CASE STUDY

Design Calculation for BPCL Ennore Pipeline Project

PIPELINE DESIGN CALCULATION (ASME B31.4) AND PIPELINE CROSSING CACULATIONS (API RP1102)

Project Brief:

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is an Indian state-owned oil and natural gas company with its headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is one of the leading companies in the petroleum sector in India. M/s BPCL, proposes to lay a product Pipeline from BPCL Ennore Coastal Installation to ETTPL in Thiruvallur (Tamil Nadu) based on PNGRB authorization. In this regard M/s NRP Projects has been awarded the work vide LOA No. 20-21: 1000345402 dated 24/04/2020 for fabrication and erection of this underground pipeline from BPCL Ennore coastal to Ennore Tank Terminal Private Limited (ETTPL) at Ennore, Tamilnadu. M/s NRP Projects approached iFluids Engineering, to carry out the design calculation for pipeline and pipeline crossing calculation for the project as per standard.

The proposed Line BPCL ENNORE COASTAL INSTALLATION – ETTPL Pipeline takes off at BPCL Ennore Terminal in District Thiruvallu, in the State of Tamil Nadu and terminates at ETTPL Thiruvallur District in Tamil Nadu .

The route of proposed pipeline starts from BPCL Ennore Terminal in Thiruvallur district in North-West direction for 379.21m, then turns toward North-East for the next 618.98m. After that the route moves along the Asphalted Road in East up to 1700.78m post which, it takes a turn towards North-East up to 4078.73, eventually moving East up to 4863.08m and finally North at the end, connecting with ETTPL. Of its total length, it passes through the CRZ Zone for 3.955Km.

The Route of Line passes through Blackish Sand for 2.48km, Brownish Soil for 5.10km and through Reddish Gravel for 1km. All the routes are passing through seismic zone III. The terrain along the entire pipeline is flat for its entire length i.e., 8.632 KMS.

The proposed Route of Line crosses 14 nos. of other roads, 01 nos. of cart track, 1 nos. of Canal, 2 nos. of Drains/Nala, & 08 nos. of H.T Line and Power lines, 6 nos. of Fire line & 8 no of pipelines as major crossings.

The route of the proposed pipeline passes through class I, II & IV for 0.23 KMS, 2.26 KMS & 6.09 KMS respectively. The proposed pipeline will be along the right of Asphalt Road (Pudunagar to Mukhadwarakuppam) for a length of 0.67 km, along the Asphalt Road (Mukhadwarakuppam to Kamarajar Port) for 2.37km length, along the Asphalt Road (Kamarajar Port) for 0.79km & along the Asphalt Road (Kamarajar Port to IMC Limited Ennore Terminal) for 3.72km of the length of pipeline.

The proposed line crosses through the following River and two Railways such as,

  • Kosasthalaiyar River
  • Southern Railway Chennai (From Nandiyambakkam – Islands)
  • Southern Railway Chennai (From Puladivakkam – Nandiyambakkam)

iFluids Responsibilities:

iFluids Engineering has carried out the design calculation to check the adequacy of the design of major crossings in the route of the proposed 24” nominal dia. twin MS and HSD product pipelines from BPCL Ennore Coastal Installation (BPCL-ECI) to Ennore Tank Terminal Pvt. Ltd. (ETTPL). The total length of the pipeline is approximately 8.7 km. There are 21 crossings in the pipeline route which identified in the list of major crossings and are grouped under HDD and bore-cut crossings. These include two railway track crossings, one minor river crossing, one canal crossing and one nala crossing besides asphalt road and cement road crossings, and existing pipelines crossing. As per Client requirement overburden analysis is carried out to check the stability of the pipelines against buoyancy force with the water table reaching the ground level.

Activities involved in Pipeline Design Calculation and Crossing calculation:

  • Data Collection and Data validation
  • Definition of Soil parameter based on the Soil investigation report
  • Submission of Design parameters to client for approval
  • Performing Pipeline design calculation as per ASME 31.4 based on the fluid, soil and other internal, external parameters
  • Validation of proposed Pipeline route alignment drawing
  • Application of minimum and maximum temperature values for Thermal expansion stress calculation.
  • Finalize the earth load and crossing loads for stress calculation as per API RP 1102
  • Top of the pipe in HDD crossings is considered as 7 M in accordance with the RDSO guidelines.
  • Top of the pipe in river crossings is considered as 10 M.
  • Performing Pipeline crossing calculation for Railroad crossing by HDD method
  • Performing Pipeline crossing calculation for Road crossing by HDD method
  • Performing Pipeline crossing calculation for Railroad crossing by HDD method
  • Performing Pipeline crossing calculation for Kosathalaiyar River / Buckingham Canal / Nala crossing by HDD method
  • Based on the results check the adequacy of Casing pipe thickness.