.