Hydrostatic testing
Balmoral Offshore Engineering’s Hydrostatic Test Centre operates a comprehensive suite of hydrostatic pressure vessels to meet in-house development and production testing demands.
These test facilities are also available to provide a hydrostatic pressure testing service for external clients. Testing can be performed at pressures up to and including 7000msw equivalent.
Standard tests available include:
• Uplift determination
• Water ingress
• Instrumented buoyancy loss
• Hydrostatic compression and creep
• Hydrostatic collapse
• Bulk modulus
• Buckle arrestment performance
| Vessel |
Safe working
pressure |
Internal
length
|
Internal
diameter |
Orientation |
| psi |
bar |
ft/in |
mm |
in |
mm |
| PV1 |
5200 |
358 |
35' 6" |
10825 |
52 |
1320 |
Horizontal |
| PV2 |
10000 |
700 |
7' 9" |
2380 |
19 |
485 |
Vertical |
| PV3 |
10000 |
700 |
7' 9" |
2380 |
19 |
485 |
Vertical |
| PV4 |
10000 |
700 |
7' 9" |
2380 |
19 |
485 |
Horizontal |
| PV5 |
10000 |
700 |
1' |
300 |
5.5 |
140 |
Vertical |
Displacement tanks are available for large scale uplift testing. internal dimensions of the two tanks are:
• 6250x2250x1300mm deep
• 9800x2500x2750mm deep (unfilled weight 16 tonnes)
Mechanical testing
Large scale load testing equipment is available to perform a diverse range of tests including slip testing of clamping systems, flexure testing of buoyancy modules and load testing of bend limitation devices such as restrictors and stiffeners.
Development laboratory
The Balmoral Offshore Engineering development laboratory utilises state-of-the-art test equipment for a wide range of laboratory tests in support of its development and production QC activities. These tests include:
• Tensile, compression, flexural and shear
• Tensile and compressive creep
• Hydrostatic compression and collapse
• Water ingress rate, water diffusion coefficient
and water saturation values
• Glass transition temperature
• Resilience
