If I understand correctly, you have a single pressure chamber (eg: a pressure vessel that does not have any internal heads or pressure-separating internal devices). The specified design pressure varies for the shell components in this chamber (this might just as well have varying temperatures).
Due to process operations it is not uncommon for the operating temperatures to vary across a chamber, it’s probably less common for operating pressures to vary (how would the pressure distribution be contained?...well, there are packed beds, etc). But I have seen this in design specifications for some vessels.
How does ASME Code consider this case? (Other Codes may be similar on this issue.)
Section VIII Division 1, Appendix 3 defines the “design pressure” as the pressure used in the design of a vessel component for purpose of determining the minimum permissible thickness of the different zones of the vessel. Static head, if any, shall be included. Thus per this paragraph the design pressures may vary for the components in the pressure chamber.
The same Appendix defines the “maximum allowable working pressure” (MAWP) as the maximum gage pressure at the top of the completed vessel in its normal operating orientation, at the design temperature. Thus you need to determine the MAWP of each of the vessel components, adjust each for the static head, then the smallest such value is the MAWP for the completed pressure vessel.
The pressure vessel must have the name plate stamped with the design information as per UG-116 through UG-119. The ASME nameplate provides for only a single pressure value at a given temperature. You can have multiple different design temperatures with different corresponding pressure values, but for any given temperature there is only a single pressure value used for that chamber. Thus if you have a chamber where the operating or design pressures vary, you are limited to stamping the chamber to the lowest MAWP for that temperature.
You may be able to define the vessel as having two chambers, each with its own stamp and nameplate. This could be so even if there is no physical barrier to the different pressures (however, the process must be considered very carefully so that the lower pressure region is not subjected to the higher pressure during some catastrophic event). Different MAWP/temperature pairs would apply to each chamber.
If you expect to be able to design a component for the lower design pressure in one zone, but have its MAWP be acceptable for higher design pressure zone, then you must make certain that the thickness (or other properties) of the component is able to sustain that higher design pressure…essentially you must “design” the components in the lower design/operating pressure zone for the pressure of the higher design/operating pressure zone.
But the software will not complain if you tell it that the design pressure is “X” and the corresponding MAWP of the component is less than the design pressure in another region of the chamber. This is not what you told the software you wanted to do, so it is not a failure.