You have been asked to design a piping system or size a heat exchanger. Or a system is not performing as it should and you need to understand why. The applied design methodology for these systems is the same regardless of the application - what changes is the fluid and the constraints specific to each use case.
What Piping System Design Actually Requires
- Fluid characterization
Density, viscosity, phase, temperature, and pressure - these properties drive every downstream calculation.
- Flow and velocity determination
Required flow rates and appropriate pipe velocities. Velocity limits differ for gas, liquid, and two-phase flows and for different pipe materials.
- Pipe sizing
Calculating required diameter based on flow rate, velocity limits, and pressure drop constraints using equal friction or velocity methods.
- Pressure drop calculations
Friction losses through pipe lengths, fittings, valves, and other components. Verifying available pressure is sufficient at every point.
- Pump selection
For liquid systems, selecting a pump to deliver required flow against calculated system head. Understanding pump curves and system curves is essential.
- Layout and support
Pipe routing, expansion provision, support spacing, and connection design.
Heat Exchanger Selection and Sizing
Double Pipe Heat Exchangers
Simplest configuration - one fluid in the inner pipe, another in the annulus. Used for small capacity applications, easy to clean, suitable for high-pressure service. Sizing uses LMTD or effectiveness-NTU methods.
Shell and Tube Heat Exchangers
The workhorse of industrial heat transfer. Hundreds of tubes in a cylindrical shell. Highly flexible (TEMA standards). Used for high capacities and most process applications. Selection involves thermal sizing plus tube count, shell diameter, and baffle design.
Plate and Frame Heat Exchangers
Compact, high-efficiency, easy to clean and expand. Widely used in HVAC, food processing, and pharmaceutical applications. Thermal sizing differs significantly from shell and tube.
Cross-Flow Heat Exchangers
Used in air-cooled applications: air handling coils, radiators, cooling coils. Cross-flow geometry requires correction factors in thermal analysis that differ from counterflow or parallel flow configurations.
The Two Courses
Both piping system design and heat exchanger selection and sizing in one integrated program. Includes fluid mechanics and thermodynamics review, all major piping types, all four heat exchanger types, and three workshops. Choose this if you work with heat exchangers.
View courseFocuses on piping system design across all fluid types - steam, compressed air, fuel gas, water, oil, and slurry. Three workshops on piping layout and sizing. Choose this if you need piping design methodology only, without heat exchanger content.
View courseWho Faces This Challenge
- Engineers in industrial and process settings - oil and gas, chemical, food processing, pharmaceutical, and manufacturing
- Mechanical engineers in building services - designing hydronic systems, steam distribution, and HVAC coils
- Engineers assigned new responsibilities for process or utility piping systems
- Engineers troubleshooting existing systems - flow problems, pressure loss, heat exchanger underperformance
"Very good - illustrative - industrial examples supported by detailed calculations. Very detailed and well structured."
"Fantastic instructor! Mastery of experience."
"Appreciated how he made sure you understood before moving on."
Frequently Asked Questions
If you need to design or select heat exchangers in your work, take the Piping and Heat Exchangers course. If your work involves only piping systems, the Piping Systems Design course covers that scope more deeply. Both courses cover the same piping fundamentals.
The Piping Systems Design course covers: steam piping, compressed air piping, fuel gas piping, water and hydronic piping, oil piping, and slurry and sludge piping. The Piping and Heat Exchangers course covers gas and liquid piping systems with workshops on layout and sizing.
The courses include a review of the fluid mechanics and thermodynamics needed for the calculations. Engineers from any discipline with a basic engineering background have successfully completed these courses - not just mechanical engineers.
Yes. Both courses provide 22 formal CPD hours each, all qualifying as core engineering learning toward PEO PEAK requirements. Both are PEO PEAK compliant. Read our PEO PEAK CPD Hours Guide →
