Re: basic to know in piping

From: <umesh>
Date: Thu Jan 03 2008 - 01:35:00 EST

Dear Namrata,

Here is a copy of my mail i sent to this forum on 11th of Jan 2007. This mail intended for engineers/designer who start their first job in Piping. One thing you remember in this forum: “Always do your homework before asking any technical question”
Also visit the following web link which illustrates about "How to ask a Question?"
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

First few things you HAVE to do: 

A. Don’t throw away following books/notes of your Engineering collage..
1.       Mechanics & Strength of materials
2.       Engineering materials or Material science/engineering
3.       Hydraulics or fluid power dynamics
4.       Heat transfer & thermodynamics
5.       Machine design or Mechanical system design.
6.       Corrosion engineering (If you have that subject)
B. Visit a technical bookshop & buy/Collect the following technical books
             1. Process plant layout & piping design by roger hunt
I like it because it is simple & has good explanations.. 2. The piping guide by David R. sherwood & Dennis J. whistance I like it because it is more pictorial.. 3. Piping Handbook: Mohinder L. Nayyar
I like it because it has all the data at one place.. 4. Piping Handbook by S. Crocker, Reno Ceyton King This is like a bible. Collect it. You will know its importance in due time. 5. Piping and Pipe Support Systems: Design and Engineering by Paul R. Smith, Thomas J. Van Laan
This is to know basic of stress calc’s

    6. Casti Guidebook to ASME B31.3 : Process Piping by Glynn E. Woods This is to enter the ASME Code world… Visit the website below to have a look at piping related books.. http://www.spedweb.com/spedwebpublic/BookStore/BookStore.htm http://www.pipingdesign.com/books1.html

C. Whenever you want to know something about piping, “GOOGLE IT” on Internet, believe me you will find tons of documents/specifications/details.

Secondly few things you have to understand.. Part A: Defining scope of Piping engineering is quite difficult. Cause it is vast. Process piping, off shore piping, under ground piping, sub sea piping, cross country piping, Nuclear piping, Mineral industry piping, Lined piping, Low temp & high temperature piping. List goes on. Said that most probably you will enter process-piping field, so concentrate on Book no 6 mentioned above

Part B: Importance of piping, In case of normal plant (No specially built, high cost equipments) piping (design, engineering, erection, testing, rework etc) constitutes 30% to 45% plant total cost. Hence, if you use a good design & engineering practice, right away you could save 5% of plant cost (3% saving always exists). If you calculate this amount, it is huge & hence proper importance should be given to piping at all stages.

Part C: Importance and limitations of advanced 3D modeling tools. There are many 3D modeling software's used widely in the piping industry. PDS, PDMS, Bentley etc. Don’t rush to learn these software's thinking that that is Piping. If you get an opportunity learn it. They are good tools, but a tool is good only when the operator knows how to use it & how intelligently it can be used. If you know piping design, these tools are very handy other wise they are nothing.

Thirdly few areas of piping you should know, q Piping layout & design engineering – A guy specialized in this area is called “Piping Design Engineer” or “Piping designer”.. If you wish to be in this field, you need to be good at International codes, layout capability with a vision for daily operation, maintenance methods, erection, dismantling methods etc. This field need more common sense than hi-fi engineering skills. This field also include, Pre-bid engineering (Proposal engineering), Conceptual engineering, Basic engineering and Detail engineering (Don’t ask me what are these. You will know them in due time)
q Piping stress analysis – A guy specialized in this area is called “Piping stress Engineer” or “Piping flexibility engineer”. If you wish to be in this field, you need to be good at stress analysis skills using software line CAEPIPE, CAESER, AUTOPIPE etc
q Piping material & specifications engineering – A guy specialized in this area is called “Piping Material engineer” or “Piping Spec. Engineer”. If you wish to be in this field, you need to be good at materials & their properties, thorough knowledge of international codes (ASME/API/ASTM to name few), good knowledge of corrosion engineering & very good knowledge about proper use of valves & pipe fittings.
q Piping fabrication, erection & quality control engineering – A guy specialized in this area is called “Piping site engineer” or “Piping field engineer”. If you wish to be in this field, you need to be good at quality control skills (NDT/NDE inspections), work scheduling & progress monitoring skills, dealing with erection contractor on daily basis etc.

Don’t think that the above four fields are independent. They are interdependent. Even if you are in one of the above field, you need to know all the four fields very well to function as a good engineer. That’s why don’t make up your mind now itself for any one of the above fields.

Start with Layout & design, learn codes & materials, understand nature corrosion & erosion, learn basics pipe stress analysis & when you get an opportunity visit the plant site or a piping construction site.

Rgs,
Umesh Ken.BECHTEL AUSTRALIA,

hi

i have joined as a piping designer recently as a fresher.Can anyone help me to tell how to start with piping and what is the basic i should know in this.

thank you

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Received on Thu Jan 03 01:35:00 2008

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