The Field Book Proper Pigging  ·  HydroTech Testing Services
The printed Proper Pigging field guide by Henry Froats Jr. and Michael Schricker, standing on the flange face of a green-painted pipeline at a live hydrostatic test spread.
From first calculation to signed record. The 172-page paperback on a live test spread, photographed on the job by the crews who wrote it and who teach the class.
Official support material for the Hydrostatic Certification Class. The Proper Pigging field guide with the four course themes: test design and the pressure ladder, planning and permitting, conducting and analysing the test, and documentation and acceptance. HydroTech Testing and Training.

Henry Froats Jr.Michael Schricker HydroTech Testing Services, 2026172 pages$89 and shipping

A pipeline and pressure gaugeHydrostatic
testing
A clipboard with a checklistPlanning &
documentation
A shield with a check markSafety &
integrity
A pipeline pig in a section of pipePigging &
line fill
A graduation capContinuing
education

What this book covers16 chapters · 8 appendices

Contents plate for Proper Pigging listing sixteen chapters in four parts, Foundations, Planning the Test, Executing the Test, and After the Test, covering test pressure development, water acquisition and permitting, pigging and line fill, instrumentation, pressure-temperature analysis, leak location, documentation, and dewatering and drying.
What this book covers. Sixteen chapters in four parts: Foundations, Planning the Test, Executing the Test, and After the Test. Test pressure development and the pressure ladder, water acquisition and permitting, pigging and line fill, instrumentation, pressure-temperature analysis, leak location, documentation, and dewatering and drying. Tap to view full size.

The book172 pp. · $89

A working reference for hydrostatic and nitrogen pressure testing

Most of what goes wrong on a pressure test goes wrong before the first gallon of water enters the pipe.

The test itself, the eight hours a crew spends watching a deadweight and a chart recorder, is the visible tip of a project that started months earlier with elevation profiles, water permits, pig selection, and a hundred questions that someone either asked in time or did not.

This book exists because the industry has plenty of regulation text and plenty of tribal knowledge, and very little in between: a single reference that explains both why the physics and the regulations work the way they do, and what to actually do at six months out, one month out, one week out, and on test day.

The material grew out of a professional certification course on hydrostatic and nitrogen pressure testing developed and taught by HydroTech field personnel, refined by real projects: tests that passed, tests that failed, water sources that fell through, recorders whose batteries died at 2 a.m., and the paperwork that either saved the test or sank it.

It stands deliberately on the shoulders of the pigging and testing literature that came before, above all Cordell and Vanzant’s The Pipeline Pigging Handbook.13 Where that tradition covers pigging in all its breadth, this book drives one discipline to depth: the pressure test, with the pig as the essential tool it has always been.

Inside Chapter 1 The course this book grew out of Order a copy Examination copies

Request information about the Hydrostatic Certification Class Order the field guide

Hydro TestingCh. 1, 2, 6

Two jobs, two phases, one pressure ladder

A pressure test does two distinct things: it proves the pipe can carry the pressure, and it proves the pipe does not leak. The regulations treat them as separate phases because they answer separate questions.

  • Why we test, and what a test cannot proveCh. 1
  • The strength, leak, and spike phasesCh. 1, 11
  • Barlow’s formula and percent SMYSCh. 2
  • The hydrostatic gradient and the elevation windowCh. 2, 6
  • Developing the pressure ladder for a real segmentCh. 6
  • Class locations and permissible test mediaCh. 6, 9

Pigging OperationsChapter 4

The tool every phase of the test depends on

Fluid pumped behind a pig cannot pass it, so the pig advances at roughly the velocity of the driving fluid, pushing what lies ahead and separating it from what lies behind. Cleaning, filling, dewatering, and drying all rest on that single fact.

  • The pig family, and the job each one is built forCh. 4.2
  • Gauge pigs, and reading the plate on receiptCh. 4.2
  • Launchers, receivers, and temporary test headersCh. 4.3
  • Trains, tracking, and speed controlCh. 4.4
  • Valve coordination during fill and dewateringCh. 4.6
  • What goes wrong, and the fundamental each failure violatedCh. 4.8
Frontispiece
overall length sealing cup hub tail eye
Frontispiece. A four-cup mandrel pig in elevation, with the parts named as the procedures name them: the sealing cups that hold the seal against the wall, the hub they are mounted on, the tail eye for retrieval, and the overall length that has to clear every bend and valve in the run.
Plate II
a foam swab b mandrel cup pig c wire brush pig gauge plate d gauge pig e sphere
aproving runs, free water, drying trains bdisplacement, line fill, dewatering ccutting rust, millscale, wax, debris dbore verification before the test ebatching and meter-prover service
Plate II. Five specimens of the pig family. One important exclusion: because open-cell foam lets fluid permeate through the body, foam pigs are not normally suitable for the line fill ahead of a hydrostatic test, where positive liquid-gas separation is the whole point. Use a sealing mandrel pig, sphere, or batching pig for fill duty.

Safety & PlanningCh. 3, 5, 7, App. A

Most of what goes wrong goes wrong months early

The eight hours a crew spends watching a deadweight is the visible tip of a project that started months earlier. The master checklist is organised by countdown: six months, one month, one week, one day, and test day.

  • Acceptance criteria settled in writing at six monthsCh. 5
  • Operator qualification for every covered taskCh. 5, 14
  • Water acquisition and appropriation permittingCh. 7.2–7.3
  • Discharge permitting and treatment before releaseCh. 7.7
  • Exclusion zones once hoop stress exceeds 50 percent SMYSCh. 11, App. A
  • The safety and control gate before any pressurisationApp. A
  • Nitrogen asphyxiation, the hazard that gives no warningCh. 3.3
  • Failure contingency staged before, not improvised afterCh. 16
Plate I
frac tanks test trailer pressurisation pump
astaged water, frac tanks bpressurisation pump and manifold cwelded string in open ditch dtest trailer, charts and deadweight
Plate I. A pressure test on the right-of-way. The eight hours a crew spends watching a deadweight is the visible tip of a project that began months earlier with elevation profiles, water permits, and pig selection.

Inspection & AnalysisCh. 10–14

The pressure trace never speaks for itself

Pressure in a sealed, water-filled pipeline moves with temperature, air content, and elastic effects whether or not a single drop leaks. The analyst’s job is to predict those movements quantitatively so that what remains, the unexplained residual, can be judged.

  • Instrument selection, resolution, and probe placementCh. 10
  • The pressure-volume plot, compiled live during the climbCh. 11.3
  • Pressure-temperature analysis and the ΔP/ΔT sensitivityCh. 12
  • Estimating trapped air from the plot’s early deviationCh. 12.6
  • Leak location: bisect, amplify, walkCh. 13
  • The balance statement and formal acceptanceCh. 12, 14
  • When the test fails: the first hour, and the failure recordCh. 16
Figure 1
Figure 1. The complete record of an eight-hour hydrostatic test on a new 22-inch crude oil pipeline: 20,862 feet of 0.500-inch wall X-60 pipe below grade in the south Louisiana marsh, including 4,150 feet of horizontal directional drilling. Staged pressurisation with logged holds, an eight-hour window opening at 12:15 p.m., and a controlled bleed-down begun at 8:36 p.m. The shaded band is the specified acceptance window, 2,325 to 2,365 psi. Data: the test log reproduced in Appendix C.

Equipment & ToolsCh. 7, 8, 10, 15

What arrives on the jobsite, and what it must be able to prove

Every component that sees test pressure needs a documented rating above the maximum local test pressure, and every instrument needs a calibration certificate whose serial number matches the one on the equipment.

  • Test headers and temporary piping, proved before useCh. 8.1
  • Deadweight testers as the site pressure standardCh. 10.1
  • Chart recorders, loggers, and redundant instrumentationCh. 10
  • Fill and pressurisation pumps, screened and sizedCh. 7
  • Frac tanks and water stagingCh. 7
  • Nitrogen supply: liquid, membrane, and trailer systemsCh. 3.3
  • Dewatering trains, drying plant, and dew-point criteriaCh. 15.3

Training & ResourcesApp. A–H

The book as a working kit, and as a course

The appendices are the part crews actually carry: a checklist organised by countdown, the formulas and constants, a complete worked evaluation with real field data, and a question set built for classroom and continuing-education use.

  • The Master Hydrotest ChecklistApp. A
  • Formulas, constants, and conversionsApp. B
  • A complete test evaluation, with field dataApp. C
  • Glossary of thirty-five termsApp. D
  • Eighty-three study and review questionsApp. E
  • Continuing education, in three formatsApp. F
  • Model RFP language for pressure testingApp. G
  • What to expect from a professional testing contractorApp. H

The continuing-education programme Request the syllabus Questions about the class

Request information about the Hydrostatic Certification Class

From the book to the classroomApp. F

The syllabus is printed in the back of the book

Appendix F maps the sixteen chapters onto three teaching formats, module by module, with the objectives each one is built to meet. Every attendee keeps a copy, so the course text and the desk reference are the same document.

  • Half-day briefing. Why tests succeed and fail; how to read a pressure ladder, a test window and a ΔP/ΔT justification; why water, stabilisation and drying are the real schedule drivers; and the record that survives an audit. Built for the managers, project engineers and owner’s representatives who buy, schedule and accept tests.Ch. 1, 5, 14 · 4 hours
  • One-day engineering workshop. Adds the calculations: Barlow’s formula and allowable elevation windows, Chapter 6 worked end to end on the book’s 16-inch crude oil example, instrumentation and the weighted-temperature worksheet, then the Appendix C acceptance case worked as a group. Is this test acceptable, and why?Ch. 2, 3, 6, 10–12 · 8 hours
  • Two-day field certification course. The complete book, taught with equipment displays and field-reality sessions, with the checklists of Appendix A run as live exercises. The standard HydroTech’s own crews are trained against.Ch. 1–16 · Two days

Full course outlines, chapter by chapter Ask about a private class

A contractor willing to publish its standard is a contractor prepared to be held to it.
Appendix H · What to Expect from a Professional Testing Contractor

Contents

Part I  ·  Foundations

  • 1Why We Test2
  • 2The Mechanics of Pipe Under Pressure10
  • 3How Test Media Behave21
  • 4Proper Pigging Fundamentals28

Part II  ·  Planning the Test

  • 5The Planning Framework40
  • 6Engineering the Test47
  • 7Water Acquisition, Permitting, and Logistics54
  • 8Isolation, Product Movement, and Line Fill62
  • 9Testing with Gas and Other Media69

Part III  ·  Executing the Test

  • 10Test Instrumentation78
  • 11Conducting the Test84
  • 12Test Data Analysis91
  • 13Leak Detection and Location99
  • 14Documentation and Test Acceptance104

Part IV  ·  After the Test

  • 15Dewatering, Drying, and Discharge111
  • 16When the Test Fails120

Appendices

  • AThe Master Hydrotest Checklist123
  • BFormulas, Constants, and Conversions130
  • CA Complete Test Evaluation, With Field Data135
  • DGlossary140
  • EStudy and Review Questions143
  • FContinuing Education and Corporate Training150
  • GModel RFP Language for Pressure Testing153
  • HWhat to Expect from a Professional Testing Contractor155

List of Plates

  • Fr.The four-cup mandrel pig, in elevationBook
  • IA pressure test on the right-of-wayBook
  • IIThe pig family: five specimensBook
  • IIIThe launcher and its mainline connectionsEduc.
  • IVAdditive static heads at the summitsNotes
  • VThe pressure-volume plot and its three signaturesNotes
  • VIThe sliding elevation window and segment breaksRef.
  • VIIDrying: dew point against time, with soak reboundsRef.
  • 1The complete record of an eight-hour testBook

Disclaimer

This book is an educational reference. It is not a substitute for the current text of any regulation, code, or standard; for a qualified engineering analysis of a specific pipeline; or for an operator’s own written procedures. Pipeline pressure testing involves stored energy, hazardous products, oxygen-deficient atmospheres, and heavy equipment. It can injure or kill people who treat it casually. Regulations change. Always verify requirements against the current text of 49 CFR Parts 192 and 195, the applicable ASME codes, state and local requirements, and the operator’s specifications before planning or executing any test.