Trane Pipe Designer Tutorial Página 1 de 2

TRANE™ PIPE DESIGNER

Trane Pipe Designer Tutorial

If you're new to Trane Pipe Designer, take a few moments to work through this simple tutorial. It will acquaint you
with the program as you use it to determine the required pipe diameters and total pressure drop for a new piping
system.

Scenario

This schematic illustrates a simple, closed-loop piping system that will circulate 50°F water through steel pipes.
Each numbered node marks the beginning or end of a leg ; all lengths are expressed in feet. Click any valve to
identify its type. Use the program's default values as the maximum limits.

Complete the following instructions to size the piping for this system based on the auto balance method of
describing flow.

Solution

1. Start Trane Pipe Designer and click to open a new file.

2. On the File menu, click Save As. In the File Save As dialog box, type Tutorial.wp for the file name.
3. Compare the default values on the Design Conditions worksheet with the scenario described above. The
only change needed is to replace the Temperature entry (under Fluid Characteristics) with 50. Click Apply
to save this change.
4. Click the Piping System worksheet tab to begin defining each leg in the piping system, starting with the
pump and working in the direction of flow.

Based on the schematic, the first leg—Leg 1 of 1—extends from Node 1 (pump) to Node 2 (first diverging
tee). To describe it:

5. Click New Leg.

6. State where the leg begins and ends: type 1 for From Node No. and 2 for To Node No. (The Elevation

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change box is only available if you select Open Leg on this worksheet.) If desired, type an additional
identifier in the Leg Description box—for example, Home leg (from pump).
7. Identify the characteristics of Leg 1, including its valves and fittings. To do so, type 130 ft for Pipe Length,
25 ft wg for Added Pressure Drop: Other; 3 for Gate Valve, and 1 for Elbow.
8. Enter the selection criteria for sizing this leg of the piping system. Listed near the bottom of the Leg
Characteristics group, these entries let you specify the maximum nominal diameter, maximum fluid
velocity, and maximum pressure drop (ft wg) per 100 equivalent feet of pipe for the current leg. Note:
If Auto Copy is checked, the program will automatically copy these maximum limit values to each new leg
you create.
9. Click Apply to save your entries.

Legs can be defined in any order. For this example, let's describe the leg that extends from Node 2 through
Coil 1 to Node 5 next. Click New Leg to ready the worksheet; then:

10. As in Step 6, state that Leg 2 extends from node no. 2 to node no. 5. If you like, describe it as Coil 1 loop.
11. Identify Leg 2's characteristics in the same manner as Step 6. This time, type 80 ft for Pipe Length, 2 for
Gate Valve and 1 for Ball Valve. To describe the coil in this leg: type 70 gpm for Fluid Flow and 30 for
Flow Coefficient, Cv. Then select the Coil check box and enter a pressure drop of 15 ft wg. When
finished, click Apply to save your entries. Note: To represent a coil control valve, either enter its flow
coefficient (Cv) or count it under Valve/Fitting Qty. If you enter a Cv value and add it to the quantity, the
program double-counts the valve.
12. Define the five remaining legs in similar fashion; then click Calculate.

Trane Pipe Designer uses your entries to balance the system's mass flow rate, determine the flow rate through
each leg, and identify the optimum pipe sizing. When finished, it displays the Print Reports dialog box so that you
can print or preview the resulting reports.

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