r/engineering • u/JoshyRanchy • 1d ago

Volume of tube cooler

I have a cooler with 148 , 1inch gauge 14 tubes. Its 10 ft long.

It has 2 headers 5.5in x 6in x 10ft long.

Is there a simple way to check how much bottles of 2200psi nitrogen botles i would need to leak test it?

I dont know if there is a clever way to calc the volume but i did it the long route.

But im still unsure how the N2 would compress the air.

Im also concerned about wasting n2 by having the bank just leveling out at a low pressure. Idk if that is a valid concern tho.

7 Upvotes

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u/Hiddencamper Nuclear - BWRs 1d ago

Find cooler volume in cf. Also bottle volume. Determine test pressure.

Calculate using P1V1=P2V2

We are going for simple. Since precise measurements aren’t important and we are just estimating number of bottles it’s ok to use some BS math.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pipefitter/comments/jf1cud/how_to_calculate_how_much_nitrogen_is_necessary/

This looked helpful

1

u/love2kik 1d ago

Simple like in automatic, No unless you already have a spreadsheet or database to plug the numbers into.

Do the math one tube at a time then multiply. Same for the headers.

I would want some spare/overhead nitrogen on hand in case the leak is really bad.