Tag
#design
8 topics across all disciplines.
Reading a PFD and the material balance — where every number starts
What a process flow diagram carries that a P&ID does not, how to read a stream table, why mass in equals mass out is the most useful check on a plant, and how design cases become equipment sizes.
Relief and flare systems — what happens when pressure wins
How relief scenarios are worked out, why the governing case is rarely the obvious one, and why nearly every part of a flare exists to stop it becoming the hazard it was built to remove.
Heat integration — why the plant reuses its own heat, and what that costs
Feed-effluent exchangers, the temperature approach trade-off, why steam comes at several pressures, and why a well-integrated plant is cheap to run and hard to start.
Line sizing — why pipe diameter is an economic decision
The two criteria that size every line, why a bigger pipe costs once and a smaller one costs forever, and the lines where neither rule applies.
Reading a line class — the document that has already decided
How a piping material specification works, how to decode a line number, what a spec break is, and why almost every piping decision on a project was made before you arrived.
Pipe supports and thermal expansion — why you cannot just bolt it down
Hot pipe grows, and it grows with enormous force. How expansion is calculated, why loops exist, what anchors, guides and spring hangers actually do, and how supports protect equipment nozzles.
Cables — construction, selection and why sizing is never just about current
What the layers of a cable do, how power, control and instrument cables differ, the four things that decide a cable size, and why the published rating is never the rating you get.
Reading a P&ID — the drawing every discipline works from
How a P&ID differs from a PFD, decoding instrument tags and bubbles, following a control loop across the sheet, and the details that decide what gets built.