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Hydrotesting pipe on a pipe rack

Hydrotesting pipe on a pipe rack

Hydrotesting pipe on a pipe rack

(OP)
Any competent writing about hydrostatic testing will warn that you need to be sure that your pipe supports can carry the weight of the pipe plus the test liquid.

They wouldn't all say this if there hadn't been a few pipe-support failures during testing.

I've been looking on the Web all morning to find a picture of a pipe support failure during a hydro.  No luck.  Anyone have such a picture that they'd be willing to share (and for me to use in classroom material)?

Thanks.

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering
www.muleshoe-eng.com
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RE: Hydrotesting pipe on a pipe rack

PennPiper (Piping)
I doubt that you will ever get any pictures of specific "Hydro-test caused Pipe support failures".
The big companies such as the ENR (Engineering News Record) listing of the Top 500 EPC (Engineering, Procurement & Construction) companies are way too smart, well trained and experienced to make the kind of mistake your posting suggests.

In my experience we (Piping) did a study of the Pipe Rack systems.  We determined where all the lines were to be run, how many there were, their NPS (size), the wall schedules, the weight per foot of the pipe, the weight per foot of water (Hydro-test), the Insulation, any additional concentrated loads (Valves), Platforms, etc.  Piping also defined where the main Anchor points would be for all piping that would be subject to thermal expansion. We furnished all this related information to the Structural Department along with the requirements for the width of the racks, the number and spacing of the support elevations, and the number and spacing of the pipe supports.

The Electrical and Control Systems Engineering Groups sized and defined their cable tray and conduit needs that would be supported in the project Pipe Racks.

The Structural Department then designed and engineered the actual Pipe Supports to meet the defined needs of the project. I am sure the Structural Department also had criteria for a sizable safety factor that covered future additions, wind, snow loading, seismic etc.

All projects are different and each one has it's own specific needs or requirements but if each group does their job properly there should never be a case of Pipe Rack failure due to excess hydro-test loads or forgotten weight of Hydro-test loading.

RE: Hydrotesting pipe on a pipe rack

Weight of 12" O pipes with water across the entire pipe rack, not just at points where the pipes are indicated on the drawings is typically included, with larger pipes as superimposed point loads is a common piperack design criteria, among a number of others, such as pipe + contents + snow and ice, pipe + contents + hurricane wind, pipe + contents + seismic.  Pipe + water test weight usually is the controlling case, so if anyone was dumb enough to miss it, its always picked up by the checker, typically with a good amount of "fanfare" for the offending party, and the beer tab on Friday.

**********************
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