# How to calculate volume leakage of pipeline from a pinhole only?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-calculate-volume-leakage-of-pipeline-from-a-pinhole-only/768828
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 17, 2016, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-calculate-volume-leakage-of-pipeline-from-a-pinhole-only/768828 "2016-10-17T13:07:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@nabila](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nabila)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2016, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-calculate-volume-leakage-of-pipeline-from-a-pinhole-only/768828/1 "2016-10-17T13:07:45Z")
Hello and hi, i have the quite same question maybe, but not exactly same. Then i need to calculate the volume leakage of underground pipeline.
The information i got are:
Duration for leakage=10min
Diameter of leakage=3’’
Flowrate inlet throughout the pipeline=987m3/hr
Length of pipeline=500m
Pressure at 10 bar
So can you guys give some guide or step for me to follow to get the correct or estimation value for leakage volume?
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### Author:  [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2016, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-calculate-volume-leakage-of-pipeline-from-a-pinhole-only/768828/2 "2016-10-17T13:17:38Z")
> [@How to calculate leakage through a hole in a pipe](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-calculate-leakage-through-a-hole-in-a-pipe/610106/7):
>
> Hello and hi, i have the quite same question maybe, but not exactly same. Then i need to calculate the volume leakage of underground pipeline.
> The information i got are:
> Duration for leakage=10min
> Diameter of leakage=3’’
> Flowrate inlet throughout the pipeline=987m3/hr
> Length of pipeline=500m
> Pressure at 10 bar
> So can you guys give some guide or step for me to follow to get the correct or estimation value for leakage volume?
This will be very difficult to even give a rough estimate. If the pipe is buried in very porous sand, such that the effluent can easily percolate through the sand away from the leak, you could flow quite a lot of liquid. OTOH, if the pipe is buried in very fine clay, you might not flow much liquid at all.
You can give an absolute upper bound for the leak velocity as C\*(pressure \* 2/density)^0.5 (make sure your units are consistent, i.e. density in kg/m^3, pressure in Pascals (N/m^2, which is actually kg_m/(s^2_m^2)), and velocity in m/s), and C is the discharge coefficient for a hole in the side of the pipe, maybe 0.7). But the values for a buried pipe will be far, far below that.
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### Author:  [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2016, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-calculate-volume-leakage-of-pipeline-from-a-pinhole-only/768828/3 "2016-10-17T14:03:01Z")
Reported duplicate (OP is clone of [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=19706900&postcount=7](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=19706900&postcount=7) )
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### Author:  [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2016, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-calculate-volume-leakage-of-pipeline-from-a-pinhole-only/768828/4 "2016-10-17T14:31:11Z")
This looks suspiciously like a homework question.
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### Author:  [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2016, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-calculate-volume-leakage-of-pipeline-from-a-pinhole-only/768828/5 "2016-10-17T14:32:11Z")
**Moderator Note**
Welcome to the SDMB, **nabila**.
This was posted twice, once to a thread and once on its own (here). Since you have started a new thread, I have removed your post from the other thread and have moved all responses to this thread. Please do not cross post in the future.
The original thread that this was posted to is here:
> **[How to calculate leakage through a hole in a pipe](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=639131)**
>
> Say, there is a small hole in a pipe, through which water flows at a constant rate. Using the size of the hole (known), how do I calculate the rate of leakage? Thanks.
(note - this probably breaks the link in **gnoitall** ’s post report).
Welcome, and we hope that you enjoy your time here.
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### Author:  [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2016, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-calculate-volume-leakage-of-pipeline-from-a-pinhole-only/768828/6 "2016-10-17T14:37:20Z")
**Moderator Note**
> [@Quartz](#):
>
> This looks suspiciously like a homework question.
Just to clarify the rules here, if this is homework, you are allowed to ask for help about homework, but don’t expect people to just give you the answer or do your work for you.
If someone is stuck with their homework, give them hints or explain the principles involved so that they can learn. The “no homework” rule is to stop people from getting SDMB members to do their work for them. It’s not intended to prevent people from learning.
The OP can let us know whether or not this is a homework question.
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### Author:  [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2016, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-calculate-volume-leakage-of-pipeline-from-a-pinhole-only/768828/7 "2016-10-17T23:47:46Z")
Good to know. Thanks for that clarification.
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### Author:  [@Bootis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootis)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2016, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-calculate-volume-leakage-of-pipeline-from-a-pinhole-only/768828/8 "2016-10-18T01:36:57Z")
And to be fair, the OP did ask for help with how to go about solving the problem, vs. what the answer is
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### Author:  [@nabila](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nabila)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2016, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-calculate-volume-leakage-of-pipeline-from-a-pinhole-only/768828/9 "2016-10-18T02:54:47Z")
ohhh, really sorry . thank you.
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### Author:  [@nabila](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nabila)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2016, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-calculate-volume-leakage-of-pipeline-from-a-pinhole-only/768828/10 "2016-10-18T03:08:17Z")
can i follow the step in this link?because i find it quite familiar with my case.[http://www.vurup.sk/sites/vurup.sk/files/downloads/pc\_2\_2015\_anyadiegwu\_320\_2.pdf](http://www.vurup.sk/sites/vurup.sk/files/downloads/pc_2_2015_anyadiegwu_320_2.pdf)