Managing Piping - Pipe vs Piping System

Piping System Theory

In Piping Systems - Overview, we mentioned that a Piping System is a type of FLOC/Equipment that is used to group together pieces of Pipe/Piping in much the same way that Corrosion Loops are used to group together piping and Equipment subjected to the same degradation mechanisms.

However, Piping Systems are used to define a group of pipe/piping from one piece of Equipment to another within a Corrosion Loop.

Comparison of Approaches to Managing Pipe

Three of the main approaches to managing Piping in Piping Systems:

• Pipe/Piping grouped by Corrosion Loop.

  • All Pipe/Piping in a specific Corrosion Loop (or process area within a Unit) is managed together.

• Pipe/Piping grouped by Piping System.

  • Pipe/Piping extending from one piece of Equipment to another are grouped together. This approach is described in the S-RBI for Pressure Vessels and Piping Recommend Practice document. See the Piping System Hierarchy example below.

• Pipe/Piping managed at Pipe Tag level.

  • Each piece of Pipe/Piping is managed as a distinct entity.

Some of the advantages and disadvantages of each of the approaches are identified in the Table below.

Piping System Hierarchy Example

To illustrate how a Piping System might be implemented, the hypothetical System illustrated below shows Corrosion Loop CL01 which extends from FLOC V-100 to V-110 containing two separate Piping Systems:

• P100-CL01-001 containing Pipe and related Equipment extending from V-100 to E-100, and,

• P100-CL01-002 containing Pipe and related Equipment extending from E-100 to V-110.

 For the example above, the hierarchy of Piping System P100-CL01-001 could look something like the following.

To learn how to create a Piping System in IMS, see: Creating Piping Systems.