Sloping Steam Lines

Hello forum members,

As noted in the subject line above ... sloping steam lines.

I realize that steam lines should be sloped when these lines are running several hundered feet or more on a pipe rack. Steam lines should be sloped with drop legs at regular intervals with steam traps dumping into a condensate return line.

My question however is:

should steam lines that are routed throughout a boiler room , a paper mill, an OSB mill etc be sloped considering that these lines change elevation quite frequentlly as they are routed throughout the plant ?
Of course, each change in elevation would be fitted with the appropriate drip leg, trap, ...

regards,

Pat

In general, the only reason to slope steam lines is for condensate drainage, as you suggest. In a boiler room or other operating facility, you need to consider the hot and cold shapes of the line, and slope the piping to the extent necessary to make sure that the line does not collect condensate in a pocket during operation and/or shutdown.

Traditionally, we assume that the way to do this is to make sure that horizontal runs of pipe adjacent to risers slope so that the difference in elevations at each end of the horizontal run is more than the vertical growth of the riser. Of course, we take the support system into account, but normally we arrange steam piping so that risers grow downward.

When drip legs are provided at elevation changes, there is no longer any need to slope the piping since the drip leg provides a collection point that can be trapped and drained in service.