This Code is applicable to piping and pipelines handling gaseous hydrogen and gaseous hydrogen mixtures and to piping in liquid hydrogen service. This Code is applicable up to and including the joint connecting the piping to associated pressure vessels and equipment but not to the vessels and equipment themselves. It is applicable to the location and type of support elements but not to the structure to which the support elements are attached.
FOREWORD
Responding to an evident need and at the request of The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the American Standards Association initiated Project B31 in March 1926, with ASME as sole administrative sponsor.
The breadth of the field involved required that membership of the Sectional Committee be drawn from some 40 engineering societies, industries, government bureaus, institutes, and trade associations.
The initial publication in 1935 was the American Tentative Standard Code for Pressure Piping. Revisions from 1942 through 1955 were published as the American Standard Code for Pressure Piping, ASA B31.1. Then it was decided that the various industry sections, beginning with ASA B31.8-1955, Gas Transmission and Distribution Piping Systems, be published as separate documents. The first Petroleum Refinery Piping Code Section was designated ASA B31.3-1959. ASA B31.3 revisions were published in 1962 and 1966. Between 1967 and 1969, the American Standards Association became first the United States of America Standards Institute, then the American National Standards Institute. The Sectional Committee became American National Standards Committee B31, and the Code was renamed the American National Standard Code for Pressure Piping. The next B31.3 revision was designated ANSI B31.3-1973. Addenda were published through 1975. The Standards Committee was reorganized in 1978 as a Committee operating under ASME
procedures with ANSI accreditation. It is now the ASME Code for Pressure Piping, B31 Committee. The Section committee structure remains essentially unchanged.
As a result of preliminary studies, it was concluded that gaps exist between existing piping and pipeline codes and standards, and hydrogen infrastructure applications. A Project Team was formed under the ASME B31 Standards Committee to develop a new B31.12 Code for hydrogen piping and pipelines. The Project Team was subsequently restructured under the B31 Standards Committee as a Section Committee.
Since the first edition, the B31.12 Code has applied to design, construction, operation, and maintenance requirements for piping, pipelines, and distribution systems in hydrogen service. Typical applications are power generation, process plants, refining, transportation, distribution, and automotive filling stations. This Code is composed of Part GR, General Requirements, including common requirements referenced by all other parts; Part IP, Industrial Piping; and Part PL, Pipelines, including distribution systems. These Parts incorporate information specific to hydrogen service and either reference or incorporate applicable parts of ASME B31.3, Process Piping; ASME B31.1, Power Piping; ASME B31.8, Gas Transmission and Distribution Piping Systems; ASME B31.8S, Managing System Integrity of Gas Pipelines; and Section VIII, Division 3 of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, where appropriate.
Material performance factors have been included to account for the adverse effects of hydrogen gas on the mechanical properties of carbon and low alloy steels operating within the hydrogen embrittlement range. Many materials included in ASME B31.3 have been omitted from ASME B31.12 tables due to their unsuitability for hydrogen service. Rules have been added for conversion or retrofit of existing pipeline and distribution systems from natural gas or petroleum to hydrogen service. Parts covering commercial, residential, and nonmetallic systems will be added in future editions. Material performance
factors will be reevaluated as materials research data are developed and understanding of hydrogen embrittlementof carbon and low alloy steels increases.
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