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protection from overpressure due to thermal expansion of trapped liquid. For gas or
two-phase fluid pipelines TRVs are not required.
Designing the launcher / receiver relief valve for external fire case is impractical
although theoretically possible. In practice pigging is an intermittent operation and
well planned and monitored. Before and after pigging operations it is ensured that
the launcher and receiver are drained / vented to prevent any residual fluid inside. If
a fire effects an empty launcher / receiver, the launcher / receiver will rupture even
before the PSV designed for fire case pops at the set pressure. So practically it does
not make a sense to have a PSV for fire case. Refer the link below for a very
enlightening discussion on PSV on launcher / receiver. Specifically the post by
don1980
http://www.eng-tips.....cfm?qid=360185
One of the reasons that engineers consider a PSV for fire case is because the pig
launcher / receiver is designed as per pressure vessel code. If it were to be designed
as per pipeline code then at the most for a liquid system launcher / receiver a TRV
(for thermal expansion) may be provided which does not require any sizing
calculations and providing a conventional 3/4 x 1" or 1"x 1-1/2" PSV would suffice.
For single-phase gas or 2-phase fluid no PSV would be required.