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Case Studies

Case study: High Pressure Gas testing

Testing a subsea valve with 15,000psi nitrogen. To comply with the tough requirements of the test, no bubbles were allowed in a one-hour observation period. Per the API (American Petroleum Institute) standards there was a maximum allowable pressure drop of 500psi from the start to the finish of the test. The actual pressure drop for this test was only 58psi.

Case study: From small parts to big ones…

A small part

A big part

Cyclic testing

Often testing needs to be carried out to simulate the pressure changes parts will experience in real-world service, with realistic loading and unloading pressures, rates and frequencies.

Case study: heavy truck air brake tanks

A number of heavy truck air brake tanks were tested in groups of three. The tanks were cycled 5,000 times from 0 to 145psi at 1psi/second to simulate the truck in or out of service, followed by 500,000 cycles from 85 to 145psi at a rate of at least 20 cycles per minute to simulate the air pressure when the truck is being driven.

In and out of service cycles

Operating cycles

Case study: laboratory vessel

A laboratory vessel was tested with repeating blocks of pressure to simulate conditions in use – some tests are conducted at relatively low pressures, others at relatively high pressures. 60% of the cycles were at 10,000psi, 20% at 20,000psi, 10% at 30,000psi and the remaining 10% at 40,000psi.

Case study: Aircraft components

A special rig was designed and made for high speed pressure cycling of two aircraft undercarriage components simultaneously. The complex load cycle required four different pressure levels to simulate pressures experienced by the components during taxi, take-off and landing. The number of test cycles was approximately 17 million.

Custom test rig in temporary, isolated, separately air conditioned enclosure

Pressure cycles

Case study: Electrical connections, pressure, temperature and insulation resistance

A number of electrical feed-throughs were tested (five at a time) at 500°F, with the pressure cycled from 0 to 32,000psi, and the insulation resistance measured at 500VDC.

Checking insulation resistance at room temperature