Design of Hillside Pipe Branch Connection

[nikolastrojman]

Hi

I have to design hillside pipe branch connection (or should I say hillside pipe nozzle) on a pipe which will be used for insertion of ultrasonic flow measurement sensors. Pipe is located in refinery so the governing Code for designing branch connections is ASME B31.3.

Has anyone got experience with designing this kind of branch connections, where the axis of the branch doesn't intersect the axis of the run. According to 304.3 this condition has to be met if you want to use area replacement method.

I've attached a picture of an example of type of branch connection I have to design.

Any advice on how to solve this problem?

 

[gwalkerb]

A similar question was posed in this thread, FE analysis was suggested, although I can't comment as to whether that would be successful.

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=279244

You could also contact someone like Bonney Forge, they might make a custom weldolet type fitting for this application.

 

[KevinNZ]

We make almost all our drains this way and use FEA for the design.