Need to look at the pump, fluid and system details to determine suction pipe size. A few comments and questions below.
What is suction head available in Hopper?
Most fluids will target 3-5 ft/s suction line fluid velocity but slurries need to find the minimum fluid velocity where the slurry will not drop out of suspension. Size pipe to not go below that min fluid velocity.
Also check suction piping friction losses and calculate submergence and NPSH to make sure suction losses and conditions are adequate at the pump suction impeller eye to prevent pumping problems.
Keep suction piping as straight as possible into pump suction - 5-10pipe diameters straight length pipe.
These are a few key items to look at. Good luck.
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Randy Riddell, CMRP, PSAP, CLS
Reliability Manager
Essity
Cherokee AL
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