Technical Note

Practical notes on power plant machinery

nozzle load and piping

Proc IMechE Part A:

J Power and Energy
227(2) 236240
! IMechE 2012
Reprints and permissions:
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DOI: 10.1177/0957650912462669
pia.sagepub.com

Amin Almasi

Abstract
The piping designers always want higher allowable machinery nozzle loads to simplify piping designs, while the rotating
machine manufacturers want smaller allowable nozzle loads to assure good alignment, higher reliability and fewer
operation complaints. From the power plant operators point of view, where long-term reliability is a very important
factor, the vote should go to the manufacturer. Optimum power piping design, support arrangement and layout configuration for rotating machines of a power plant (turbines, pumps, others) are addressed. Modern practical notes, new
guidelines, recent lessons learned and latest achievements on power piping, power machinery nozzle load optimization,
stress analysis and piping flexibility review are discussed.
Keywords
Power plant, rotating machine, piping
Date received: 16 November 2011; accepted: 5 September 2012

Introduction
The lower the piping loads on the nozzle of power
plant machinery (steam turbines, pumps, gas turbines,
others), the easier machinery alignment could be done
and maintained.14 Use of some common general
plant piping practices could lead to real problems in
power plant machinery piping systems. The support
type selection based on thermal displacement, too
exible support system, dead weight balance at operating condition approach and anchors for an expansion joint near a machinery should be prevented. The
dead weight of the rotating machine piping system
should be entirely absorbed by suitable supports at
ambient condition. Only loads induced by temperature and pressure (or similar) at operating condition
may be compensated by support pre-stressing (or
springing). The misalignment of piping ange and
machinery nozzle ange should be carefully controlled
to limit additional nozzle loads.2,5

General notes on nozzle load

The piping loads which can be imposed on rotating
machine nozzles should be restrained within certain
limits.46 Steam turbines should be designed to withstand nozzle loads in accordance with NEMA SM23.4
These nozzle load values may be considered optimum
by rotating machine engineers and vendors but in
many situations these values could not be achieved
by piping engineers and stress analysis specialists.7,8
Some purchasers usually ask higher values (for

example, 1.5 times NEMA SM23) to make piping

design easier.79 Higher allowable nozzle loads may
be a good solution to avoid very complex piping/support systems. Some rotating machine vendors generally design their machinery details based on standard
nozzle load limits (limits as per codes1,79). All necessary checking, verication, modication and adjustment (such as bearing design check, casing design
verication, clearance check, and others) should be
ensured for higher nozzle load values with respect to
the long-term component life expected.
Nozzle loads for critical pumps of a power plant
(for example, boiler feed water pumps) are usually
specied as per pump standards (such as API
61010]). Most often for pump nozzles larger than
16 in (400 mm), nozzle loads should be agreed with
vendor before the order. Generally, small rotating
machines which are not anchored to the foundation
may tolerate higher nozzle loads.10 Allowable nozzle
loads for vertical in-line pumps with supports not
anchored to the foundation may be twice the values
of in-line pumps anchored to the foundation.

Mechanical Department, WorleyParsons Services Pty Ltd, Brisbane,

Australia
Corresponding author:
Amin Almasi, Mechanical Department, WorleyParsons Services Pty Ltd,
60 Albert Street, Brisbane, QLD 4000, Australia.
Email: amin_almassi@yahoo.com, amin.almasi@worleyparsons.com

Almasi
For the power plant fuel gas compression service,
centrifugal compressors, screw compressors or sometimes reciprocating compressors are used.6 For centrifugal compressors, API 61711 species load limits
around 1.85 times NEMA SM23. For screw compressors, nozzle loads are recommended at API 619.12
Reciprocating compressor nozzle loads are left for
vendor/purchaser to agree.6 Generally, screw and reciprocating compressors are oered as packages and
allowable nozzle loads at the vendor interfaces need
to be agreed.
For rotating machinery designed for low pressures
(such as axial compressors, low-pressure overhung
compressors, machinery designed with open impellers,
integrally geared machines, etc.) which rely upon close
radial and axial clearances of the rotating components
(impeller, rotor, etc.) to the casing, special care should
be taken for allowable forces and moments on nozzles.6,1012 For these rotating machines, usually lower
nozzle loads compared to standard values should be
considered.6,11 Suitable loads must be agreed with
vendor before the order of machine.
An Optimum exibility should be designed into the
piping to prevent distortion of the rotating machine
alignment or component damage (also to keep pipingmachinery system vibration within certain limits).1316
For rotating machines, two eects of nozzle loads
should carefully be considered.1719
1. Distortion of the equipment casing.
2. Misalignment of various machine shafts in a
machinery train.
To minimize the misalignment of the various machinery shafts (in a train) due to piping load eects, the
train casings and train base-plate(s) should be constructed with sucient structural stiness to limit displacements of casings and shafts at various locations
including at the drive-end of the shaft, at the register
t of the coupling hub, and others. Various thermal
growth, piping fabrication errors, and dierent alignment errors all contribute to the actual deection
values and nal nozzle load achieved in the eld.2,4,5
Rotating machine should operate without leakage,
without internal contact between rotating and stationary components and without losing alignment while
simultaneously subject to the maximum operating
conditions (temperature, pressure, speed, power,
etc.) and the worst case combination of allowable
nozzle loads from piping.2
Excessive pipe loads on a rotating machine could
cause both internal and external alignment problems.
Some of the rotating machine designs such as steam
turbines are more vulnerable to the internal misalignment from external forces.4,7 If the internal components become misaligned, accelerated wear, rubbing
and early failure could occur. The eects of external
misalignment may not be as obvious as those from
internal problems but will in time reduce the length

237
of machinery operation. The vibration levels increase
as the couplings become misaligned and the high
vibration trip system may cause an unscheduled
outage. An extended operation at high levels of misalignment may cause a coupling failure, possibly bearing damages or even a catastrophic failure.

Notes on support design

Common piping and supporting rules are essential for
the day to day design practice.7,8 There are numbers
of piping and supporting rules which may be valid for
the general plant piping, but invalid for the power
plant rotating machine piping and associated supports. These issues are often so inconspicuous that
they may be overlooked even by experienced piping
and machinery engineers. For example, consider the
following.
1. Selecting the support types based on the thermal
expansion displacement.
2. Setting the spring supports to balance the dead
weight at operating conditions (dead weight balance at operating condition approach).
In order to provide better piping for rotating
machines some important practices should be evolved.
1. Piping should have enough exibility. On the
other hand, a support system (support members,
attachments, others) should be designed to be sufciently sti.
2. Friction forces should be carefully evaluated and
involved in analysis. On the other hand, if there is
a requirement for friction force reduction, suitable
methods (such as Teon sliding plate, ball joint
struts, and similar) could be used.
To better explain above points, the exibility and the
friction should be put to work to the system
advantage.
With respect to support practices for the general
plant piping, the types of supports are usually selected
based on the thermal displacement that expected at
the support location.7,8,9 Rigid supports are usually
used when displacement is very small. Variable
springs are employed for medium displacement
values. Constant eort supports are used when displacements are great. The practice would seem logical
at rst. However, problems would arise often for
power plant rotating machine piping systems. The
use of spring and constant eort supports (non-rigid
supports) could create more problems compared to
rigid supports. The key point is the misapplication
of a rigid support will be detected as soon as stress
analysis is performed. On the other hand, the stress
analysis on the non-rigid supports (spring supports,
constant eort supports, and similar) could not readily indicate the misapplication. The nal result would

238
be a piping-support system with unnecessary exible
supports (including spring supports), which is too
expensive, totally unreliable, inherently unstable,
and very vulnerable against various dynamic and
vibrational excitations.1316
There are some power plant piping systems designed
with several spring supports for various piping spools
near equipment nozzles due to high thermal movements and very low equipment nozzle load limits. It
was mainly because free thermal displacements were
used as criteria for the support selection. For example,
some engineers perform free thermal movement analysis and use exible supports (spring supports, snubber or similar) for all support points with a
displacement above 75 mm. Aside from very high
cost, at rst glance this design may have no problem.
The computer stress analysis would show perfect
results. However, it is unstable and vulnerable against
various dynamic issues and operational problems. This
design will present problems on site when the support
travel stops are removed because actual piping system
weight is dierent (usually heavier) that the theoretical
assumption which could result in a failure of system.
Whether actual weight is heavier or lighter (compared
to the theoretical value) the eld adjustment is not
eective (or possible) for several exible supports.
This exible support system design is unable to
absorb the uncertainty due to manufacturing tolerances, calculation simplicity, and various errors. It
always vibrates and for sure sooner and later fails.
Flexible supports should only be used where required.
Always proper rigid supports should be provided to
absorb load uncertainties (fabrication tolerances, analysis inaccuracies, etc.) and control various instabilities.
Even sometimes it may be necessary to provide rigid
supports in locations with relatively high values of free
thermal displacement and compensate movements in
other locations.
In a rotating machine that works at very high operating temperatures (such as a steam turbine), sometimes the spring support(s) is set in such a way that
spring force and piping system dead weight will balance out each other under the operating conditions.
Engineers who use this method argue it is important
to minimize operating stresses (stresses at operating
temperature and pressure). One reason could also be
insucient exibility of piping system which leads a
designer to use this method to decrease nozzle loads
at operating conditions. In addition, a low stress at a
high operating temperature is very important to control the creep. The dead weight balance at operating condition could be a practice for the general plant
piping,7,9 but it should not be used for the rotating
machine piping design. By adopting the dead weight
balance at operating condition approach, the spring
supports have to be locked in place during installation.
It makes the piping-support installation, piping spool
t-up, piping adjustment and assembly inspection very
dicult. Practically, using this method, it is almost

Proc IMechE Part A: J Power and Energy 227(2)

impossible to properly adjust a piping-support
system. In addition locks (or stops) should be removed
when the system is ready for operation. In many cases,
sever twisting and jerking can occur when the stops are
removed. This could have damaging eects on rotating
machine sensitive components. This approach is very
risky and could impose high loads on machine nozzles.
Because of practical adjustment issues, the deviation of theoretical loads from actual loads, and transient eects, the dead weight balancing at operating
condition approach could nearly always result in
applying unpredictable and very high loads on rotating machines. Alignment problems (of rotating
machines) have usually been reported as result of
this approach.2,7,9 The theoretical minimum operating
load is actually only on paper promises. This kind of
uncertainty is simply too much of a risk to be taken
on an expensive dedicated rotating machine such as
large turbine which is usually the heart of a power
plant. Therefore, a more reliable approach is
needed. Certainly the dead weight of piping system
should be entirely absorbed by suitable supports at
ambient condition. It is known as dead weight balance at ambient condition approach. In this
approach, the t-up of piping of rotating machine is
normally done with spring supports unlocked. Then,
it should be tried to adjust the spring support load to
bring the nozzle loads (loads on rotating machine nozzles) to the minimum. In this way, the piping load at
ambient condition is almost zero, although some load
is expected under the operating condition. This load
(at operating condition) is highly predictable. The
dead weight balance at ambient condition
approach will make the eld adjustment much easier.
In any approach, weight moments should be carefully considered. Sometimes, due to software simplied concept or engineer errors only weight forces
(direct weight) are balanced and considerable weight
moments left on equipment nozzles. It should be
checked independently that entire piping system is
properly supported by sucient number of supports
at suitable locations.

Practical notes
Steps for machinery piping installations are noted as
following.2,4,5,7
1. Align machinery without piping attached.
2. Adjust piping spools for proper t-up, connection
and eld weld.
3. Observe alignment of machinery with piping being
attached. If excessive movement is observed, the
piping system should be modied/adjusted until
the misalignment is brought within the limits
permitted.
A good recommendation when installing piping is to
regularly check the alignment of the coupling(s)

Almasi
within the rotating machine train. In case the machine
alignment is disturbed, corrections should be made to
the piping-support system.
It is a good recommendation that no hanger travel
indicator moves out of 1/3 of total travel range at
ambient conditions. If travel is excessive, support
modication or adjustment would be required.

Expansion joint and thermal movement

Stresses at piping system and loads imposed on rotating machine nozzles should be calculated considering
all possible movements and eects such as thermal
movements, equipment motion, dynamic movements,
and other eects.1517 Usually, to accommodate the
thermal growth, expansion loops or bends are added
to piping. Often it may be required to use an expansion joint to limit nozzle loads particularly for large
piping sizes. An expansion joint should only be used
as the last solution (when other solutions could not
satisfy nozzle load limits).4,7,8 One modern approach
is to model the entire system (including the piping and
the rotating machine) at the same time. The concurrent modelling can reduce inherent conservatism and
could allow the thermal movements to be accommodated correctly by both systems.20 This may result in a
more exible combined system and could allow a
better optimization.
For some rotating machines such as a large steam
turbine, allowable nozzle loads are so low that expansion joints (bellows) should be used at equipment nozzles.4,7,8 One of the most important requirements in
designing an expansion joint system in the general
plant piping is to install a sucient anchor system
for resisting pressure end forces.7,8 The anchor is usually needed to absorb sum of forces particularly vertical sum of end forces. If the system is expected to
experience ow surges, dynamic eects, or similar, a
proper anchor design can be required. However,
anchors should not be used on an expansion joint
near a rotating machine. There is a potential of an
unexpected movement in system using an expansion
joint with anchors. Sometimes it is tempting to put
anchors on an expansion joint next to a turbine to
resist the end force. The problem of this anchor
system can be explained from the start-up sequence.
When the piping system is heated up both ends of the
expansion joint expand into the expansion joint leaving slack at the tie-rods. As soon as tie-rods get loose,
the pressure and force pushing the rotating machine is
not balanced. In other words, the expansion joint
anchor could present an unpredicg transient load to
the machine (when tie-rods get loose, it would be shift
in force-movement behaviour of system). To better
explain this issue, by using tie-rods, instead of natural
and smooth exible behaviour of an expansion joint,
a transient shift of anchor loose could present a transient force. In most cases, this force would be sucient to push the rotating machine o alignment

239
causing severe operational problems. An expansion
joint without anchors can properly manage thermal
movements of a machine-piping system.
The symmetry and the balance are normally considered two major principles in a good piping
design.13 However, there are occasions when symmetry may also mean handicap. The three hinge
system may be used in solving a rotating machine
plane-expansion piping problem (particularly for a
large diameter piping). The only problem with this
symmetric layout is that the three hinges could be
lined up in a perfect straight line. For the middle
hinge to be active it has to move when the system is
subjected to a temperature change. Sometimes it is
almost impossible due to the perfect symmetry. In
other words, the middle hinge may be simply stuck
without any movement. In reality, certain unsymmetrical eect will be built-in in the system to allow the
middle hinge to move.
In a symmetric straight line piping system with
three hinges (one hinge at each end and one hinge at
the middle), the movement of middle hinge would be
problematic. Even when the hinge is located o the
symmetric line, the issue could still exist. In this
design, as result of any temperature change, the magnitude of middle hinge movement will be unexpectedly
high. Sometimes, the movement is too much to be
accommodated by conventional supports. The
piping system can be greatly improved by an unsymmetrical design (for example, an L shaped piping
route). In a case study, as result of a. L shaped
design, the movement is reduced to less than 7% compared to a symmetric piping (well within a normal
support system capability).

Conclusion and final note

Latest methods, modern technologies and new
achievements in various power plant piping, support
and nozzle load subjects are discussed.
1. The dead weight balance at operating condition
approach usually oers many issues and diculties in power plants. Problems with this approach
are noted as following.
2. The requirement for temporary support(s) and
very complex and dicult eld activity
procedures.
3. Practically it is very dicult to t-up and adjust
piping system at spring support pre-set situations
(at ambient condition).
4. Because of various uncertainties (dierences
between actual weights and theoretical values,
simplications in calculations, etc.), it is almost
impossible to accurately calculate and pre-set
spring supports at ambient condition to achieve
dead weight balance (say the minimum stresses)
at operating condition. The result would be very
high nozzle loads at operating conditions.

240
5. Removal of temporary support and exible support stops will cause high transient loads which
could cause serious alignment problems and sometimes machine damages.
The dead weight balance at ambient condition
approach is recommended as the best practice for a
rotating machine piping support.
Funding
This research received no specic grant from any funding
agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-prot sectors.

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