Sizing Pipes and Lines for a Water Supply

You can't. You need to know the flowrate and operating pressure to select a pump.

"how can i size up the main pipelines and distribution lines if i have a 2 150 cubic meter storage tank and operating at 2o psi max?"

Not enough information for intelligent answers.

Need a diagram or layout of pipelines and distribution lines with lengths of all lines. Is that one tank of 2,150 Cu.M. or two tanks of 150 Cu.M. each? Is it a gravity feed system or pumped?

it is two tanks of 150 cu.m. it is a gravity feed system. i have two bullet tanks on the roof.

"it is two tanks of 150 cu.m. it is a gravity feed system. i have two bullet tanks on the roof."

I am not acquainted with "Bullet Tanks." I assume this a household water system. If so pipe the whole house with 1" pipe and it will be adequate if not quite like a pressurized system.

this design is for a food production plant water supply.

If the "bullet" tank water system is low quality water with a possibility for sedimentation I would recommend selecting higher velocity flow rates (smaller pipe diameters) to prevent the sediment from settling in the pipe and causing problems.

If the water is high quality with minimal impurities, I would recommend a low flow rate to minimize pressure drop. Clean water should not cause sedimentation in the piping system.

just buy a design software... or use charts for pipe sizing it would be easier.. nowadays, only few engineers can do manual calculations for design... most rely on softwares.

I agree with 1" pipe! However if you are running the pipe over 20' then you need larger pipe! If you are using the water continuely you need larger pipe!

How long r your runs and what is the actual application? water/gas/????????

It is not enough data. Do you use a pump from water tank? Or The tank supplies directly water to e.g houses, valve,..... I think with 2150 M3, there is a pump from this water tank. So, need more data: pressure of pump (not of tank), or the heigth from tank to the highest place that water flow to, flow rate of all of consumption places.

If the guy has a 2150m3 tank that is the size of a large building then he may need professional help, and may need to give more data. As he is only working @20psi (2.5bar) not a high pressure, I think we can assume otherwise.

For 2 x 150m3 tanks with not to long runs put in 1" or 25mm pipes, if necessary, go for plastic as it is cheap, can take that pressure, and can be installed easily, and is less liable to be stolen then copper pipe. PVC can be glued and accessories are cheaper then other fittings.

Based on your description, the maximum pressure you will obtain will be during static conditions. Therefore, as long as your tanks are not greater than 46 feet above your service point, you will have no issue not exceeding you maximum pressure.

I don't believe that is all the parameters you are concerned about. I believe you need to provide the delivery rate of the water the minimum pressure that the maximum supply can be delivered at. Then we can make a stab at giving you rough sizes. It sure would help to have a set of layout plans.

As previous replies indicated. There is insufficient data here to answer your request.

If however, you have trully supplied all the requirements, then I suggest you use 3/4-inch diameter irrigation (HDPE) line. It will be the cheapest. Don't be angry if the water doesn't come out fast enough for your intended purpose.

In response to your last para, 3/4" (19mm) pipe is OK, but if your worried about delivery of water go the extra mile and use 1" (25mm). The only problem with HDPE piping is that the fittings are more expensive, but they can be reused.

you can purchase pipe sizing programs here www.eng-software.com/products/pipeflo/professional/2007New.aspxh#isometric_grids_&smarttext

For water you owe it to yourself to do at least a few hand calcs.

1. Take your water use requirement and double it

2. Determine how much of this supply your tank can fill, hours/day, days/week etc

3. Size the pipes at 6 fps

4. Ask for capital to modify source water and storage if needed

Note. Always make anything you bury twice or more of the proposed capacity. It is much more expensive to come back later and upgrade capacity of delivery system components.

Dear you, I use one small software called "Instrucalc" it is free in the net...

But if you want we can do some calculations for you, in order to run this we need to know data as follows:

1. Fluid rate: m3/day

2. Height of the point one (starting the pipeline)

3. Height of the point two (ending the pipeline)

4. Due the fluid is water: we know the viscosity

5. Due the fluid is water the temperature is not very variable; but you must say the operating ambient pesimist temperature in order to calculate a realy approximate viscosity.

6.DISTANCE: this data is very important (between point one and point two)

7.Do you have more restriction about pressure at the end, It means do you have a high pressure at the end of the pipeline or you have te atmospheric pressure?

Please answer all of this and we can help you more,

Maritza

If you go to www.kypipe.com you can download free version that will work for small jobs. This is a civil type project not a mechanical one. You will need some additional information to design this unless it is a stand along system. If not you will need flow test for the static (pressure at 0 GPM) and the residual (pressure at a measured flow) at the places you are tying to.

So where are you working that requires you to mix metric and imperial units. I would also suggest that you pick one or the other or everyone will be confused.