Pneumatic Test Fill Time Calculation?

[Dwight Douget]

I'm doing a task for our project where I'm trying to get approval to use hydrostatic testing for lines that show pneumatic testing required. We have gotten approvals in the past, but we're getting into large bore stuff, and we're trying to find out if it's possible to determine how long a 300 psi air compressor would take to fill certain lines for testing. Is there such a calculation? Or does anyone have any experience in this issue? Much appreciated!

 

[LittleInch]

In basic terms it's just air volume flow through your compressor and the ideal gas laws. If you want oot get fancy then you need to add in compressibility factors, but then temperatures get in the way as well so if you just want an OOM keep it simple.

Pressure of a compressor is only one aspect - it's the CFM that matters for the time calculation. The pressure rise over time slows down as the mass flow stays the same, but overall time can be calculated. If you go onto the pipeline forum and search pneumatic testing you'll find some useful posts and quite a bit of debate about their safety...


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