`Rule of Thumb' Pipe Velocities
`Rule of Thumb' Pipe Velocities
(OP)
Howdy All,
For water flow in pipe, anyone know of a source for `rule of thumb' (typical) maximum acceptable velocities in different kinds of pipe?
Thanks!
For water flow in pipe, anyone know of a source for `rule of thumb' (typical) maximum acceptable velocities in different kinds of pipe?
Thanks!





RE: `Rule of Thumb' Pipe Velocities
RE: `Rule of Thumb' Pipe Velocities
Yes, this question has been asked about a zillion times in this forum......
Perform a search and read some of the other responses.....
For water in carbon steel piping, the "sweet spot" of design is from 5 to 10 feet/second......this gives reasonable piping costs and reasonable pumping costs. Much higher velocities can cause erosion in systems of elevated temperature....... a lot depends on system tremperature....( See Crane Technical paper #410 for more details and a better explanation)
Stainless steel piping systems can tolerate higher velocities.....up to about 15 feet per second....as I recall
There are technical publications by the people who sell titanium tube an piping that talk about velocities to ~30 feet/second with no erosive effects.......but of course there are pumping versus capital costs
MJC
"There comes a time in the affairs of man when he must take the bull by the tail and face the situation." W.C. Fields
RE: `Rule of Thumb' Pipe Velocities
I tried the Advanced Search prior to posting the question, and thought that I was using the most extensive search by clicking on the `All' or `Any' word search...but kept getting the `Sorry' message. After 1969grad's response I tried searching again using every combination of wording that I could think of.....then by chance found several forums by clicking the `Exact Phrase' button. Maybe it is just me, but that does not quite seem right. I still appreciate the responses and find the site helpful.
Thanks!
RE: `Rule of Thumb' Pipe Velocities
The following velocities are recommended by the Heat Exchnage Institute for feed water passing through the tubes.
Stainless steel, Monel, Inconel - 3 m/s
Copper-nickel(70-30,80-20 and 90-10) - 2.7 m/s
Admiralty and copper - 2.6 m/s
Carbon steel - 2.4 m/s
Regards,
KMPillai
RE: `Rule of Thumb' Pipe Velocities
Thread124-3236
Thread164-42257
Thread194-33883
Thread307-39366
Thread378-2516
Thread378-18217
Thread378-30500
Thread378-64478
Thread378-69815
Thread407-69823
Thread483-42831
Thread605-33950
Good luck and Season Greetings to all participants.