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Hello everyone,

We are having multiple failures (at least 10)  of rupture discs in four skids of the same design and wanted to seek out your advice.  The set pressure of the discs are 100 psig but they tend to burst around 50-60 psig after a period of operation.  

Below is a rough sketch of the location orientation of the burst disc. It is installed at a location of a tee that the liquid hits it directly before changing path at a right angle. The disc is protecting a heat exchanger upstream of it which has a centrifugal pump further upstream. The pump feeds through the bottom of a CIP tank.  

Hey Nimesh,

Are the burst disks designed to redirect flow like that? System pressure + velocity pressure may be causing the 100PSIG burst condition, especially if there is some system pulsing. Typically I haven't seen these installed in this orientation to the flow.

Hello everyone,

We are having multiple failures (at least 10)  of rupture discs in four skids of the same design and wanted to seek out your advice.  The set pressure of the discs are 100 psig but they tend to burst around 50-60 psig after a period of operation.  

Below is a rough sketch of the location orientation of the burst disc. It is installed at a location of a tee that the liquid hits it directly before changing path at a right angle. The disc is protecting a heat exchanger upstream of it which has a centrifugal pump further upstream. The pump feeds through the bottom of a CIP tank.  

Connor,

The setup of the rupture disc is actually odd and something that I had not seen before. We had the same suspect if the flow deadheading the rupture disc before making the 90 degree turn has something to do. I dont think the disc is rated for redirecting the flow. However, I am curious about the velocity pressure that you bring up. Is there anyway to quantify it?

Nimesh

Hey Nimesh,

Are the burst disks designed to redirect flow like that? System pressure + velocity pressure may be causing the 100PSIG burst condition, especially if there is some system pulsing. Typically I haven't seen these installed in this orientation to the flow.

Hello everyone,

We are having multiple failures (at least 10)  of rupture discs in four skids of the same design and wanted to seek out your advice.  The set pressure of the discs are 100 psig but they tend to burst around 50-60 psig after a period of operation.  

Below is a rough sketch of the location orientation of the burst disc. It is installed at a location of a tee that the liquid hits it directly before changing path at a right angle. The disc is protecting a heat exchanger upstream of it which has a centrifugal pump further upstream. The pump feeds through the bottom of a CIP tank.  

Nimesh,

Are the rupture discs Forward Acting (e.g. Forward Acting Scored Rupture Disc (FAS) - OsecoElfab) or Reverse Acting (e.g. Precision Reverse Operating Rupture Disc (PRO+KRGL) - OsecoElfab)? If the former, they can be susceptible to premature ruptures as fatigue from cyclic loading/pulsations causes them to weaken along the score lines. The reverse acting discs are less susceptible to fatigue since they fail in compression instead of tension.

The piping arrangement you showed is unusual since I usually see discs out of the direct flow path but if you can't fix the installation location, I would look at a reverse acting disc option if not already installed.

Other things to consider:

• is there a possibility of very short higher pressure pulses that don't show on your instruments? This could be a water hammer type event related to a pump start or valve open/closing?
• Any chance there are installation errors with the rupture discs being damaged by the installation process? or damaged in storage such that they burst early?

Connor,

The setup of the rupture disc is actually odd and something that I had not seen before. We had the same suspect if the flow deadheading the rupture disc before making the 90 degree turn has something to do. I dont think the disc is rated for redirecting the flow. However, I am curious about the velocity pressure that you bring up. Is there anyway to quantify it?

Nimesh

Hey Nimesh,

Are the burst disks designed to redirect flow like that? System pressure + velocity pressure may be causing the 100PSIG burst condition, especially if there is some system pulsing. Typically I haven't seen these installed in this orientation to the flow.

Hello everyone,

We are having multiple failures (at least 10)  of rupture discs in four skids of the same design and wanted to seek out your advice.  The set pressure of the discs are 100 psig but they tend to burst around 50-60 psig after a period of operation.  

Below is a rough sketch of the location orientation of the burst disc. It is installed at a location of a tee that the liquid hits it directly before changing path at a right angle. The disc is protecting a heat exchanger upstream of it which has a centrifugal pump further upstream. The pump feeds through the bottom of a CIP tank.  

Connor,

The setup of the rupture disc is actually odd and something that I had not seen before. We had the same suspect if the flow deadheading the rupture disc before making the 90 degree turn has something to do. I dont think the disc is rated for redirecting the flow. However, I am curious about the velocity pressure that you bring up. Is there anyway to quantify it?

Nimesh

Hey Nimesh,

Are the burst disks designed to redirect flow like that? System pressure + velocity pressure may be causing the 100PSIG burst condition, especially if there is some system pulsing. Typically I haven't seen these installed in this orientation to the flow.

Hello everyone,

We are having multiple failures (at least 10)  of rupture discs in four skids of the same design and wanted to seek out your advice.  The set pressure of the discs are 100 psig but they tend to burst around 50-60 psig after a period of operation.  

Below is a rough sketch of the location orientation of the burst disc. It is installed at a location of a tee that the liquid hits it directly before changing path at a right angle. The disc is protecting a heat exchanger upstream of it which has a centrifugal pump further upstream. The pump feeds through the bottom of a CIP tank.  

Using Bernoulli's equation you could estimate the stagnation pressure experienced at the burst disks, it may give you an idea of how close general system conditions are to the burst condition. This link has some background: https://www.princeton.edu/~asmits/Bicycle_web/Bernoulli.html#:~:text=The%20stagnation%20or%20total%20pressure,dynamic%20pressure%20measured%20far%20upstream.

Matthew's post has some great points to consider as well. I've seen multiple failures in a row from technicians stepping on the burst disks after installation just because of the awkward space they had to work in.

Good luck!

Connor,

The setup of the rupture disc is actually odd and something that I had not seen before. We had the same suspect if the flow deadheading the rupture disc before making the 90 degree turn has something to do. I dont think the disc is rated for redirecting the flow. However, I am curious about the velocity pressure that you bring up. Is there anyway to quantify it?

Nimesh

Hey Nimesh,

Are the burst disks designed to redirect flow like that? System pressure + velocity pressure may be causing the 100PSIG burst condition, especially if there is some system pulsing. Typically I haven't seen these installed in this orientation to the flow.

Hello everyone,

We are having multiple failures (at least 10)  of rupture discs in four skids of the same design and wanted to seek out your advice.  The set pressure of the discs are 100 psig but they tend to burst around 50-60 psig after a period of operation.  

Below is a rough sketch of the location orientation of the burst disc. It is installed at a location of a tee that the liquid hits it directly before changing path at a right angle. The disc is protecting a heat exchanger upstream of it which has a centrifugal pump further upstream. The pump feeds through the bottom of a CIP tank.