Energy
Steam Pipe Sizing Calculator
Calculate required steam pipe internal diameter from saturated-steam flow, pressure and target velocity.
Calculation assumes dry saturated steam at the entered pressure.
Select velocity according to your system design criteria. Lower velocities generally reduce pressure drop and noise.
Required Internal Diameter
—
Minimum internal diameter based on steam volumetric flow and selected velocity.
Required internal diameter
—
Required flow area
—
Steam specific volume
—
Steam volumetric flow
—
Target velocity
—
Reference pipe size
—
Reference internal diameter
—
Velocity at reference size
—
Steam pressure
—
Method:
Saturated-steam specific volume is estimated from an embedded pressure-property table and interpolated at the entered absolute pressure.
Steam volumetric flow is:
V̇ =
ṁ × v
where:
ṁ = steam mass flow rate
v = saturated-steam specific volume
Required flow area is:
A =
V̇ ÷ Velocity
Required internal diameter is:
D =
√(4A / π)
Pressure is converted internally to bar absolute. For gauge pressure, approximately 1.01325 bar atmospheric pressure is added.
The reference DN/NPS result uses representative Schedule 40 internal diameters only to identify the next listed pipe with an internal diameter equal to or greater than the calculated requirement.
Actual pipe internal diameter depends on nominal size, schedule, material and applicable piping standard. Final selection should therefore be checked using the actual pipe dimensions.
This calculator sizes pipe from velocity only. Final steam-piping design should also check pressure drop, pipe length, fittings, steam quality, condensate drainage, erosion, noise, water hammer, allowable pressure and applicable piping codes.
Superheated steam should use its actual specific volume rather than the saturated-steam values used by this calculator.
