Pipe Support Design Guidelines

A piping system shall be adequately supported and restrained to prevent line overstress, equipment
nozzle overload, excessive bending of flange joints, excessive pipe sagging, high vibration, excessive
deflection / movement, etc.

Scope:
The purpose of this guideline is to simplify and standardise the approach to pipe support design and
selection for common support applications with the aim to improve quality, efficiency and productivity. The
document shall be read in conjunction with the office standard pipe support drawings and the office piping
stress analysis guide.

Pipe Support Identification Tagging:

Each pipe support standard detail drawing contains a legend for support identification tagging
applicable to the supports in the drawing.
Normally all the supports, covers under Standard Piping supports will be STD Pipe Supports.
If the supports needs modification or above the STD pipe support range (e.g. max length, height, pipe
range) then it should be considered as Special Pipe Support (SPS).
All SPS as designed and checked by Civil discipline.

Pipe Support Register:

Standard pipe supports, project specific pipe supports and temporary pipe supports will be listed in the
project pipe support index drawing. Special pipe supports and temporary support frames are part of the
Structural design and will be listed in the Structural discipline project deliverables.

Piping Fabrication Isometrics:

The Material section of the piping fabrication isometric will call up all standard pipe supports. The
following information will be included:

Pipe support identification tag and description / nominal pipe size / quantity

Pipe support components that are welded to pipe, such as welded shoes and Trunnions, will be
shown under Fabrication Materials.

Pipe support components that are field fitted, such as U-bolts, guides, line stops, will be shown
under Erection Materials.

The Drawing section of the fabrication piping isometric will show all the above pipe supports and
will also reference structural SPecial Supports (SPS).

Pipe support position will be dimensioned on the isometric drawing. This position corresponds to
the location point indicated on the pipe support detail drawing.

Also shown in the Drawing section of the isometric will be clarification notes, such as no gaps,
nonstandard gaps and support orientation if required.

Other Supports:
Use of spring hangers, snubbers and other such devices shall be specified by Stress Engineer. The
project pipe support register will contain all design information required for procurement of these items.
Supports for extreme conditions, such as for very low operating temperature or acoustic vibration, shall be
engineered, designed and procured from a reliable supplier.
These supports shall be designed for and installed in accordance with the Suppliers instructions.

Small Bore Brace:

Small bore brace is typically used to protect a small size branch from damage.
Branch lines in sizes 2 and below are considered small bore and prone to fatigue failures in vibrating
piping systems. They are also prone to mechanical damaged by an external force. The failure is usually at
the branch weld to the main line or weldolet. Small bore branches are normally braced for that reason.
Bracing shall be to the branch flange in preference to the branch pipe. Nipoflanges shall be used in
preference to weldolets.
Small bore brace will not be required on small branches when:

The branch is continuous and supported and there is no valve within the first span;

Standard tees are used;

The piping is used for utility services.

Shoes:
For carbon and stainless steel piping welded shoes shall be used instead of clamped shoes where the
temperature limit for clamped shoes has been exceed or where specified / approved by Stress Engineer
for strength purposes.
Welded shoes shall not be used on lined piping, piping in expensive material, piping PWHT before shoe
installation and piping galvanized before shoe welding.
Long length shoes shall be used where specified by Stress Engineer, a line stop is required or
there is an excessive support movement in longitudinal direction.

On insulated lines the standard shoe height of 100mm can be increased to up to 150mm where the
insulation thickness is greater than 75mm. If required, shoes higher than 150mm will be designed by the
stress engineer.
Pipe shoes shall be installed centrally on the support steel unless noted otherwise on the piping
fabrication isometric.
When the design requires a continuously sloping line, this shall be achieved with the use of variable
height shoes in combinations with adjustments of supporting steelwork.
Lines having a design temperature above 120C shall be supported on shoes because of the
temperature limitations of PTFE isolation pads used with uninsulated lines.
Lines having a design temperature below minus 29C shall be supported on shoes to avoid cold
temperature embritellment of the supporting structural steel.

Trunnions:
Use of trunnion supports will be minimised and approved by Stress Engineer.
Trunnion supports on elbows will be avoided, particularly when a reinforcing pad is required. The use of
the trunnion on an elbow with a reinforcing pad shall be approved by the Lead Piping Engineer.

Guides and Line Stops:

Guides and line stops will be installed with the installation tolerance gap of maximum 3mm
on each side of the support unless noted otherwise on the isometric.
Hold down guides shall only be used when specified by Stress Engineer. Using these guides for guiding
vertical pipes is not preferred.
Alternative line stops of high load capacity shall only be used when approved by Stress
Engineer.
Guide span shall be as per CARBON STEEL & STAINLESS STEEL GUIDE SPACING

U-Bolts:
A U-bolt shall be installed in such a way that the dead weight of the piping is supported by the
structure and not the U-bolt itself.
U-bolts can be used on both horizontal and vertical lines.

Isolation Pads:
Isolation pad (PD-01) made of PTFE is used to support the line and reduce the risk of fretting

corrosion to the underside of the pipe. Isolation pads shall be bonded directly to the structural steel.
Bonding / fixing of the isolation pad to the structural steel shall be suitable for the required service life of
the support.
Pipe shoes shall be used instead of isolation pads if the temperature limit of the pad bonding
adhesive or material has been exceeded.
Isolation pads are not required under shoes, trunnions, reinforcing pads and on the facings of guides and
line stops.

Reinforcing Pads:
Reinforcing pads are typically used to reduce stress level in the pipe wall from welded attachment or high
bearing load. They can also be used to protect pipe wall from external corrosion.

Support Span:
Piping will be subject to internal and external loads during topside transportation and installation,
environmental loads and operating and transient process loads. Piping movement shall be restrained on
all three orthogonal directions allowing sufficient flexibility for thermal expansion and other imposed
deflections, such as bridge and wellhead movements.
Small size piping in 2 and below shall be restrained with U-bolts wherever possible. Larger piping shall
use guides and line stops with guides installed on every second support on a straight run.

Welded Attachments:
Non-pressure retaining pipe attachments that are enclosed, such as reinforcing pads and trunnions, shall
have a vent/test hole to release the gas build up during welding and to provide an inspection point for any
pipe leak. The hole shall be tapped with an NPT thread to allow low pressure pneumatic testing after
welding.

Special Applications:
Control valve sets will typically be anchored with a line stop and hold-down guide on one side and guided
on the other side.
Pig traps will typically be anchored with a line stop and hold-down guide at the pipeline end and guided at
the closure end.
Manifolds will typically have guides at each end and a centrally located line stop.
Drain systems with rodding points shall be supported in such a way to withstand rodding loads.
The free pipe ends on Utility Stations shall be securely fixed. That may be accomplished with U-bolts
either as guides or anchors.

For piping supported from a pressure vessel the pipe support details and loads will be issued to the
Mechanical discipline for incorporation in the pressure vessel design by the vessel supplier.

SUPPORT MATERIAL:
Material for pipe supports can be generally divided into three categories:
1. Welded attachments to piping. The attachments shall be of the same material grade as the
run pipe.
2. Pipe supports or pipe support parts not welded to piping. ASTM A36 or equivalent material can be used
unless noted otherwise.
3. Structural pipe supports. Frames fabricated from ASTM A36 or equivalent structural steel
sections and plates.

Pipe support symbols are shown in ISOMETRIC drawings as a stress input.

The following Pipe support symbols are useful.

PIPE SUPPORT SYMBOLS USED FOR ISOMETRIC

Symbols of Pipe supports includes Anchor, Rest, guide, Line Stop, Spring hanger, Spring base
mounted, Hold down, Hold down and guide, hold down guide & line stop, rest & guide, Rest &
Line stop, Rest guide & line stop, trunnion rest, double trunnion rest, vertical guide in one
direction, Vertical guide all around, dummy leg rest, dummy leg guide, dummy leg line stop,
dummy leg guide all around.
Corrosion at pipe supports is one of the leading causes of process piping failures, which can have potentially catastrophic results (see related news).
All styles of pipe supports, including beam supports and pipe saddles, create crevices where water is trapped and held in constant contact with the pipe
surface. Once corrosion is initiated in these pockets, it can quickly undercut the paint film and move away from the crevice, causing rapid wall loss. If
these conditions are not addressed, entire sections of pipe can fail and require replacement.

RELATED NEWS

Pipe failure cited in Marcus Hook refinery fire.

Fire officials blame a May 2009 fire that destroyed part of Sunocos Marcus Hook refinery on a rusty 10-inch pipe that ruptured and caused a
catastrophic natural gas leak. The pipe failure was caused by external corrosion on the bottom of the pipe ..

Problems
Not surprisingly, it is the beam supports and the saddle clamps that have historically caused the majority of the problems. They have the following
undesirable features in common:

1. Crevice Forming - This is the root of the problem, the formation of a crevice at the pipe surface.
2. Water Trapping - These support types all allow water to be trapped and held in contact with the pipe surface.
3. Poor Inspectability and Maintainability - These support types make it virtually impossible to paint or otherwise maintain some areas of the pipe at the
support. Visual inspection is often difficult, and until fairly recently, it was also very difficult to inspect these areas with NDT methods.
4. Galvanic Couple Forming - Some of these support types may develop bi-metallic contact. Even though both the pipe and support are steel, the
metallurgical differences can still provide a small potential difference to drive a corrosion cell.

The Corrosion Mechanism

It is a common misconception that metal-to-metal contact coupled with water entrapment is the major cause of corrosion at these points. This is not the
case; the sequence of events is as follows:

1. Water is trapped - The very nature of the supports allows water to be held in contact with the painted pipe surface as well as the paint on the
support element.
2. The paint system fails - Even if the paint on the pipe and support beam are perfect, the paint system is designed for atmospheric exposure and not
immersion service. The longer the paint surface is continuously exposed to water, the more it softens. As the pipe softens it is inevitable that the steel
substrate will be directly exposed to the water.
3. Corrosion is initiated - The small area of steel now exposed to oxygenated water (often with high chlorides) starts to corrode.
4. Corrosion undercuts paint film - The initial corrosion soon undercuts and spreads Soon the whole support area is bare steel.
5. Crevice corrosion starts - From this point on the crevice corrosion driven by differential aeration takes over from the general corrosion mechanism
that initiated the corrosion. As corrosion products build they further restrict oxygen diffusion and the oxygen concentration gradient gets steeper. Pitting
now becomes the main problem with corrosion rates acceleration by an order of magnitude.

6. Pipe fails - If the inspection program is not set up to detect this mostly concealed wall loss. The pipe will fail.

Historical Solutions

The industry has long been aware of the problem, but has failed to appreciate the true causes; this is evidenced by some of the solutions that have
been implemented to stop the problem which have actually accelerated the problem.

RUBBER PADS AND LINERS

As previously stated, it was thought that the metal-to-metal contact was the main problem causing pipe support corrosion. As a result, initial designs
incorrectly targeted this aspect of the supports. Some operators still use rubber pads of varying types to solve the problem, despite industry knowledge
that they are in fact counter productive. In fact, rubber pads under pipes do a wonderful job of reducing the life of the pipe. The crevice that was
formed without the rubber pad is mild in comparison to the new crevice, which now has the ability to actually suck water in (by capillary action). Not
only does the pad invite water in, it is better at holding it trapped against the pipe surface, since air circulation and natural evaporation is eliminated.
The situation is further worsened by the length of the crevice which allows an oxygen concentration gradient to go from full natural concentration to
anaerobic in a few centimeters.

Fiberglass Pads

Contoured pads attached to the pipe at support points. Obviously, another attempt to eliminate metal to metal contact. This is better than the rubber
pads but still allows a crevice to be formed at the pipe surface

Welded Supports

The welded support is a viable solution. However it adds significant cost to a typical project both in terms of construction and inspection. In some
situations it would be undesirable to make so many external longitudinal welds to a pressured piping system. There have been some other solutions
adopted; none of which really address the major cause of the problem:water entrapment!

Summary and Conclusions

When designing pipe supports avoid the use of saddle clamps wherever possible. Never use a rubber pad between a pipe and a pipe support if the
area is exposed to a corrosive environment. When using U-bolts to stabilize piping, always used polyolefin sheathed bolts. The half round rod solution
has proven to be very effective in controlling pipe support corrosion over the last 15 years on thousands of offshore structures.