Sunday 19 November 2017

Some Facts About Hydro Testing

By Nancy Morgan


When you have to test operational quality of different pressure units or pipe systems, there are several different techniques. One of the most commonly used processes is hydro testing. It is used every time when system was out of order for some time, for repairing or for any other reason, or as a regular checkup of different systems and pressure devices.

This testing is performed when the whole system is shut down, and cannot be done when it is running. The test is nondestructive testing method and it might be necessary to be performed before different licenses for normal operating can be issued. The whole unit has to be checked for leaks and other problems that could be the cause of failure.

When this method is used for checking pipelines, the first thing that has to be done is removing the gas or the fluid from the pipes. These pipes have to be mechanically cleaned before filling them with water. When they are fully filled with water, and without any air in the system, they need to be pressurized above their designed pressure limit.

For this particular procedure, the pressure that exceeds the normally used pressure by 50 percent is used. Once under exceeded pressure, the pipes should be visually checked for possible leaks and other problems that may occur. Fluorescent dyes are also used in some cases, where it is important to find the origin of the leaks or various cracks in the structure. The use of dyes makes all this much easier.

Once everything is checked, the water leaves the pipes. It's important to vent the pipes and that they are perfectly dry before they can be filled with oil, gas or whatever they suppose to carry. The water may cause corrosion, and needs to be removed entirely. Different liquids may have different properties.

When it comes to small pressure vessels and cylinders, different procedures are used. There are three main testing methods, depending on the equipment that has to be tested. The first one is called the direct expansion, and in this procedure, the unit is filled with certain amount of water and pressured for certain amount of time. The water expelled from the vessel is measured after that.

Water jacket method is called so because the unit, after being filled with water, should be loaded into a sealed test jacket. Once the vessel is in this sealed chamber, it's put under pressure, and this pressure forces water out from the chamber, into the glass tube. The amount of water that gets expelled is the measure of the total expansion.

When the pressure is removed, the vessel shrinks to its normal size. Sometimes it doesn't shrink totally, but only partially. If it doesn't shrink at all, it needs a service. Shrinking percentage is used to determine if any kind of service is needed. When this value is not important or required by the authorities, the pressure method might be enough to check the unit for cracks and leaks, without measuring this expelled water.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment