PIPING AND VALVES ECOPETROL INSTITUTO COLOMBIANO DEL PETROLEO Centro de Informacion Téeniea Line sizing for gravity flow piping Understand the principles to avoid problems F.C. Yu, Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc., Houston, Texas ravity flow is common in many industrial plants, since it provides an inexpensive method of transferring liquids. It relies on elevation and/or pressure difference to move liquid. Examples are liquid flow from a total condenser to a reflux drum, inlet piping toa thermosyphon reboiler, or simply liquid flow from an elevated vessel to a vessel below it. Hills! presented some design equations and curves for gravity flow piping full or partially full of liquid. However, the theoretical basis for these equations and curves is not apparent. Theoretical basis: A typical gravity flow scenario is shown in Fig. 1. Liquid flows from equipment V-1 to V-2. V-1 or V-2 may be a vessel or a heat exchanger. Operating pressure and temperature of V-1 is PO (psig) and 70 ("Fahrenheit) and for V-2, they are P2 and 72. V- Lis at a higher elevation than V-2. Liquid level in V-1 is HO (feet) and the elevation of V-2 inlet nozzle is H2 relative to grade. Elevation at the entrance of the liquid piping is, Hl, also relative to grade. Operating pressure and tem- perature at this point is Pl and 71. Liquid flows from V- 1 to V-2 by liquid elevation and/or pressure difference. ‘The system under study is the liquid piping from the bottom nozzle of'V-1 to the inlet nozzle at V2, as enveloped by the dotted line in Fig, 1. Hardware of this system are piping and elbows. System equations: The following assumptions are made for this system: ‘It isin steady-state operation. Pressures PO, Pl and 2 are assumed to be constant. ‘* Flow in piping is full of liquid. # Liquid density is constant. This implies that 70, T1 and T2 are equal and there is no liquid flashing. © There is no pipe size change ‘The steady-state material balance of this system is: W1-W2=0 a) W1 is the inlet flowrate and W2 is the outlet flowrate, in Ibyhr: Therefore, Wi equals W2. ‘The steady-state mechanical energy balance of this sys- tem is; (Vig + H1 +144 PUld) Wi ~(V22/2g +H2+144 P2d) W2= EB @ LSU SSNS Fig. 1. Liquid flows by gravity from V-1 to V-2. V1 and V2 are inlet and outlet liquid velocity in the pipe, in ft/sec.; g is the gravitational constant, 32.174 ft/sec’; d is the liquid density, in Th/ft® and i is the system friction loss, in ft-lbffhr. Since mass flow through the system is constant and there is no pipe size change, liquid velocity throughout the system is the same. In other words, V1 equals V2. Friction loss for the system consists of entrance loss, line loss and exit loss. E can be expressed by: B= W (V32g) (kl + (LID + k2) @ #1 and k2 are the K factors at pipe entrance and exit. k1 equals 0.78 and £2 equals 1.0.2 is the total equivalent pipe length excluding the entrance and oxit elfect in ft. Dis the pipe diameter in ft. fis the Darey friction factor: V equals V1 or V2. W equals W1 or W2. Now Eq. 2can be simplified as: (HL —H2) + 144 (PL - P2V/d = V/2g (.784fLID) (4) Eq. 4 can be further simplified to Eq. 6 using Eqs. 5a, 5b and de: V= W/(3,600A d) (a) A=PI(D*V/4 (5b) X= (H1—H2)+ 144 (P1-P2yd (5c) Where P1 equals the constant 3.14159 and A is the pipe cross sectional area in ft”. X is the total driving force for the gravity flow in ft. Continued HYDROCARBON PROCESSING / NOVEMBER 1997 98Table 4, Complete turbulence friction factors for different pipe size Pipe diameter, in. Darcy friction factor 10 0.023, 15 0.021 20 0.019 30 0.018 40 0.017 60 0.015 30-100 0.014 120-160 0.013 0.012 D=(W°*) (1.78 + fLID)9% (150.6 d°5 X05) 6) From Eq. 6, it is found that for a fixed L/D and friction factor, pipe diameter is proportional to the square root of flowrate, and inversely proportional to the square root of the liquid density and one-fourth power of the gravity flow driving force. Line sizing for full liquid flow. After the piping designers have decided where to install V-1 and V-2, HO, Hand H2 are known. PO and P2 are determined by the process engineer. P1 can be calculated by: P1=P0+d (HO- H1y/i44 (a) ‘Therefore, X can be calculated using: X = (HO-H2)+ 144 (PO-P2Vd (7b) ‘The unknowns in Eq. 6 are reduced to three variables: D, Land f, An iteration procedure is required to find the D. Start by estimating a value for D. L canbe found from a piping isometric drawing by converting elbows to equiv- ‘alent pipe length. Most gravity flow lines operate in the turbulent flow region and ‘Table 1 can be used to esti- mate f? If calculated D (left side of Eq. 6) is different from the estimated D (right side of Eq. 6), a new esti- mated D closer to the calculated D should be used. It ation continues until there is no difference in the esti- mated and the calculated D. ‘Another way to estimate preliminary pipe size is by ‘assuming f equals 0.015 and by estimating L/D . A pre- liminary D can be calculated by: D= Wa d°5X°*) (Ba) a = 150.6178 + fL/D) (8b) For L/D = 100, a = 111.9081; for L/D = 250, a = 98.2084; for L/D = 500, a = 86.2865; for L/D = 1,000, a = 74.4101. ‘The final pipe size calculation should use Eq. 6 with the friction factor obtained from Moody’s friction factor graph. Friction factor can also be calculated using equa- tions developed by Churchill or Chen.* Self venting design. From Simpson's article,* if the liquid in V-1 is irrotational, when its liquid level is less than a certain height vapor will be sucked into the liquid flow. (Rotational and irrotational flow are discussed in discus sion item 3.) An estimation of this critical liquid level was derived theoretically by Harleman and others.* Compar- ing to available experimental data, Harleman's estimation is conservative. Harleman’s equation is shown in Ea. 9. 400 HYDROCARBON PROCESSING / NOVEMBER 1997 Vig D)* = 3.24 (D)* @ ‘his the liquid level height from liquid level in V-1 to its bottom head in ft. The term on the left-hand side of Eq. 9 is the Froude number. Rearranging Eq. 9, h can be calculated directly by: h =D (Vig D)*/3.24)4 ao) Eq. 10 can be used to estimate h. Below this liquid level, h, in V-l, vapor will start to be entrained into liquid flow. ‘Simpson pointed out that experimental work (on “rin. pipe by Simpson and on 1-in. to 4-in. pipes by Webb) found that if Froude number in a pipe is less than 0.31, any entrained vapor will not be carried away by the liquid flow, but will be vented back to V-1. On the other hand, if the Froude number is greater than 0.31, any entrained vapor will be swept away by the liquid flow. For Froude numbers between 0.31 and 1.0 (for 2-in. pipe by Webb), pulsation {low (two-phase flow) was observed in the pipe. The largest pulsation amplitude happened at Froude number 1.0. Based on Simpson and Webb's experiments, if line is sized so that its Froude number is less than 0.31, the vapor will not be entrained into the liquid flow. This is the basis, for self-venting gravity flow line design. Example: A liquid stream flows from V-1 to V-2. Its flowrate {is 278,560 lb/hr. Its density is 56.8 Ibm/¥? and its viscosity 4s 0.254 ep. Available static head (HO-H2) is 5.5 ft and the ‘pressure difference (P0-P2) is 1.28 psi. From the piping iso- metric drawing, equivalent length is 300 ft for 6-in. piping. Calculate the line size required for gravity flow. W = 278, 550 Ibhr d= 56.8 Ibi? L = 300 ft (for 6-in. piping) (1) Full liquid flow line sizing: From Eq, 7b, =5.5+ 144 (1.28)/56.8 = 8.745 ft Assume 6-in. schedule 10 stainless steel piping, D = 6.357-in. and f= 0.015 From Eq. 8b, a = 84.117 From Eq, 8a, D = 0.4841 ft = 5.809 in. ‘Therefore, the assumption of using 6-in. piping is still valid For 6-in. 510 pipe, Reynolds number = 1,091,300 From Moody's friction factor graph, f= 0.0197 From Eq. 8b, @ = 79.410 From Eq, 8a, D = 0.5128 ft = 6.154 in. ‘Therefore, for a full liquid flow design, 6-in. piping can be used. (2) For self-venting line sizing: Fluid velocity, pressure drop and Froude number are calculated for several different pipe sizes. Results are: Pipe size, Fluid velocity, Froude filsec number 6 6.18 1.496 8 3.60 0.760 10 2.30 0.435 12 163 0.283 For self-venting design, the line size shall be 12 in., since the Froude number is less than 0.31. Discussion: 1. Two methods are developed for sizing gravity flow line for subeooled liquid or any liquid flow without flash-ing. One is based on full liquid flow using Eq. 6 and the other is based on self-venting of entrained vapor to keep the Froude number less than 0.31. Line size using full liquid flow design will be smaller than the self-venting design. 2. The self-venting design method of a gravity flow line is based on Simpson and Webb's experimental work # Simp- son's experimental apparatus was a three ft'%ein. pipe with- out elbows, Webbs experimental apparatus, as sketched in ‘Simpson's paper, had three elbows and a vent at the last elbow of the tested piping. Neither apparatus was exactly the same as the piping system shown in Fig, 1. More exper- imental work needs to be done to verify Simpson's postulation and its validity in sizing a gravity flow line as in Fig, 1. 3. In many cases, liquid in V-1 is rotational like a whirlpool. A vapor core is formed at the center of the whirlpool and propagates through the outlet piping to V- 2, Simpson mentioned that rotational flow in V-1 is usu- ally unpredictable and the force to cause rotational flow in V-1is usually very weak. A tangential nozzle at V-1 will cause rotational flow in it. Sometimes a downstream cen- trifugal pump will initiate rotational flow in V-1. Fortu- nately, rotational flow vapor core can be easily eliminated by using an inexpensive vortex breaker, For cases where the liquid in V-1 is irrotational, liquid flow in piping will be maintained only if the liquid level in V-1is above the liquid level caleulated by Eq. 10. How- ever, most gravity flow lines do not have level control devices. During turndown or upset conditions, it is possi- ble that liquid level in V-1 will drop below the one caleu- lated by Eq, 10 and two-phase flow will result in the down- stream piping. The same situation will happen when V-1 Geared ACTUATORS & POSITIONING SYSTEMS FOR REFINERY FCCU VALVES BAFCO HAS 16 YEARS OF FCCU UP-GRADE EXPERIENCE FOR VALVE ACTUATION SYSTEMS CONTACT BAFCO To COMPLETE YOUR FCC CONTROL UP-GRADE PLANNING BAFCO, INC. TGS US LS Arm ee Circle 114 402 is a condenser that is not designed to accumulate liquid Depending on the amount of vapor entrained in the down- stream piping, flow may be in the slug flow region and cause vibration problems, ‘Ag of now, we should use the full liquid flow design method to size a gravity flow line if vapor entrainment to V- 2is tolerable. For cases where liquid in V-1 is irrotational and the liquid level in V-1 may drop below that ealeulated by Eq, 10, or for cases where the liquid in V-1 is rotational, it is recommended to size the gravity flow piping based on the full liquid flow design method plus add a vortex breaker at the liquid outlet nozzle at V-1. This design provides the least expensive installation. Only when vapor entrainment to V-2 is not tolerablo should the self-venting design method be used to size the gravity flow line. Hills! mentioned that during the cycle between two- phase and full liquid flow of a gravity flow line, a vacuum will be created in V-1 and cause damage to V-1. This ean be avoided using an equalizing line between V-1 and V-2. 4, If liquid flow varies during operation, pipe size shall be based on the maximum expected flowrate. This will ensure that line sized for full liquid flow always has enough driving force, and line sized for self venting will always work in self-venting mode. Calculated line size shall be rounded to the next pipe size 5, Manual iteration of line size based on the full liquid flow design method can be avoided by using computer soft- ware. Computer programming of line size based on the self-venting design method is straightforward. NOMENCLATURE aconstant used in Eq. 8a liquid density, Ib/ft* pipe diameter, ft friction loss, ft-lbf/hr friction factor gravitational constant, 32.174 sec? A. Tiquid level in vessel V-1, ft setae HO0,H1,H2 — clevations shown in Fig. 1, ft A1,k2 _K factor at pipe entrance and exit L pipe equivalent length excluding entrance and exit effect, ft P0,P1,P2__ pressure shown in Fig. 1, psig or Toffin.? (g) 70,T1,T2 temperature shown in Fig. 1, degree Fahrenheit V,V1, V2 liquid velocity in pipe, f/see W, W1, W2__ liquid flowrate in pipe, Ib/hr X gravity flow driving force, ft “ils, PD, Chemical Bratvering, Sop, 5,186, 2 "Flow of ate treagh valves, ngs, al pipe ® Jonna, W'S, Iadacion toed moshanit, Zn edton, PWS Engtoeering Pula on 220 1 Simjeor, lL, Chemin Baginring, June 17, 1960, 191 The author Frank ©. Yu is a senior process engineer at Jacobs Engineering Group, inc., Houston, Texas. His speciality is process design. He holds a BS degree from Tunghai University, an MS degree from the University of Massachusetts, and a PhD degree from the University of Texas at Austin, all in. chemical engineering.