The facility can be used to investigate the effect of abrasive flow, erosion damage and wear on a wide range of equipment normally using accelerated testing processes. Testing has also been undertaken to assess whether particulate build up in valves and other components with moving parts has an impact on their performance.The erosion rig currently uses gas pipe work of up to 8″ in diameter and the sophisticated sand injection system can inject sand at rates of up to 100kg/hr. An important feature of the rig is that it is a pass through, rather than circulating system. This ensures that the test component is always seeing fresh particles as it would under normal operating conditions. In re-circulating rigs this is not normally the case as the particles deteriorate with each circulation.