Passing every weld doesn't mean passing as a system.
Ten process lines on a pulp mill in northern Spain.
- Sector
- Pulp & paper
- Location
- Northern Spain
- Engagement
- As-built design review
- Year
- 2022
A focused review against code.
A focused review against code.
What we deliberately did not do.
What we deliberately did not do.
- Process suitability of the lines
- Material specification
- Hydraulic design
- Primary & secondary support structural design
- Equipment nozzle qualification
- Erection & assembly
- Commissioning
Nine green sheets and one revealing failure.
Nine of the ten systems came back inside admissibles in every case.
The three welds passed. The system did not.
The finding
Passing in the welds we reviewed doesn't mean passing as a system.
A weld can sit well below admissible stress while the line it belongs to is over admissible at the global level.
The DN100 line was the only one of the ten where this gap mattered.
- Line
- Service water · DN100
- Welds reviewed
- 3
all within EN 13480 admissibles - System result
- Over admissible
- Action
- Reported to client
The frame the report was signed against.
A stress report is only as authoritative as the frame it cites.
EN 13480
European code for industrial metallic piping.
ASME B31.3
The American process-piping equivalent.
CAESAR II
Industry standard for pipe stress and flexibility analysis.
W · P · T · Combinations
Self weight, pressure, thermal gradient, combinations.
From a folder of as-builts to a signed report.
Reading the as-built
Isometrics, piping spec, 3D model, site photographs.
CAESAR II modelling
Geometry, supports, equipment connections, boundary conditions, fluid.
Conservative hypotheses
Where information about a line's continuation is missing, the line is closed at that node as a fixed point.
Traceable delivery
Main report and one annex per line. Every number traces back to a node.
Got a stress review that needs a second pair of eyes?
We work in CAESAR II against EN 13480 and ASME B31.3.
Note on anonymisation. Client, plant, contractor and third parties have been deliberately omitted.