88246 - Offshore Engineering Equipment Design

Learning outcomes

The course aims at introducing the students to the design of process equipment. Criteria and procedures for equipment selection and sizing will be introduced. Equipment design techniques will be applied to the more important unit operations used in offshore processes.

Course contents

Skills required to access the course and to attend it with success:

The course addresses engineering design in the field of offshore engineering. Thus fundamental knowledge of mass and heat balances, thermodynamic equilibria of multi-phase and multi-component systems, transport phenomena, and fluid dynamics are required. Knowledge of unit operations and principles of unit operation design (in particular of heat transfer processes) and process design is also required.

Fluent spoken and written English is a necessary pre-requisite: all lectures and tutorials, and all study material will be in English.

Course contents:

1) Introduction to basic design. Approach to basic design of process equipment.

2) Heat exchangers. Main categories of heat transfer equipment. Design standards. Basic design of liquid/liquid and gas/gas heat exchangers: shell and tube exchangers and plate exchangers.

3) Condensers, reboilers, vaporizers and evaporators. Main categories of equipment for vapor condensation and vapor generation in process plants. Basic design of condensers of pure vapors, of vapor mixtures and of vapor mixtures in the presence of uncondensables. Condensers-undercoolers. Basic design of evaporators, vaporizers, reboilers.

4) Block Diagrams (BD), Process Flow Diagrams (PFD), Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&ID), and other relevant documentation developed during Basic Design. Standardized symbols in PFD and P&ID of equipment items, lines, valves, compressors, pumps, and instruments. Basic concepts of control loops and safety interlocks.

Readings/Bibliography

J.M. Coulson, J.F. Richardson: "Chemical Engineering", Pergamon Press (vols. 1, 2 and 6)

D. Kern: "Process heat transfer", Mc Graw - Hill

R.H. Perry, D.W. Green: "Perry'S Chemical Engineer' Handobook", Mc Gaw-Hill

R.E. Treybal: "Mass transfer operations", Mc Graw - Hill

Teaching methods

Theoretical lectures & exercises (tutored and self-directed).

Assessment methods

The exam is divided in a written test and an oral examination. Written test will consist in the design of a process equipment among those presented during the course. Written test is passed when grade higher or equal to 18/30 is awarded.

Positive grades in written exams are awarded to students showing knowledge of design procedures, selecting correctly fluid properties and carrying out correctly the calculations.

In the oral exam design procedures and their theoretical basis will be discussed.

The exam is set to evaluate the students' knowledge-level, application abilities, and technical communication skills.

Higher grades will be awarded to students who demonstrate an organic understanding of the subject, a high ability for critical application, and a clear and concise presentation of their ideas.

To obtain a passing grade, students are required to know the key concepts of the subject, to demonstrate some ability for critical application, and a comprehensible use of technical language.

A failing grade will be awarded if the student has not completed the case-studies proposed during the lessons, shows knowledge gaps in key-concepts of the subject, inappropriate use of language, and/or logic failures in the analysis of the subject.

Teaching tools

Course materials, tutorials, files, videos, etc. will be available on the interactive course website:
Virtuale (unibo.it) [https://virtuale.unibo.it/]

Office hours

See the website of Matteo Iaiani

See the website of Valerio Cozzani