Question

Why is maximum pipe size advantageous?

Answer 1

Fluid are pumped from one section of a plant (or from one equipment to other equipment) by the use of pumping devices such as in case of liquid by pumps. There is cost involved with the operation of these pumping devices in the form of electricity or power consumed.Power required by a pumping device depends upon differential pressure required to be generated by pumpng device. Higher the differential pressure, higher is power requirement. If pipe line size from discharge of pump to destination equipment is lower, pressure drop shall increase in pipeline & therefore higher head needs to be provided from pumping device which shall increase operating cost. Therefore, by increasing pipe size, head requirement & subsequent power requirement for a pumping device can be reduced. Therefore, maximum pipesize is advantageous. This is the biggest advantage of higher pipesize.

One more aspect to consider for higher pipe size is that, if pipe size is low then there may be a possibility of fluid crossing erosion velocity inside the pipe which in turn may lead to damage to pipe. Therefore, in this case also higher pipe size proves to be advantageous.

In some other scenario, if there is sufficient margins available in pipesizes (higher pipe sizes) in a plant then capacity enhancement of plant may also be done upto a certain limit without changing much of piping.