HYDROSTATIC TEST PRESSURE FOR PIPING
I'm looking for the code about hydrostatic test pressure for piping. As
I've found, the latest version is "ASME B31.3 PIPING GUIDE (2004)"./gatevalve And
according to this code, the hydrostatic test pressure for piping is "1.5
x DESIGN PRESSURE x St/Sd".
But my team manager told me there's a new standard which hydrostatic test pressure for piping is "1.2 x DESIGN PRESSURE".
Have you ever heard about this latest standard?
I can't find about this anywhere.
I've got it right here and the title is "Gas Transmission and Distribution Piping Systems" The copy I have is ASME B31.8-2003.
We've
had many discussions over the years about whether Gas Gathering comes
under B31.8 or under some other code. Section 802.11 (Scope) says "This
Code covers the design, fabrication, installation, inspection, and
testing of pipeline facilities used for the transportation of
gas." Section 802.12 (exclusiong) (f) "Wellhead assemblies, including
control valves, flow lines between wellhead and trap or separator ..."
Which seems to imply that B31.8 covers upstream piping after the
wellsite separator. The big question is what code applies between a
wellhead and a separator? No one knows, but some companies say it is
B31.3, some say "we've got to use something, so we'll apply B31.8 even
though it is explicitly excluded". Bottom line is that you need to make
a decision about design standards and document it.
Being that gas pipelines use different design factors through different
area classifications and have many types of external loading and
installation stresses thwart any effort to standardization on one
internal pressure anyway. You can have up to 4 wall thicknesses on DF
criteria alone on gas lines. Oil lines use one design factor, but still
have different external load types. A few road/railroad crossings,
fault crossings, landslide areas, river crossings, extra burial depth,
aerial crossings(?), offshore platform risers with wave loads, different
water depths and external pressures, installation stresses, etc. and
you can see the number of wall thicknesses required to meet just one
internal design pressure, with many different external load catagories
and combinations, is many.
The BTC (1750 miles of 42") pipeline has 9 different wall thicknesses.
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