Pressure Transducers to Detect Surges

[stanier]

I am seeking recommendations of pressure transducers for a hydrocarbons pipeline and facility to measure pressure surges. The transducer needs to be EX d for the hazardous environment.

The transducer needs to be fast acting in order to capture all surge pressures. In addition as the results will be used to validate modelling any spikes need to be captured.

If you have some suggestions could you please point to the appropriate website.

 

[BSQUAREDBUCKEYE]

I know high volume compressor manufacturers are very concerned with surge. They have indicated that the "Smart" type transducers are great but slow because of the electronics. So they prefer "conventional" type transducers. They do not communicate through HART protocol, have to be zero and spanned manually, and may or may not have temperature compensation.

Check out a relatively new product from Ashcroft called the Model A2. It is available CL.1, DIV.1 and 2, Groups A,B,C,D. It has external zero and span adjustments, and a response time of less than 2 ms.

http://www.dresserinstruments.com/

 

[btrueblood]

What is the time span of the surge (how long do you expect one to last?). While some transducers can respond to high frequency events, you also need recording electronics that can capture the events and store them. A cheap alternative is to put a check valve and gauge cock in parallel upstream of the 'ducr or gauge. The gauge cock is closed until the pressure spike passes, the check valve acts as a poor-man's sample & hold device. Once the reading is taken, the gauge can be vented back down to line pressure by opening the gauge cock.

 

[stanier]

btrueblood

The need to put transducers in the system is to determine how long the transient event will last.

Data logger available measures 14000 events per second

Adding a check valve into a hydrocarbon line that is in service is not practical. This is not a water system and the operators are not poor men.