Hydrostatic Test for Sanitary drainlines and sewers

[Jay Water]

Dear folk... noob engineer here. Got a quick question.

"All sanitary drainline and sewers of 600 mm and below in diameter, before being surrounded and covered, shall be tested by filling with water. The pressure shall be measured from the highest point of the pipeline under test and shall be 1.5 metre head of water. Pipelines should not be accepted until they have withstood the required pressure for 30 minutes without a loss in excess of 1.5 litres for 100 m for each 300mm in diameter."

My company follows this standard for leak tests on drainlines and sewers. I would like to know if this is a global standard. Is there anything stated in the BS or EN code related to this. I assume that this standard must have been adopted by my predecessors from somewhere. Trying to find the source. Any advice or direction would be much appreciated.


P.S. Please don't ask me to ask my colleagues. Trust me, I tried.

 

[bimr]

That is not a global standard. Doesn't even state the material of construction.

The sewer agency where the work is located will typically have a standard specification for the work.

 

[cvg]

leakage tests usually are done after backfill, not before. sometimes low pressure air tests are used. I don't know of any global standards. here is a typical one for the US:

33.93 Leakage Tests
Leakage tests shall be specified. This may include appropriate water or low pressure air testing. The testing methods selected should take into consideration the range in groundwater elevations during the test and anticipated during the design life of the sewer.

33.94 Water (Hydrostatic) Test
The leakage exfiltration or infiltration shall not exceed 100 gallons per inch of pipe diameter per mile per day [9 L/(mm of pipe diameter·km·d)] for any section of the system. An exfiltration or infiltration test shall be performed with a minimum positive head of 2 feet (0.6 m).

33.95 Air test
The air test shall, as a minimum, conform to the test procedure described in ASTM C 828 for clay pipe, ASTM C 924 for concrete pipe, ASTM F 1417 for plastic pipe, and for other materials test procedures approved by the regulatory agency.

 

[rconner]

fyi

http://www.unitracc.com/know-how/fa...r-whole-sections-en/water-pressure-testing-en

(testing requirements have gotten pretty tight in areas)

 

[Jay Water]

Lovely.... now i am getting somewhere. Rconner I am convinced that the guidelines set in place by my company must be derived from BS EN
1610 : 1998, Clause 13.3.

13.3 Testing with water (method W)
13.3.1 Test pressure
The test pressure is the pressure equivalent to or resulting from filling the test section up to the ground level of the downstream or upstream manhole, as appropriate, with a maximum pressure of 50 kPa and a minimum pressure of 10 kPa measured at the top of the pipe.
Higher test pressures may be specified for pipelines which are designed to operate under permanent or temporary surcharge (see prEN 805).
13.3.2 Conditioning time
After the pipelines and/or manholes are filled and the required test pressure applied, conditioning may be necessary. NOTE. Usually 1 h is sufficient. A longer period may be needed, for example for dry climatic conditions, in the case of concretepipes.
13.3.3 Testing time
The testing time shall be [highlight #FCE94F](30 – 1)[/highlight] min.

Now i am wondering what (30-1) means. Arghhhh... why could they not have just left it as 30 mins. Folk who write codes seem to like to write it in the most confusing way possible.

 

[Jay Water]

Please ignore the above. It was +- ..... so it was 30 +- 1 min.