PIPING ENGINEERING TUTORIALS

Imagine a pipe Element, of which's both ends are closed. An Internal Pressure “P” applies on the internal walls of the pipe. The pressure causes the following Stresses on each element of the pipe. a) Circumferential (Hoop) Stress ( σ H ) b) Longitudinal Stress ( σ L ) c) Radial Stress( σ R )  Graphical Representation of Stress on pipe wall Imagine a condition in which the Pressure "P" Exceeds the Resisting capacity of the wall. The pipe may split as shown below. Splitting of Pipe along the Longitudinal Plane The failure may possible across any line containing diameter and axis of the pipe.Here it's the horizontal plane.Elements which resists this failure experience stress and direction of the same will be along the circumference. Hence it’s called as Circumferential or “Hoop Stress ” Let's try to quantify this  here,                           ...

Pipelines Operating at High Temperature must be flexible enough to prevent thermal expansion from causing Excessive Stresses either in Pipe or pipe components.  These Loads due to expansion cause excessive undesirable forces and bending moments at joints, anchor, and guides etc.  “Flexibility can be defined as a measure of the ability of a Piping system to absorb its own expansion or that of the connecting equipment while satisfying the Design conditions”. Nature of expansion of the pipes is mainly depended upon the temperature it is exposed and type of material of construction. Every material got a " Coefficient of Expansion" which is indicative of a particular material’s nature of expansion and can be defined as a ratio between free expansion in Linear direction to the original length.   When the Pipe is heated, it would try to expand axially but as the Piping network does not allow a “Free expansion” and there will be many restraints which resist expans...

Every Engineering Design meant to operate its lifetime successfully without/fewer breakdowns.This is possible only by successfully forecasting the kind of loads it's going to expose during its course of operation.While designing a Piping System we have to consider a minimum, the following Loads   I) Design Pressure The Design Pressure of Each component in a piping system shall not be less than the pressure at the most severe condition of coincident internal or external pressure and temperature (minimum or maximum) expected during service. The most severe condition is that which results in the greatest required component thickness and the highest component rating. Usually, the following basis is adopted for arriving at design pressure a)    Design Pressure of the connecting equipment b)    Set pressure of the pressure relief valve connected for the safety of the system c)    Discharge pressure of the Pump in the Syste...

Piping Engineer always strives for a Good Design and a Good design should consider aspects such as Optimized design, cost-effectiveness, reliability, safety etc Standardization can reduce confusion among various stages in system, components, and procedures. These optimized standard practices in written form are available and are named as Codes and Standards. CODES A group of general rules of systematic procedures for design, fabrication, installation, and inspection prepared in such a manner that it can be adopted legal jurisdiction and made into law. STANDARD Documents prepared by a professional group or committee who are believed to be good and proper engineering practice and which contain mandatory requirements. The users responsible for the correct application of the same, compliance with a standard doesn’t give immunity from legal obligation. In order to optimize the piping in process and refinery field, we use the code establish by ASME named ASME ...

An Onshore Plant Piping View A Piping Engineer/Piping department of a company holds a key position in the life cycle of a process plant. An assortment of never ending network with various dimensions, various end joints, fittings, sealing and insulation. What are the deciding factors behind this huge and heavy engineered structure? Does Piping Engineer can independently take the decision about every aspect of Piping? In this Blog, I am trying to give light to some basic aspects of detailed engineering pertaining to Piping Engineering. The bare minimum theoretical background each and every Piping Designer should know about the trade. Going back my question in the last paragraph, the answer will be obviously “NO”. Every man-made marvels need good team efforts and so is the case of Process/ Refinery and another n number of Plants. The course of action from concept to commissioning and beyond involves the group efforts by process Engineering, Mechanical & Vessel, Civil &...