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PIPING

Within industry, piping is a system of pipes or network of pipes usedto


convey fluids (liquids and gases) from one location to another over short
distance.
The term here short distance does not refer to a fixed distance which can be
classified in meters or inches but short distance here refers to Pipes used to
connect minimum of 2 facilities/equipments confined in a specific region or
area i.e. a process plant, refinery, fertilizer plants or a civil construction.
In a refining or a petrochemical complex, piping constitutes major expenditure
of all design disciplines. Piping consume about 50% of design engineering
man-hours, 35% of material cost of plant and about 30% of labour cost of a
plant.
The engineering discipline of piping design studies the efficient transport of
fluid by flow diagrams, model making, insulation & painting, piping material
take-off, piping material control, instrument design & piping design itself.
Industrial process piping (and accompanying in-line components) can be
manufactured
from wood, fiberglass, glass,steel, aluminium, plastic, copper,
and concrete.
The in-line components, known as fittings, flanges, valves, and other devices,
typically sense and control the pressure, flow rate and temperature of the
transmitted fluid, and usually are included in the field of Piping Design (or
Piping Engineering).
Piping systems in detail are documented in piping and instrumentation
diagrams (P&IDs) & General Arrangement Drawings (GADs). P&IDs & GADs
are generated from Process Flow Diagrams (PFDs).

"Piping" sometimes refers to Piping Design, the detailed specification of the


physical piping layout within a process plant or commercial building. In earlier
days, this was sometimes called Drafting, Technical drawing, Engineering
Drawing, and Design but is today commonly performed by Designers who

have learned to use automated Computer Aided Drawing / Computer Aided


Design (CAD) software.
Ironically still piping design has been neglected in the school system. This is
largely due to the fact that adequate complete & competitive textbooks are not
available. No book or blog can teach a person to become a piping designer
but it can teach the fundamental & how to apply them to become a designer.
Plumbing is a piping system that most people are familiar with, as it constitutes
the
form
of
fluid
transportation
that
is
used
to
provide
potable water and fuels to their homes and business. Plumbing pipes also
remove waste in the form of sewage, and allow venting of sewage gases to the
outdoors.
Fire sprinkler systems also use piping, and may transport non-potable
or potable water, or other fire-suppression fluids.
Piping also has many other industrial applications, which are crucial for
moving raw and semi-processed fluids for refining into more useful products.
Today Piping can be found any place one looks, from piping in automobile to
complicated maze of piping in process plant.
Each year introduces new purpose for piping which creates demand for new
and improved material specification. Some of the more exotic materials of
construction are Inconel, titanium, chrome-moly and various other steel alloys.

MODERN TECHNOLOGY IN PIPING


1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Pipe & Tube cleaning process.


Variable Spring for Pipe Support
FRP Wear pad
Snubbers
Sway Braces

ENGINEERING SUBFIELDS

Generally, Industrial Piping Engineering has three major subfields:


Piping Material
Piping Design
Stress Analysis
Piping Material
Early pipes were constructed out of wooden logs that had a large hole bored
lengthwise through the center.
Later wooden pipes were constructed with staves and hoops similar to
wooden barrel construction. Stave pipes have the advantage that they are easily
transported as a compact pile of parts on a wagon and then assembled as a hollow
structure at the job site. Wooden pipes were especially popular in mountain regions
where transport of heavy iron or concrete pipes would have been difficult earlier.
Wooden pipes were easier to maintain than metal, because:1. The wood did not expand or contract with temperature changes as much as metal and
so consequently expansion joints and bends were not required.
2. The thickness of wood afforded some insulating properties to the pipes which helped
prevent freezing as compared to metal pipes.
3. Electrolysis, that bugbear of many iron pipe systems, doesn't affect wood pipes at all,
since wood is a much better electrical insulator.
In the Western United States where redwood was used for pipe construction, it was
found that redwood had "peculiar properties" that protected it from weathering, acids,
insects, and fungus growths. Redwood pipes stayed smooth and clean indefinitely
while iron pipe by comparison would rapidly begin to scale and corrode and could
eventually plug itself up with the corrosion.
The types of materials actually used for pipes for piping will depend upon whether the
installation is underground, outside buildings, underground within buildings, or
aboveground within buildings. The availability of certain types of desired piping
materials and fittings may also govern the type of pipe actually used.
Piping Materials are divided into 2 basic classes:A. Metallic
1. Ferrous

a.
b.
c.
d.
2.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
B.
1.
a.
b.
2.
3.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.

Cast Iron
Carbon Steel
Low Temperature Carbon Steel
Stainless Steel etc.
Non Ferrous
Copper
Brass
Inconel
Incoloy
Cupro Nickle etc.
Non Metallic
Glass
Glass Reinforced Epoxy
Tempered Glass etc.
Ceramics
Plastics
Poly Ethylene (PE)
Cross Linked Poly Ethylene (PEX)
Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC)
Chlorinated Poly Vinyl Chloride (CPVC)
High Density Poly Ethylene (HDPE)
Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) etc.
Piping Design
Piping Design is a purely an engineering study as the main aim & objective for piping
is to transport the fluid from one place to another with minimum effort loss in terms of
mechanical & safely.
This topic will be discussed later on separately.
Stress analysis
Process piping and power piping are typically checked by Pipe Stress Engineers to
verify that the routing, nozzle loads, hangers, and supports are properly placed and
selected such that allowable pipe stress is not exceeded under different situation such
as sustain, operating, pressure testing etc., as per the ASME B31, EN 13480 or any
other applicable codes and standards.

It is necessary to evaluate the mechanical behaviour of the piping under regular loads
(internal pressure and thermal stresses) as well under occasional and intermittent
loading cases such as earthquake, high wind or special vibration, and water hammer.
This evaluation at earlier times was very tough & tiring whereas in modern days it is
usually performed with the assistance of a specialized (finite element) pipe stress
analysis computer
program
such
as CAESAR
II, Triflex,
ROHR2, CAEPIPE and AUTOPIPE.
In cryogenic pipe supports, most steel become more brittle as the temperature
decreases from normal operating conditions, so it is necessary to know the
temperature distribution for cryogenic conditions.
Steel structures will have areas of high stress that may be caused by sharp corners in
the design, or inclusions in the material.

STANDARDS RELATED TO PIPING


There are certain standard codes that need to be followed while designing or
manufacturing any piping system. Organizations that promulgate piping standards
include:
ASME - The American Society of Mechanical Engineers - B31 series
ASME B31.1 Power piping (steam piping etc.)
ASME B31.3 Process piping
ASME B31.4 Hydrocarbons and Other Liquids piping
ASME B31.5 Refrigeration piping and heat transfer components
ASME B31.8 Gas transmission and distribution piping systems
ASME B31.9 Building services piping
ASME B31.11 Slurry Transportation Piping Systems
ASME B31.12 Hydrogen Piping and Pipelines
ASTM - American Society for Testing and Materials
API - American Petroleum Institute
EN 13480 - European metallic industrial piping code
EN 13480-1 Metallic industrial piping - Part 1: General
EN 13480-2 Metallic industrial piping - Part 2: Materials
EN 13480-3 Metallic industrial piping - Part 3: Design and calculation

EN 13480-4 Metallic industrial piping - Part 4: Fabrication and installation


EN 13480-5 Metallic industrial piping - Part 5: Inspection and testing
EN 13480-6 Metallic industrial piping - Part 6: Additional requirements for buried
piping
PD TR 13480-7 Metallic industrial piping - Part 7: Guidance on the use of conformity
assessment procedures
EN 13480-8 Metallic industrial piping - Part 8: Additional requirements for aluminium
and aluminium alloy piping

EN 1993-4-3 Eurocode 3 Design of steel structures - Part 4-3: Pipelines


AWS - American Welding Society
AWWA - American Water Works Association
MSS Manufacturers' Standardization Society
ANSI - American National Standards Institute
NFPA - National Fire Protection Association
EJMA - Expansion Joint Manufacturers Association
Many countries have so far not developed their own standards for the design of piping
System & hence one or more of the above standards are used for the designing
purpose.

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