As-built and maintenance stress calculations

García-Lozano, Javier

Pipe stress engineers are used to anticipate a proper functionality and behavior of the piping systems during the engineering phase of a project, ensuring a safe design by means of comprehensive calculations, commonly performed with specialized software as Caesar II. But what happens “afterwards” the plant start-up? The stress engineer can also play an important role developing “As-built” and “maintenance” stress calculations that might address and solve some interesting issues: - Equipment alignment taking into consideration the “real” layout and design of the Piping systems and supports, including gaps, springs, etc. - RTJ flanges disassembly. - Problems detected on site as excessive pipe deflections, supports misalignment, structures deformations…