Piping Systems

Fluid piping system design

To create the right fluid piping system design for your application, there are three questions you should ask yourself: what material is the piping system conveying? How fast is the piping system going to convey this material? And what volume should the piping system be able to handle per unit of time? To answer these questions, the conveyable material, the flow velocity, and the flow rate should be considered.

When conveying material through a fluid piping system, high temperatures could be involved or corrosive material may pass the piping system, hence why it’s important to account for the type of material to be conveyed to prevent damage to the piping system.

The flow velocity, the average speed of fluids flowing through a pipe, should also be considered because if a flow velocity is too high, this could cause damage to the piping system, and if the flow velocity is too low, flow problems might occur.

The flow rate, the volume of fluids conveyed through a pipe per unit of time, also could bring both flow problems and damage to the fluid piping system when not considered.

An optimal combination of the right flow velocity and flow rate should be achieved in combination with a piping system designed for a specific type of material to increase efficiency and reduce the likelihood of damage to the piping system.

Fluid flow in piping systems

Flow is the movement of pressurized fluids between volumes of varying pressures. Pressurized fluid always moves from higher pressure to lower pressure. Without a pressure differential, the fluid is stagnant, and the system is absent of flow. Uncontrolled fluid in motion can physically destroy pumps, piping, valves, meters, and other system components of the fluid flow control system.

Controlling the fluid flow is an essential portion of optimizing and protecting fluid piping systems. By using a variety of technologies to control fluids like air and liquid, fluid piping systems and products last longer in demanding environments.

Managing fluid flow in fluid piping systems can be a difficult task, controlling and managing these kinds of systems should consider some important factors such as pressure head, elevation head, velocity head, and reduced system flow rates.

When not accounting for these factors, significant damage can be caused to the fluid piping system that can result in system failure and downtime.