Process Engineering Exercise
LIQUID LINE SIZING & DETERMINATION OF PUMP RATING REQUIRED
Tharneshwar R,
Graduating student (ChemE)
This exercise deals with the sizing of each line is provided for to completely
pipelines for a pumping system used to shutoff flow whenever required.
transport water across two reservoirs. The temperature of the service is assumed to
be 25 deg C and fluid properties are as given
Problem statement: in Table 1.
There is a need to transport pure water from
a sump to a tank whose liquid surface is 8m Table 1: Pure water properties @ T
higher than the source sump. Both reservoirs Parameter Value Unit
have free surfaces. If we employ a centrifugal Temperature [T] 25 deg C
pump at ground level the free liquid surface
of the source sump will be 0.3m below the Liquid Density [ρ] 997 kg/m3
pump’s centerline. If the length of the suction Viscosity [μ] 0.0009 kg/ms
and discharge line of the pump is taken to be Vapor Pressure [Ps] 3170 Pa
3m and 25m respectively,
a) Suggest the diameter of suction and Now for the Material of Construction of the
delivery lines to be used. pipe, Commersial steel (CS) is good choice
b) Suggest the rating of pump required to for handling pure water due to it is resistance
accommodate a flow of 20 m3/h. to corrosion so let’s select it.
Solution:
Step 1: Determing maximum allowable
for the given a problem statement a typical velocity of flow inside the pipelines.
pump layout is constructed based on known
data. (i.e. Figure 1). It is recommended to design for velocity of
flow below the maximum allowable velocity
to prevent corrosion.
The International organisation of
Standardisation (ISO) suggest a maximum
allowable flow of 0.6 to 1 m/s for suction line
and 1.8 to 2.7 m/s for discharge line (this is
Figure 1: Pump system as per ISO 13703 , section 5.3, centrifugal
pump liquid line sizing)
The suction line is provided with a Y-strainer
So lets consider the maximum allowable
to prevent suspended solid in the suction
velocity to be 0.8 m/s on suction side and 2.2
stream to enter centrifugal pump and a
m/s on discharge side.
eccentric reducer to prevent air pockets to
enter the pump. The discharge line is
Step 2: Determination of Pipe diameters
provided with a swing check valve to prevent
based on maximum allowable velocity.
back flow and a globe type control valve to
regulate flow and operate the pump near its The design flow rate is 20 m3/h or 0.0056
Best efficiency point (BEP). A gate valve on m3/s.
pg. 1
Tharneshwar R
On the suction side,
The darcy friction factor is a function of
Reynolds number [Re] and Relative
roughness [ε/D] so we have find it separately
for suction and discharge line.
The preliminary data required for friction
Similarly for discharge side,
factor calculations are calculated and listed in
table 3.
Table 3: Pipe & flow data
Parameter Suction Discharge Unit
Pipe
CS CS -
material
Pipe
roughness 0.000045 0.000045 m
Now we can use these initially found out [ε]
diameters to do pipe flow calculations. Relative
roughness 0.000476 0.00079 -
Step 3: Determination loss coefficients for [ε/D]
the suction and discharge side Pipe Inner
0.09441 0.05693 m
The minor loss coefficient can be obtained diameter[D]
from “Crane’s handbook” and “Handbook of Pipe Length
3 25 m
hydraulic resistance by [Link]’chik. The [L]
Expression for minor loss coefficient are as Flow
0.8 2.2 m/s
tabulated in table 2. velocity [u]
Table 2: Minor loss coefficients Reynolds
Expression / Value Number 83931 139188 -
Component [Re]
value for Kminor
Gate Valve 8f By observing the Renolds number we can say
Globe Valve 340f that the flow regime inside both pipes are
Elbow purely turbulent
30f
(90 deg)
To determine friction factor in turbulent
Entrance 0.78 (Assuming re-entry)
regime for rough pipes Colebrook’s (1938)
Exit 1
correlation give accurate results and it is as
Swing check follows.
50f
Valve
Y strainer 2.5
Eccentric
0.6
Reducer
This correlation is implicit in nature so we
“f” here denotes the darcy friction factor can use Newton – Raphson ‘s method of
which can be found by correlations based on iteration (Eqn {2}) to solve it.
flow regimes.
The major loss coefficient is as follows.
pg. 2
Tharneshwar R
Using {5} the suction side head losses is
found to be 0.191 m,
similarly the discharge side head losses are
g(f) is the function form of Colebrook
found to be 4.462 m.
equation whereas g’(f) is it’s first derivative
with respect to f. And they are as follows,
Step 5: Determination of Total dynamic
Head loss across the system.
If we apply modified bernauli eqn ,
a) from the suction reservoir and inlet of
pump suction side,
b) Pump discharge outlet to delivery
reservoir;
to solve this we would need a initial guess f0
for which we can either use the value of 0.02 We get two equations using which we can
or use Swamy-Jain correlation i.e.{3} find the we can find the total dynamic head
(TDH) need to offered by the pump to
transport the liquid at our desired flow. The
final expression for total dynamic head is
found by subtracting the sum of all head
Using eqn {3} the suction side friction factor across suction side from the sum of all heads
converges after 3 iterations to a value of f = at delivery side and it is expressed as follows.
0.020727197.
Discharge side converges after 3 iterations to
f = 0.020762.
Step 4: Determination of head losses
The permanent loss of energy due to skin delivery and suction refer to the downstream
friction, pipe fittings, valves, etc can be and upstream of the pump whereas
expressed as. destination and source refers to reservoirs
here.
Since the source and destination are assumed
to be large reservoirs/tanks it’s logical to take
Using the lay-out we constructed we can velocity of flow at their boundary to be 0.
express head losses in suction pipe and And since both the reservoirs are open to
discharge pipe as; atmosphere there is no difference in pressure
head across them too.
So expression for our system is;
(Note: The calculation is to be done with
pump’s centerline as datum.)
pg. 3
Tharneshwar R
Step 6: Line size verification and selection Step 7: Pump sizing and NPSHA
of pipe size based on vendor details. Calculation.
It is important that the line we have sized for
our system undergoes an allowable margin of
head losses throughout it’s length.
The thumb rule is to have a pressure drop per
unit length of the pipe on suction side to be
0.001 – 0.003 bar/m and on discharge side to Therefore we would require a pump rated
be 0.005 – 0.03 bar/m. 10.2356 m at it’s BEP for this system;
Therefore, we should check if our initial pipe The NPSHA of the system is found to be 9.65
size calculated satisfies the velocity and m , hence we can’t choose a pump with
pressure drop margin. If the criteria isn’t NPSHR above 8.65 m (to maintain a safe 1m
satisfied we should change our diameter until margin) without changing the piping
it’s satisfied and then finalise the immediate network.
higher size pipe that’s available in the market. Notes:
The delP/L of suction and discharge pipe of 1. This exercise is for incompressible
initial calculation is not satisfactory, so after fluids and doesn’t do justice for gases
a bit of adjusting the diameters we get; and vapors.
Suction and discharge pipe diameter to be 2. If the interest is to develop operating
0.113m and 0.065m respectively. envelope for the single stage
centrifugal pump system,
The immediate next size to these diameters size the liquid lines and find the
available in the market as per ASME rating of pump required while
B36.10M are 5’’ CS Sch 120 as suction pipe describing a loss coefficient for
and 21/2’’ CS Sch 10 as discharge pipe. a 50% open globe valve (as a
The Pipe details are as tabulated below. control valve) on the pump
Table 4: Suction pipe details downstream
then find out the pressure drop
Parameter Value Unit
across the CV required to size
5'' CS Sch-120 pipe the Control valve (use
Weight/m 40.28 kg ANSI/ISA 75.01.01) to develop
OD 141.3 mm the operating envelope for 20%
Thickness 12.7 mm to 80% opening of the valve.
ID 115.9 mm References:
1. “Selected topics in upstream oil & gas
Table 5: Discharge pipe details for Graduate Engineers”, Ed 2, Vijay
Parameter Value Unit Jayanthi Sarathi.
2. “Flow of fluid through valves, fittings,
21/2 '' CS Sch-10 pipe pipe – metric ed” , Technical paper
Weight/m 5.26 kg No.410 by Crane.
OD 73 mm 3. “Handbook of hydraulic resistance”,
I.E Idel’Chik
Thickness 3.05 mm 4. ISO 13703 , NORSAK P001
ID 66.9 mm
pg. 4
Tharneshwar R