`Rule of Thumb' Pipe Velocities 1

[coachk]

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!

 

[1969grad]

Cannot begin to count the number of times this same question has been asked and discussed before with numerous references to various sources. Suggest you do a keyword search on this forum.

 

[MJCronin]

coachk,

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

 

[coachk]

1969grad & mjcronin,

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!

 

[kmpillai]

Dear friend,
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

 

[25362]

A quick search on the subject showed the following threads that may be helpful:

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.