Temperature effect compensation for fast differential pressure decay testing

To avoid the long temperature recovery period with differential pressure decay for leak detection, a novel method with temperature effect compensation is proposed to improve the testing efficiency without full stabilization of temperature. The mathematical model of conventional differential pressure decay testing is established to analyze the changes of temperature and pressure during the measuring period. Then the differential pressure is divided into two parts: the exponential part caused by temperature recovery and the linear part caused by leak. With prior information obtained from samples, parameters of the exponential part can be identified precisely, and the temperature effect will be compensated before it fully recovers. To verify the effect of the temperature compensated method, chambers with different volumes are tested under various pressures and the experiments show that the improved method is faster with satisfactory precision, and an accuracy less than 0.25 cc min⁻¹ can be achieved when the compensation time is proportional to four times the theoretical thermal-time constant. (paper)