Flare System Dynamic Modelling - Approaches & Values

Flare systems for offshore installations and onshore plants are a critical piece of equipment, which provide safe relief of inventory during both routine operations as well as emergency situations. Their design is often complex and comprised of multiple headers and sources from the entire complex, making it difficult to understand and predict their behavior. Dynamic modelling is a technique used to perform time-dependent analysis of a system, which can be applied to flare systems to investigate any potential operating or emergency scenarios and validate more traditional 'steady-state' assumptions. This is equally useful as a verification exercise for existing systems as well as during the design phase for brownfield modifications and can often result in significant CAPEX and OPEX savings on projects.