DIVISION ENGINEERING

&
CONSTRUCTION

LINE SIZING PHILOSOPHY

CONTENTS

GLOSSARY 3

LIST OF DEFINITIONS AND TERMINOLOGY 4

Definitions 4
Terminology 4

1. INTRODUCTION 5
1.1 Foreword 5
1.2 Objectives 5
1.3 Scope of Document 5

2. BASIC DATA FOR LINE SIZING 6

2.1. Standard Pipe Sizes 6
2.2. Minimum Piping Diameters 6
2.3. Pipe Absolute Roughness 6
2.4. Pipe Fitting Equivalent Length 6
2.5. Design Margin 6

3. SIZING CRITERIA FOR SINGLE PHASE LIQUID LINES 7

3.1. Maximum Fluid Velocities 7
3.2. Liquids Flowing By Pressure 8
3.3. Gravity Flow Lines 9

4. SIZING CRITERIA FOR SINGLE PHASE GAS LINES 11

4.1. General 11
4.2. Maximum Velocities 11
4.3. Recommended Pressure Drops 12
4.4. Utility Gases 12

5. SIZING CRITERIA FOR GAS/LIQUID TWO PHASE

LINES 13
5.1. Erosional Velocity 13

6. SIZING CRITERIA FOR RELIEF LINES 14

6.1. Flare Headers and Sub Headers 14
6.2. Individual Relief Lines and Tail Pipes 15

7. REFERENCES 16

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GLOSSARY

The following terms are generic to each Project and may be referred to in this
document:

CCR Central Control Room

CPF Central Processing Facility
EPC Engineering, Procurement and Construction
HP High Pressure
KO Knock out
LP Low Pressure
LPG Liquefied Petroleum Gas
LER Local Equipment Room
SH Sonatrach

The following terms are referred to in this document:

API: American Petroleum Institute

DP: Differential Pressure
FEED: Front End Engineering Design
NPSH Net Positive Suction Head
PSV Pressure Safety Valve
SS Stainless Steel

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LIST OF DEFINITIONS AND TERMINOLOGY

Definitions

The following definitions are generic to each Project and may be referred to in this
document:

Company SONATRACH
Contractor The contractor selected by the Company to carry out the
engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning
(EPC) of those elements of the project and includes the
Contractor's personal representative, successors and
permitted assignees.
Subcontractor The subcontractor assigned a portion of the EPC contract by
Contractor as allowable.

Terminology

The word “shall” is to be understood as a mandatory requirement.

The word “may” is to be understood as an action to be undertaken at the Contractor’s

discretion.

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1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Foreword

This document represents the Sonatrach (SH) Operational Philosophy

1.2 Objectives

The primary objective of this document is to provide guidance to discipline engineers

in progressing a conceptual design through to detailed design,

1.3 Scope of Document

The purpose of this document is to outline the methods and design criteria to be used
for sizing process and utility lines.. These guidelines should be used in conjunction
with other project process design philosophies.

Line sizing must satisfy both pressure drop and flow velocity requirements. In
general, the more onerous condition of the two will dictate the line size. Consideration
shall also be given to erosion, corrosion and noise criteria.

The line sizing criteria have also been developed with the aim of providing optimal
sizing (minimise lifecycle cost), thus preventing excessive cost, weight and space
requirements of installed piping.

The criteria should not to be applied as fixed rules without regard to sound
engineering judgement. In addition, deviations are acceptable where they can be
justified.

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2. BASIC DATA FOR LINE SIZING

2.1. Standard Pipe Sizes

The following non-standard line sizes will not be used for in-plant pipework:

1¼", 2½", 3½", 5", 7", 9"

2.2. Minimum Piping Diameters

The following guidelines should be applied:

2" NB Minimum nozzle size for vessels, tanks, heat exchangers.

2" NB Minimum process (hydrocarbon) line size.
¾" NB Minimum utility line size.
¾" NB Minimum bridle drain or pump casing vent / drain.
½" NB Minimum chemical injection tubing size to be 10 mm.
1½" NB Minimum on pipe rack.
4" NB Minimum for (wrapped and coated) underground lines. Below 4" to be sleeved.

2.3. Pipe Absolute Roughness

For pressure drop calculations, the following roughness values will be used for the
selected material:

Material Roughness (mm)

Carbon Steel (un-corroded) 0.045
Carbon Steel Flare Headers (Corroded) 0.5
Stainless Steel, Duplex, CuNi, 6Mo, Titanium 0.045
GRP and GRE 0.02
Galvanised or epoxy lined pipe 0.15
Open drain lines 0.25
Cement lined lines 2.0
Polyethylene, PVC 0.005
Flexible hose Consult Vendor

2.4. Pipe Fitting Equivalent Length

Where detailed pressure drop calculations are performed, pipe fitting equivalent
lengths will be taken from refs. 1-3.

2.5. Design Margin

The design margins for piping rated capacity are listed in Process Basis of Design
other margin shall be applied for pressure drop calculations.

Inlet and discharge piping and valves shall be at a minimum the same size as the
machinery inlet nozzle. Larger pipe sizes than the machinery nozzle are acceptable.

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3. SIZING CRITERIA FOR SINGLE PHASE LIQUID LINES

3.1. Maximum Fluid Velocities

3.1.1. Materials
The maximum allowable fluid velocities depend on the piping material and are
summarised below in Table 3.1. These criteria are for normally sand free liquids.

Table 3.1 - Maximum Allowable Velocities

Maximum Velocity
Pipe Nominal (m/s)
Diameter
Carbon Steel and Stainless Steel /
GRP Duplex
<2” 2 2
2" 2 2
3" 2.5 2.5
4" 3 3
6" 4 4
8" 5 5
>8" 6 (5 For GRP) 7

When the service is intermittent the maximum velocities specified in Table 3.1 can be
increased, provided that water hammer is not a problem.
Where solids are expected, a minimum velocity of 0.8 m/s should be maintained to
avoid solids deposition. For erosional velocity limits refer to section 5.1.
Pressure drop criteria and additional velocity constraints for specific cases are
summarised in the following sections.

3.1.2. Pumped Liquids

The available NPSH must be checked for all pump suction lines and if available the
pump vendor’s recommendation shall be considered before the line size is finalised.

Centrifugal Pumps
The maximum allowable velocities and unit pressure drop for pump suction and
discharge lines are summarised in Table 3.2.

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 Table 3.2 - Maximum Allowable Velocities and Pressure Drops for Pump
Suction and Discharge Lines

Pipe Allowable Pressure Drop Maximum Velocity m/s

Nominal
bar/100m
Diameter
Pump Suction Pump Pump Pump
Discharge Suction Discharge
Boiling Fluid Sub-Cooled
Fluid
1-3” 0.011-0.045 0.045-0.136 0.226-0.339 1.1 1.8
4" 0.011-0.045 0.045-0.136 0.226-0.339 1.4 2.4
6" 0.011-0.045 0.045-0.136 0.226-0.339 1.5 3.0
8" 0.023-0.045 0.113-0.226 0.339-0.453 1.8 4.3
>10" 0.023-0.045 0.113-0.226 0.339-0.453 1.8 4.9

Reciprocating Pumps
Due to pulsation and acceleration effects, lower flowing velocities are required
(compared to centrifugal pumps). The acceleration head effect is proportional to pipe
length, velocity, pump speed and a factor depending on the number of plungers in the
pump (the acceleration effect decreases as the number of plungers is increased).
Installation of pulsation dampers on both the suction and the discharge lines is to be
considered and can potentially eliminate suction acceleration head losses. The data
in Table 3.3 is based on a single plunger pump, and should be used for estimating
purposes only.

API RP14E [ref. 3] can also be used for design engineering.

Table 3.3 - Maximum Velocity for Reciprocating Pumps

Speed Maximum Velocity (m/s)

(rpm) Pump Suction Pump Discharge
< 250 0.6 1.8
250 – 300 0.5 1.4
> 300 0.3 0.9

3.2. Liquids Flowing By Pressure

Generally, these lines will be sized on the maximum velocity limits shown in Table
3.1. However, the actual pressure drop should not exceed 35% of the driving
pressure when the flow rate is controlled by a control valve. For liquids at, or close to
the bubble point, flashing upstream of control valves should be minimised and a
maximum velocity of 4.6 m/s is recommended.

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3.3. Gravity Flow Lines

To prevent solids deposition in sewage and open drain lines, the minimum flow
velocities listed in Table 3.4 are required.

Table 3.4 - Minimum Velocity in Gravity Flow Lines

Service Minimum Velocity (m/s)

Sanitary drains 0.8
Oily water drains (open drains) 0.9
Other drains 1.1

Drain lines will in general be a minimum 2" and a minimum 4" for lines containing dirty
fluid and for drain headers.

For near horizontal piping, gas entrainment will be avoided by designing for partially
full pipes. The line capacity can be calculated from:

Q = VL A (3-1) [ref. 1]

where:
A = actual inner cross sectional area in the pipe (m2) x 0.5 (50% of
pipe is liquid full) or 0.8045 (75% of pipe is liquid full).
Q = Line Capacity (m3/s).
VL =Flow Velocity (m/s) calculated from:
    0.22 * 
VL  32 * g * rh * i * log10     (3-2) [ref. 6]
 14.8 * rh 
  rh * g * rh * i 

where:
g = gravity, m/s2
rh = hydraulic radius, m
i = inclination, m/m ( 1 : 100  i = 0.01 )
 = pipe roughness, m (use 0.00025 m)
 = kinematic viscosity of the flowing liquid, m²/s

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and:

For pipes larger than or equal to 8", design for 75% (in diameter) full of liquid:

rh = 0.3017*d (3-3) [ref. 6]

For pipes less than 8", design for 50% full of liquid:

rh = 0.25 *d (3-4) [ref. 6]

where:

d = actual inner diameter, m

It is important to avoid air entrainment in self-venting vertical lines because it causes

the flow to surge cyclically, causes vibrations and hence reduces line capacity. To
allow the gas to flow counter current to the liquid, and hence avoid the undesired
effect, the lines will be designed such that a Froude number less than 0.3 is achieved
for lines with continuous flow.

Expression for Froude no:

½
Fr = v / (g d) (3-5)

For design of lines with continuous flow, Fr < 0.3:

½
v < 0.94 d (3-6)

where:

Fr = Froude no.
v = velocity, m/s
d = inside diameter, m
g = gravitational acceleration, m/s2

Vertical overflow lines will be sized on the basis of Fr < 1.0.

Drainage of deluge water from drain boxes through vertical lines will be sized on the
basis of 50% of the available head (assuming the pipe running full of liquid), with a
roughness factor of 0.25 mm.
Vertical headers shall as a minimum have the same size as any sub-headers feeding
the vertical header in order to avoid pressure surge into the sub headers.

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4. SIZING CRITERIA FOR SINGLE PHASE GAS LINES

These criteria exclude flare and vent lines.

4.1. General

When sizing gas lines the sizing criteria will be a compromise between the maximum
velocity (Section 4.2) and allowable pressure drop (Section 4.3). Where pressure
drop is not critical the requirements in Section 4.2 should be used. Where the
pressure drop is critical, the recommendation in Section 4.3 should be used. The
pressure drop is considered critical when:

 The cost increase due to additional power requirement is larger than the
potential cost savings due to reduced pipe diameter.
 It results in unacceptable liquid drop out in suction lines e.g. between KO
drum and compressor suction, inlet lines to turbo-expanders and upstream
glycol contactors.

Piping with gas at the dewpoint and/or with some droplets shall be designed as gas
lines.

4.2. Maximum Velocities

In lines where pressure drop is not critical (See Section 4.1), gas velocity shall not
exceed limits which may create noise or vibration problems (for erosional velocity
criteria for 2 phase lines refer to section 5.1). As a rule of thumb, the velocity should
be kept below:

Vmax = 175*-0.43 (4-1)[ref. 13]

or 60m/s, whichever is lowest

where;
Vmax = velocity m/s.
 = density of gas kg/m3

To avoid excessive noise, the valve manufacturer should be consulted for line sizing
and arrangement upstream and downstream pressure control valves
For compressor anti-surge lines the constant 175 in the formula above may be
replaced with 200 during process upsets, if the noise level is acceptable. However,
during normal compressor recycle, the velocity shall be limited to the velocity as given
by the equation above.

Special attention shall be given to particle erosion if solid particles are present.

4.2.1. Fluids Containing Corrosion Inhibitor

With corrosion inhibited fluids in carbon steel piping, the velocity should be limited to
a maximum of 20 m/s.

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4.3. Recommended Pressure Drops

Where pressure drop is critical (see Section 4.1) the guidelines in Table 4.1 [ref.13]
should be used. The pressure drop should be pro-rated between the operating
pressures given.

Table 4.1 - Maximum Pressure Drop for Single Phase Gas Process Lines

Operating Pressure (Pop) Allowable DP

(bara) (bar / 100m)
Less than 1.03 bara 0.01 to 0.06
1.03 - 7 bara 0.06 to 0.13
7 - 70 bara 0.13 to 0.5
Over 70 bara 0.5+0.2%(Pop-70)

4.4. Utility Gases

For plant air, instrument air and inert gas distribution, the maximum pressure drop to
be used is 0.1 bar / 100 m. The maximum flowing velocity is as given in Section 4.1,
but also giving consideration to the noise criteria for the line.

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5. SIZING CRITERIA FOR GAS/LIQUID TWO PHASE LINES

5.1. Erosional Velocity

Lines, which exhibit two-phase flow, are designed in accordance with API RP 14E.
This design approach assumes fluids are sand free.

Va,max < ve

ve = C /  a (5-1) [ref. 3]

where:

Va,max = Max permitted actual velocity, ft/s

a = Average density of multiphase stream, lb/ft3
ve = Erosional Velocity
C = Empirical constant
(C = 100 for continuous service & 125 for intermittent service)

As these constants are considered to be conservative, where no solids are present,

they can be modified using the following factors: (ref. 14)

Carbon Steel C1 = C x 1.35

Stainless Steel C1 = C x 1.86
13% Cr. Stainless Steel C1 = C x 2.0
Duplex Stainless Steel & Austenitic SS C1 = C x 2.36

But consider 25% higher value of C for lines in intermittent or temporary service.

A factor of 0.8 is to be applied to de-rate for sand production, and should be applied
as appropriate. For critical process lines, the actual pressure drop shall be calculated
to check with available pressure drop.

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6. SIZING CRITERIA FOR RELIEF LINES

The sizing of all individual relief lines must be fully analysed in Detailed Engineering
to provide an optimum system design of header sizing and back pressures.

Roughness of carbon steel pipework of 0.5mm (corroded) to be used for flare

headers (section 2.3).
All flare lines (including headers, sub-headers and individual relief lines and tail pipes)
shall be designed to v2 <200,000 kg/m.s2.

6.1. Flare Headers and Sub Headers

Reference should be made to API RP 520 [ref. 8] and API RP 521 [ref. 7].

The flowing velocity in flare headers will be a nominal maximum of 0.5 mach.

The flowing velocity in sub-headers and tail pipes will be normally less than 0.7 Mach.

Sonic velocity is calculated using:

105 * k * P
Sonic velocity: C (6-1)

where:

C = Sonic velocity, m/s

k = Cp / Cv
P = Pressure, bara
 = Density, kg/m3
Mach no = velocity/C (6-2)

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6.2. Individual Relief Lines and Tail Pipes

6.2.1. Pressure Safety Valve Lines

The inlet line size must be at least the size of the PSV inlet nozzle, and the pressure
loss must be less than 3% of the gauge set pressure of the PSV at valve full flow
capacity. For a preliminary estimate, v2 should be less than 200,000 kg/m.s2.

Calculations should consider maximum rated flow based on relief valve installed area
and not just the design relieving rate.
The maximum PSV back pressure should be less than 10% of the set pressure for a
conventional (spring loaded) valve, and 30-50% for a balanced or pilot operated
valve.

The flowing velocity in the line from the PSV to the downstream header should be a
maximum of 0.7 mach. Sonic velocity must be avoided by stepwise increasing the
pipe size. The actual back pressure at the PSV outlet must be checked to be
consistent with back pressure limitations.

Acoustic induced vibration fatigue must be considered for large relief flow rates.

6.2.2. Controlled Flaring

The flowing velocity in controlled flaring lines downstream of compressors or in
connection with any other equipment should be maximum 0.5 mach.

During controlled flaring events, care should be taken to avoid unacceptable

backpressure on the production equipment.

Acoustic induced vibration fatigue must be considered for large controlled flaring
lines.

6.2.3. Depressurisation and Blowdown Lines

Design of the lines upstream of the restriction orifice shall be based on a flow velocity
that gives v2 < 200,000 kg/m.s2. The blowdown line size and orifice shall be sized
based on the peak depressurisation flowrate from the blowdown analysis..

The flow velocity downstream the restriction device shall be maximum 0.7 mach.

If the line is in frequent use (maintenance) a lower maximum flow rate to reduce the
noise level should be considered. The same applies to pipeline blowdown system.

The design (size, velocity and material) should be consistent with ref. 15

Acoustic induced vibration fatigue must be considered for large depressurisation

lines.

6.2.4. Multiphase Relief Lines

Multiphase relief lines should be sized based on the following criteria:

 Potential slug/plug flow: Vmax < 50 m/s

 Homogenous flow: v < 200,000 kg/m.s2
2

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7. REFERENCES

1. Flow of Fluids through Valves, Fittings and Pipe, Crane Technical Paper 410.
2. Gas Processors Suppliers Association (GPSA) - Engineering Data Book, 1980.
3. API RP14E, Recommended Practice for Design and Installation of Offshore
Production Platform Piping Systems, Fifth Edition, October 1, 1991.
4. Pressure Drop for Flow of Fluids in Round Pipe, L. Friend & L. Samiloff.
5. Chemical Engineering Series - "Practical Piping Design"
6. Designing Piping for Gravity Flow, P. D. Hills, Chemical Engineering, 5 September
1983.
7. Guide for Pressure Relieving and Depressuring Systems, API RP 521, 5th Edition
- January 2007
8. API RP 520, Sizing, Selection, and Installation of Pressure-Relieving Devices in
Refineries, Part II, Fifth Edition, August 2003.
9. Evaluation of API RP 14E, Erosional Velocity Limitation for Offshore Gas Wells,
OTS paper 4485, 1993.
10. API RP 2000, Venting Atmospheric and Low Pressure Storage Tanks, Non-
Refrigerated and Refrigerated, Fifth Edition, April 1998
11. NFPA Appendix A
12. "Alternate to Standard Friction Factor Equation", Oil & Gas Journal April 1 1985.
13. NORSOK Standard, Process Design, Document No. P-001, Rev. 4, Oct. 1999.
14. Salama, M.M., and Venktash, E.S., "Evaluation of API RP 14E Erosional Velocity
Limitations for Offshore Gas Wells," Paper no. OTC 4485, 15th Offshore
Technology Conference, Houston 1983
15. Sonatrach Operational Philosophy: Relief, Blowdown and Venting, A-014-01-2005
Relief

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