3115 Guidelines for the design and protection of pressure systems to withstand severe fires

Overview:

Mitigation of the impact of severe fires on hydrocarbon, petrochemical and chemical processing plants is critical to minimise the risk to personnel, to reduce damage and to limit capital loss.

These guidelines are intended for design and process engineers concerned with large, essentially fully enveloping pool fires and jet fire impingement on pressure vessels, their associated pipework, valves, flanges and other equipment, referred to collectively as pressure systems.

The scope of the guidelines covers a wide range of steel pressure vessels used both onshore and offshore. These include process vessels, fixed storage vessels and transportable vessels such as road and rail tankers whilst at the loading/unloading facility. (These guidelines do not apply to small portable pressure vessels such as gas cylinders as these already have specific requirements related to their portability).

These guidelines are intended for use primarily for designing new facilities and specifically deal with fires that are more severe than the open pool fires currently covered in other documents. These guidelines are therefore intended to be used in conjunction with the existing codes and recommended practices such as API RP 520 and 521, which cover the design and fire protection required for all other fire scenarios.

Reaffirmed until end 2016.