Benchmarking EI AVIFF and API 579 Part 15

Abstract New or revised guidelines on pipe vibration are being released in the Energy Institute Guidelines for the Avoidance of Vibration Induced Fatigue Failure in Process Pipework, 3rd Edition (EI AVIFF), and the American Petroleum Institute 579 Part 15 (API-579 Part 15). In both guidelines, vibration effects are separated into low frequency bending modes and higher frequency shell modes. Each guideline takes different approaches to establishing vibration limits. With shell modes, the EI AVIFF guideline uses parameters of the noise and turbulent flow along with the geometry to predict a likely hood of failure, which is based on fatigue life, while the API-579 Part 15 Level 2 guideline provides a vibration amplitude limit with some sensitivity to the structural geometry. The goal of this work is to compare how the two different approaches evaluate vibration where shell modes dominate the vibration and assess their consistency. Such a comparison can assist with a decision regarding if either or both approaches are applicable to a specific vibration scenario.