Fundamentals of Piping &

Instrument Diagrams (P&ID)

Paul Garrett, PE
What are P&IDs?
A Piping and Instrument Diagram or P&ID is a process engineering drawing that is a schematic illustration of the functional
relationship of piping, instrumentation and equipment components of a system. In plain English, this means all the stuff that
makes up a skid, including:

 Major and minor equipment – the distinction between what is “major” vs. what is “minor” equipment is subjective
 Valves, including vents, bleeders, safety relief, check (all of them!)
 Instrumentation, including devices that are used to continuously measure pressure, flowrate, temperature or some analyzed
parameter such as pH, concentration, viscosity…the list goes on. This can be local indication type or transmitters
 Miscellaneous items such as vents, drains, special fittings, reducers, line mixers, etc.
 Buttons used to control motors and devices, be they pushbutton, toggle, or some other type.
 Motors and drives – many motors are single speed, non-reversing but there are other kinds that have variable speed drives,
and can operate in both directions
 Limit and point devices – including devices that only reveal a discrete state, e.g., if a tank is at a certain level (point level),
or a valve or actuator is in a particular position (a limit switch)
 Piping (duh!) Not just the main process pipes inherent to the particular process, but even the utilities (steam, air, fuel, etc.).
Often piping specifications, along with pipe size, will be shown
 Process flow data such as flow direction and pressure/temperature data
There is no formal standard for the various amounts of information a P&ID must include. Rather, it is left to the discretion of
the engineers involved.

For the information that is deliberately left off P&IDs for the sake of clarity, other documents are used to provide the details,
such as:

• Piping and material specifications. Here, you can dig into all the gory details about materials of construction, gaskets,
bolts, fittings, etc. for each of the services

• Equipment and instrumentation data sheets. These give detailed dimensions along with performance and technical
characteristics.

Despite seeming to have all the information you will ever need, P&ID’s do have some limitations:

• They don’t reveal scale or geometry,

• They don’t serve as a true model for how things are oriented and placed in the real world

• They are not drawn consistently. They often vary in “look and feel” from company to company which can lead to
confusion.

Luckily companies often provide the key to deciphering their P&ID’s which brings us to my next topic……
Lead Sheets or Legends
The meanings of various symbols and tags are defined on separate drawings called Lead Sheets. These are your “secret decoder
rings” to P&ID symbology interpretation

Most Lead Sheets are just variations on a core set of general accepted symbols and notations that the industry has settled on as de
facto standards over the years.

90% of them are pretty much Copy | Paste. For that last 10%±, there can be distinct differences and company-specific
conventions used that are not obvious on P&IDs

One item you may notice that is absent from lead sheets – major equipment. This is because:

• It is almost always self-evident what a symbol represents for major equipment, and

• Even if it’s not apparent, the major equipment is always tagged and named with some general specifications provided along
one edge of the drawing

On the next slides are a couple of examples of typical Lead Sheets.

Instrumentation Symbols
The main symbols used for Instrumentation and Control (I&C)
are shown in the table to the left. When you spot one of these
on a P&ID, you will be able to glean three things from it,
including:
1. What is the device?
2. Where is it located?
3. What is it connected to?

For Instance:

This would tell you that the device is a Pressure Transmitter

that is mounted locally (i.e. in the piping) and that it is powered
and monitored by the PLC.
Valve Symbols
The valves shown “valves” are manually operated valves

The valves in the “Control Valves” section are automated

valves

Often the letters “FC” or “FO” may appear by the valve stem
indicating Fail Open or Fail Closed for automated valves

You may also see a valve with one side darkened in, such as:

This indicates that the darken side is closed until the

temperature hits the set point (this is a thermostatic control
valve) and then that side will open
Flow Sheet Symbols
The key flow sheet symbols are shown on the left. By far the
most common is the solid line used to indicate pipe.

Other lines show instrument air or electrical connections.

The symbols on the bottom show specialty items in the piping

lines, such as Y-strainers or flex hoses.

Notice the symbol for “Skid Limits”. When designing skids,

this line is particularly in defining the scope of work.

What about pipe fittings?

In case you are wondering, P&IDs generally do not show pipe

fittings (elbows, tees, unions, o-lets, etc.). Nor will they include
all the various flanged connections that might actually exist on
the skid. These are details that show up on piping
plans/sections, isometrics and fabrication drawings. So, unless
it is important to the process design for some reason, fittings
and extraneous flanged connection are generally not shown.