Essentials Of Piping System Design

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By John Tverberg

Proper selection of the size and materials for a piping system involves several basic design considerations. The first step involves determining whether to use piping or tubing. The next step is to establish the size fo te pipe or tube, then to select the proper wall thickness, the surface roughness and finally the alloy selection based on the environment both inside and outside the tube.

Proper design of the piping system is fundamental to any fluid handling system. The more unique the fluid being transported the more critical the selection of materials and the design criteria. Of course, everyone wants a trouble-free system but that usually comes at a higher cost. If cost is a constraint, then the system usually is designed with lowest cost materials with no considerations made for corrosion resistance.

The selection process involves a number of invdividual steps:

• Use of a pipe or a tube
• Determination of hydraulic diameter
• Determination of fluid velocity (the second step in alloy selection)
• Determination of system pressure drop (the third step in allow selection)
• Selection of allow based on corrosive conditions

What is the difference between a pipe and tube? The very similar, but there are some critical differences. Simply stated, the difference is dimensions and specifications. Pipe is made to wide tolerances and tube is made to close tolerances. Pipe size is the theoretical inside diameter, even htought each size is made to a fixed out diameter. Tube size is teh outside diameter. Pipe wall thickness is referred to as "schedule" and tubing is the actual wall thickness or "gage".

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