How to Calculate: Rate of Pressure Loss Through a Pinhole Leak
How to Calculate: Rate of Pressure Loss Through a Pinhole Leak
(OP)
Hi,
Hoping that someone can give me some guidance on the following:
How would I calculate the theoretical pressure loss from a pressure vessel that would occur over a 24hour period through a pinhole leak based on the following starting conditions:
Starting pressure: 700psi
Medium under pressure: Air
Basically, I'd like to calcualte the theoretical pressure loss that would occur over 24hours if there was a pinhole leak through the wall of the pressure vessel that was pressurized with air at 700psi.
Thanks
Hoping that someone can give me some guidance on the following:
How would I calculate the theoretical pressure loss from a pressure vessel that would occur over a 24hour period through a pinhole leak based on the following starting conditions:
Starting pressure: 700psi
Medium under pressure: Air
Basically, I'd like to calcualte the theoretical pressure loss that would occur over 24hours if there was a pinhole leak through the wall of the pressure vessel that was pressurized with air at 700psi.
Thanks





RE: How to Calculate: Rate of Pressure Loss Through a Pinhole Leak
Depends on the volume of the pressure vessel.
RE: How to Calculate: Rate of Pressure Loss Through a Pinhole Leak
I think you should be more clear what do you really want. If you know how much pressure drop is allowed in 24 hours you can calculate/estimate the equivalent "pin hole" diamter.
RE: How to Calculate: Rate of Pressure Loss Through a Pinhole Leak
I think the breakover is something like L/D ratio around 10 but I can't find the reference right now. This means that if the hole is 0.1 mm and the wall is over 1 mm then you have to consider pressure drop within the hole.
In either case, flow rate is a function of hole diameter and vessel pressure. Pressure drop is a function of flow rate and vessel size.
There is a lot of information required for a seemingly simple question.
David
Remember: The definition of "easy" is "someone else has to do it"
RE: How to Calculate: Rate of Pressure Loss Through a Pinhole Leak
check this website link. Hope this helps to some extent.
http://w
RE: How to Calculate: Rate of Pressure Loss Through a Pinhole Leak
I did some more googling and found links to an article/paper that contains two methods to solve the problem and seems to do the trick.
http://www.air-dispersion.com/feature2.html
A little bit of excel work and voila.
Cheers