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EVALUATION OF VOLUMETRIC LEAK DETECTION METHODS USED IN UNDERGROUND STORAGE TANKS
Citation:
Maresca, J., J. Starr, R. Roach, D. Naar, R. Smedfjeld, J. Farlow, R. Hillger, AND A. Tafuri. EVALUATION OF VOLUMETRIC LEAK DETECTION METHODS USED IN UNDERGROUND STORAGE TANKS. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/J-91/155.
Description:
This reports documents a research program which evaluated the performance of 25 commercially available volumetric test methods for the detection of small leaks in underground gasoline storage tanks. he evaluations were performed at the U.S. EPA Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory's Underground Storage Tank Test Apparatus in Edison, Jersey. he methodology used made it possible to determine most of the technological issues associated with volumetric leak detection. he approach used (1) experimentally validated models of the important sources of ambient noise that affect volume changes in nonleaking and leaking tanks, (2) a large database of product-temperature changes that result from the delivery of product at a temperature different from that of the product in the tank, and (3) a mathematical model of each test method to estimate the performance of that method. he majority of the methods claimed to be able to reliably detect leak rates as small as 190 ml/h (0.05 gal/h). he results of the study showed that these claims were not met. ive of the methods had the potential to detect leak rates as small as 380 + 190 ml/h (0.10 + 0.05 gal/h) with a probability of detection of 0.95 and a probability of false alarm of 0.05. erformance was found to be limited primarily by test protocol, operational sensor configuration, data analysis, and calibration, rather than by hardware. he experimental analysis and model calculations suggested that substantial performance improvements could be realized by making only procedural changes.