Where to Find a Minimum Pipe Wall Thickness Calculator Spreadsheet

For an Excel spreadsheet to use as a minimum pipe wall thickness calculator, click here to visit our spreadsheet store.  Read on for information about the use of an Excel spreadsheet as a minimum pipe wall thickness calculator.

The Barlow Formula for a Minimum Pipe Wall Thickness Calculator

The classic Barlow formula for calculating bursting pressure for a pipe is:

P = 2S*T/D_o where:

• D_o is the outside diameter of the pipe with units of inches (U.S.) or mm (S.I.)
• S is the strength of the pipe material with units of psi (U.S.) or N/mm² (S.I.)
• T is the wall thickness with units of inches (U.S.) or mm (S.I.)
• P is the fluid pressure in the pipe with units of psi (U.S.) or MPa (S.I.)

If the ultimate tensile strength of the pipe material is used for S, then P will be the bursting pressure, while P will be the pressure at which permanent deformation of the pipe begins if S is the yield strength of the material.

The Barlow formula can be rearranged to: T = /D_o*P/2S to use in a minimum pipe wall thickness calculator for the pipe wall thickness for a given bursting pressure or deformation pressure.

Calculation of Maximum Pipe Operating Pressure

The Barlow formula can be modified to calculate the maximum fluid operating pressure for a given pipe wall thickness and pipe diameter, by incorporation of a safety factor and corrosion allowance as follows:

P = 2S*(T – T_c)/SF*D_o

where  SF is a safety factor (dimensionless) and T_c is a corrosion allowance in inches (U.S.) or mm (S.I.).  This equation uses the outside pipe diameter in the calculations, which is convenient, because the outside pipe diameter remains the same for all of the schedules (wall thicknesses) for a given nominal pipe size.  The calculation can be done using the outside pipe diameter (D_o) in an equation based on the inside pipe diameter, by using the relationship,  D_i =  D_o –  2T , to give the equation:

P = 2S*(T – T_c)/SF*(D_o –  2T)

Use of Equations in a Minimum Pipe Wall Thickness Calculator

The last equation in the previous section can be rearranged to give a pipe wall thickness formula as follows:

T = (P* SF*D_o + 2S*T_c)/(2S + 2P*SF)

An Excel Spreadsheet as a Minimum Pipe Wall Thickness Calculator

The Excel spreadsheet template shown below can be used as a minimum pipe wall thickness calculator or to calculate the maximum operating pressure in a pipe if the necessary other parameters are known/specified.   Why bother to make these calculations by hand?  This Excel spreadsheet and others for pipe flow calculations are available in either U.S. or S.I. units at a very low cost in our spreadsheet store.