Abstract:

Steel structure pipe racks, characterized by their large volume and lengths often spanning several kilometers, account for a significant proportion of the steel consumption in petrochemical projects. Therefore, optimizing the layout of pipe racks to save steel is of great significance. In terms of design, the span of pipe racks is usually determined by the piping layout of upstream disciplines. However, the structural discipline can collaborate with upstream disciplines in the early stages to determine the scheme and optimize the design by controlling the bay spacings of pipe racks. This paper proposes a universal method that can represent the entire project's steel consumption for pipe racks. By analyzing and comparing the steel consumption of representative double-span steel structure pipe racks with bay spacings of 6 meters and 9 meters, it is concluded that the pipe rack with a 6-meter bay spacing is more economical and represents an optimized design.

Key words: pipe rack;double span, steel consumption, different bay spacings, optimized design