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DEFINITION:
Plate lugs are used to lift horizontal equipment such as storage tanks,
equipment skids, modules, structures, etc. They are also used to lift
vertical equipment that must be upended such as cold boxes, refinery
vessels, etc. The lower part of the lug plate is welded to the side of a
structure, equipment skid, beam or vessel shell with a three or four
sided weld.
The design of a lifting lug is made up of four parts; the lug plate, the
weld size used to connect it to a shell or structure, the bearing stress
at the pin hole and the end area of the lug. The design of a lifting lug
is very critical and must be done to the latest standards and codes.
For design reference, the program assumes that the lug is in the
vertical position with the pin hole at the top. Further, the line of the
force is assumed to be in the plane of the strong axis and the angle of
the force on the lug is measured from a horizontal reference line thru
the center of the pin hole. For example, at zero (0) degrees, the force
would be at a right angle to the longitudinal centerline of the lug. At
ninety (90) degrees, it would coincide with the longitudinal centerline
of the lug. See the plate lug drawing below.
The design of the end area and bearing of the lifting lug are based on
the total force on the lug applied in the vertical. Their design is also
based on the radius of the lug and not on the width of the lug
base. The combined stress of the lug plate and the weld size are
calculated from the vertical and horizontal components of the force at
the specified angle. These stresses are based on the width of the lug
base.
PROGRAM OBJECTIVE:
The objective of this program is to provide a design for the end area
of a plate type-lifting lug that is efficient and safe. It will also check
the bearing stress at the pin hole and the combined stress of the lug
plate and the weld. It can also be used to check these same values for
an existing lug design. The output information conforms to the
requirements of AISC and ASME B30.20.
If the plate lug is being used to upend a piece of equipment, ie, as top
head lugs or cone lugs, the lifting force on the lugs increases as the
lift angle increases. See example 2 below to see how the program
handles a variable force applied to a plate lug.
Six plate lugs were used to lift the jet fuel storage tank shown
in the photo below and were connected using three sided
welds. In this case, four sided welds could have been used, as
there was access to make a weld on the backside of each lug at
the top of the tank, but the extra capacity was not needed as the
force on the lugs was at 90 degrees.
2.
A 400 ton vertical vessel with two plate lugs. The plate lugs
are called top head lugs in this application and are connected to
the shell with three sided welds, as it is not possible to make
the fourth weld on the backside of the lug at the tangent line.
3.
Erecting a vertical vessel with two plate lugs. The plate lugs
are called cone lugs in this application and are connected to the
shell with three sided welds, as it is not possible to make the
fourth weld on the backside of the lug at the tangent line of the
cone.
4.
Erecting a cold box with four plate lugs. They are
connected to the shell with four sided welds, as the top weld on
the backside of the lug is accessible in this application.
Check the sum of the pad radius + pad weld + lug weld for a
plate lug to see if it is less than the eccentricity. The reasoning
is that the program user might want to decrease the combined
stress of the lug plate and the lug weld size by decreasing the
eccentricity. This could be done by cutting a flat segment off
the bottom of the pad next to the lug weld. The pad could be
cut off as close as 1 (25 mm) to the bottom edge of the lug
hole with out structurally affecting the lug design. The pad
2.
3.
4.
Check a plate lug used as a cone lug or top head lug to see if
the shackle eye or the lug pads will interfere with the top of the
kicker plate. See the top head lug drawing below to see where
the kicker plate is located.
5.
When the program displays error messages about the lug dimensions,
it is sometimes helpful to decrease the force on the lug until the
output fields are displayed. This allows the user to see all of the
output results and get an idea of which input information to
change. As this information is changed, the force on the lug can then
be increased to its original value.
SIDE LOADING OF THE LUG:
When plate lugs are used to upend a vertical vessel, a kicker plate
should be added to the side of the lug as shown in the top head lug
drawing in example 2. This will reduce the side loading to the lug
plate due to the force not acting in the plane of the strong axis. Also,
the eccentricity of the lug plate above the top of a tank or skid frame
should be kept as small as possible.
IMPACT FACTOR:
A minimum impact factor of 1.80 should be used for new design in
order to conform to AISC and ASME B30.20 which limits stresses
to .33*Fy. By using 1.80, the allowable stresses can be used as
printed in the AISC Manual.
The program allows a variable impact factor to be used so that when
checking an existing design, the impact factor can be determined that
was used to calculate the stated allowable load for the lifting lug. If
the impact factor turns out to be less than 1.8, the program user will
then have to make a decision as to the structural integrity of the lug
based on its application and the risk involved.
The program limits the impact factor to 1.25 or greater.
ANGLE OF THE FORCE ON THE LUG:
With the lifting lug in the vertical position with the pin hole at the
top, the angle of the force is measured from a horizontal reference
line running through the center of the pin hole. Therefore, if the force
is acting at a right angle to the lug, it is at zero degrees. If the force is
acting in the vertical direction along the longitudinal centerline of the
lug, it is at 90 degrees.
LUG PIN HOLE DIAMETER:
It is recommended that a lug pin hole diameter be used that is 0.13
(0.33 cm) greater than the shackle pin diameter for shackles up to 150
tons (136 Te) and 0.25 (0.64 cm) for shackles sizes larger than that.
If a smaller shackle pin diameter is used than the above
recommendation, the bearing stresses will be higher. If a larger
shackle pin diameter is used than the above recommendation, the pin
might not fit up with the hole in the lug due to manufacturer and
fabrication tolerances.
For the first try in the design of a lifting lug, the user can select the
appropriate shackle from the lookup table in the program based on the
force on the lug. The dimensions of the shackle and a pre-designed
lug will automatically be entered into the appropriate input fields in
the program.
LUG RADIUS:
After the user enters all of the input values and clicks on calculate,
the program will check to make sure that the lug radius is equal to
or greater than the output value for the maximum effective lug
radius. If the lug radius is smaller, the program will prompt the user
to enter a larger radius.
NOTE:
1.
If the program allowed a lug radius to be used that is smaller
than the maximum effective lug radius, then the maximum
allowable end area would be smaller than the area
required past the pin hole.
2.
3.
The weld sizes for the pads in this program are based on using LH
60 rod and a force on the weld of 9.6 kips/in.
THREE SIDED LUG WELDS VS FOUR SIDED LUG WELDS:
Welding vertically down both sides and horizontally across the
bottom of a plate lug is called a three-sided weld. This is the most
commonly used weld configuration. If access is available to make an
additional horizontal weld on the backside of the lug and at the top of
the frame/structure, then this weld configuration is called a four-sided
weld. Often, a doubler pad is welded to the side of a vertical vessel
with a four-sided weld and a lug plate is welded to the doubler pad
with a three-sided weld. This is usually done when the shell
thickness is less than the required size of the three-sided weld. The
thickness of the doubler pad would have to be equal to or greater than
the size of the three-sided weld. The dimensions of the doubler pad
would have to be large enough so that the weld size required to
connect it to the shell of the vessel would be equal to or less than the
shell thickness.
The program calculates the weld size required for both a three-sided
weld and a four-sided weld configuration. The program user must
decide which weld configuration is applicable for his application.
In the top head lug drawing below, note that the shell is 0.38 thick
and the required three-sided lug weld size is 0.75. A 0.75 thick
doubler pad is welded to the shell with a four-sided weld size of
0.38. The eccentricity of 26 is required to provide shackle
clearance between the vessel head/insulation. This distance must be
used to determine the bending stress in the lug plate and the required
lug weld size. It is measured from the top of the weld configuration
(in this case from the top tangent line) up to the centerline of the lug
pinhole. The kicker plate shown on the right side of the drawing is
used to stiffen the lug plate extending beyond the tangent
line. Bending in the weak axis would then be about this kicker plate
and not at the tangent line.
EXAMPLE 1: Using the program with English Units.
The sample values button at the bottom of the input screen contains
input for a typical plate lug problem where the force on the lug is at a
specific angle. By clicking on sample values the input values are
shown with the output values blank. By then clicking on calculate,
both the input and output values are shown.
EXAMPLE 2:
It requires two runs of the plate lug program to determine the required
output values. It requires three runs if a doubler plate is required
between the plate lug and the shell. In order to simplify data entry,
use the sample input values from example 1 where the force on the
lug is 170 kips.
For the first run of the plate lug program, change the lift angle from
60 degrees to 90 degrees. Leave the 170 kips as the force on the lug
because this value will be the load on the lug with the vessel in the
vertical position. Change the width of the lug to 26, the side weld
length to 16 and the eccentricity to 26. Leave all of the other input
values as they are. See the top head lug drawing below for all of the
dimensions. This drawing is very similar to the top head lug drawing
actually used for the lugs in the photos.
Several trial runs of the plate lug program are required to determine
the worst-case lift angle, from which the second final plate lug run
will be selected. The input data used for the first run now needs to be
changed by setting the lift angle to 0 degrees and the force on the lug
to 68.0 kips. This information came from the first row on the left in
the printout above from the upending program. Calculate and note
that the combined stress on the lug plate is now 0.52 and the three
sided weld size is 0.74. Disregard the output information on the
bearing and the end area because of the reduced weight being used of
68.0 kips.
Make a similar trial run for each lift angle up thru 35 degrees and
make a note of the combined stress values and the weld sizes. Note
that the for a lift angle of 20 degrees and a force on the lug of 69.67
kips, that the combined stress is 0.53, the three sided weld size
required is 0.74 and the four sided weld size is 0.42. So the lift
angle for the worst case for combined stress for the lug plate and the
weld for this lug is approximately 20 degrees. Make a printout of this
run where the lift angle is 20 degrees and the force on the lug is 69.67
kips. Use this run as your second pad eye lug run. Again, mark out
the information on the bearing and end area as not being applicable
for this lift angle and load.
As the shell thickness of the vertical vessel in this example is only
0.38 thick, then the three sided weld size of 0.74 is to large. To
solve this problem, the width of the lug plate could be increased to
30.0. This is the maximum recommended arc length for this
diameter of vessel based on a 30 degree included angle, ie the arc
length = 0.01745 * 57outside radius of vessel * 30 degrees =
30. The side weld length could be increased to 40.0. After
calculating, this would yield a three-sided lug weld size of
0.38. But, as you can see, this is a big lug, and in some cases it
would be hard to find room to weld two of these lugs to the shell.
A second and much better method would be to weld a doubler pad to
the shell with a four sided weld and weld the lug plate to it with a
three sided weld as shown in the top head drawing above. Therefore
a third run is required. Note from the second run that the four sided
weld size is 0.42, so we need to size a doubler pad such that the four
sided weld size required is 0.38 or less. In the second run above,
change the width of the lug base to 30.0 and the side weld length to
18.0. These will be the dimensions of the doubler pad and not the
lug plate. Calculate and note that the four-sided weld size required is
now 0.33. Therefore, a 0.75 thick x 18 high x 30 wide double pad
could be welded to the shell with a 0.38 four sided weld and the lug
plate could be welded to it with a 0.75 three sided weld as shown on
the top head drawing. Save this as a third run for your
documentation. Again, mark out the information on the bearing and
end area as not being applicable for this lift angle and load.
To recap, the bearing and the end area of the lug were calculated
from the first run where the maximum force of 170 kips occurred
when the vessel was in the vertical. The maximum combined stress
for the lug plate and the weld were calculated from the second
run where the force on the lug of 69.67 kips occurred when the
vessel was at a lift angle of 20 degrees. The four-sided weld size
required to weld a doubler pad to the shell was calculated from
the third run where the force on the lug of 69.67 kips occurred when
the vessel was at a lift angle of 20 degrees.
Note that the difference between the combined stress and the weld
required at initial pick (when the vessel is in the horizontal at 0
degrees lift angle) and when it is at 20 degrees is approximately 1 %
for this lift. When designing top head lugs, a good case could be
made that it is okay to just use the initial pick load per lug if a large
impact factor is used, ie 1.8.
Just for information, note on the printout of the upending forces, that
the maximum longitudinal tail load occurs at 70 degrees at 85.13
kips. If the forces on the tail lug were being analyzed, this would be
the angle of maximum combined stress for the tail lug plate and
weld, the opposite lift angle from the lifting lug.
EXAMPLE 3:
Lowering the eccentricity can reduce the combined stress of the lug
plate and the lug weld size. Cutting off the bottom segment of the lug
pads can accomplish this. To see how this can be done, go to
example 3 in the HELP file for the pad eye lugs. This example
applies to plate lugs as well as pad eye lugs.
END OF HELP FILE