Hydrotest Volume Calculation Verifications

[srpipelineengineer]

thread404-334675

To Katelyn:

I know I am responding to a posting that is more than a year old and has been closed. I am not sure if you will see this or not. I saw your question from 11/23/12 about verifying your company's method of calculating hydrotest volumes.

I too have the same problem, I am looking at a spread sheet someone in our firm (who know longer works here) prepared way back when with different calculations for hydrostatic test volumes for restraind and unrestrained pipe. From the chain of responses you got it does not look like you got any help for your question about the sources for your calculations.

This Mr. Simpson person who came down hard on you by providing a worthless answer to your request was not only not helpful he was down right rude. He even made some references in his answers to the type of person he is by commenting on what people who work for him think of him.

But he does have a point about the Pipeline Rules of Thumb Book and one should be very cautious of using it, and verify if it is accurate and valid in today's environment. I basically use if for the conversion factors in the back of the book and nothing else.

I want to congratulate you on your task to verify you company's spreadsheet, many engineers would just assume that if the company gave it to you to use that it was prepared correctly, tested and verified to be good for the use as intended.

It is always a very good idea to try and verify your source of information, especially if you are a PE. If you ever have to go to court to defend your design and methods and indicated using a set of calculations that you have know idea where they came from or if they are even correct, the court's judgement may not bode well with you.

I do not think this Mr. Simnpson understood your request. I realize you were not trying to figure out the volume of water you needed to order for hydrotest to the nearest drop but trying to determine if the hydrotest was valid base on the how much water had to be added or removed between the start and end of the hydrotest due to temperature differences so it can be determined if the volume changes are due to temperature change or as a result of a leak in the test section.

If you are still a member of this Forum and have found the source of the calculations I would appreciate it if you would share it with me.

Thanks.

 

[zdas04]

I guess I am that "Mr Simpson" person that you so heartily dislike. I just re-read the thread and I stand by every single one of my comments there.

If I am measuring incoming water volume with a yard stick calibrated in linear inches in a horizontal cylinder, calculating water volume required to the mL is not reasonable. You fashion yourself a "Sr Pipeline Engineer" so I would hope that you had seen a water truck, purchased water, disposed of water, etc. somewhere in your career and you know that what I said was both accurate and helpful. If I was a bit harsh, it was a device I use to get Engineers to think for themselves.

When (if) you've been on eng-tips.com for your second or third posts you might notice how often someone will read one of my "harsh" posts, do the math for themselves to prove me wrong, find I'm right, and evolve into slightly better Engineers. On your very first post, it might be considered presumptive to personally attack an "Engineering Tips Fellow" (a designation from site management, not from me), but it is a free country. If you leave out the paragraph that attacks me, your post almost adds value, with that paragraph you have labeled yourself as someone I'm unlikely to put much effort into helping--but as a "Senior Pipeline Engineer" you probably don't need much help anyway.

David Simpson, PE
MuleShoe Engineering

Law is the common force organized to act as an obstacle of injustice Frédéric Bastiat

 

[JStephen]

"I realize you were not trying to figure out the volume of water you needed to order for hydrotest to the nearest drop but trying to determine if the hydrotest was valid..."- Actually, that's not at all clear from the post, and she never came back to clarify what she was after, exactly; probably would have gotten more useful answers if she had.