Simple mechanical pressure valves

[Soondead]

After a hull breach in survival I've suddenly lost all my precious N2 and as I was adding more Oxite I got a surplus of O2 in the system and a flaw in the design caused a pipe burst. It says on the Back Pressure Valve that the flow is too low to act as a safety valve, plus for some reason it requires an astonishing 100W(!!) to operate? In real life, pressure and backpressure regulators are quite simple mechanical valves with a spring and an adjustment screw.

I get why you would want an electronic one (although with more like 5W power draw...) but could we please atleast get a mechanical pressure relief valve? Perhaps with a hard setting just below max pipe pressure and with relief to the surrounding environment so there's a real disadvantage to using them?

[onebit]

I agree. There should be an unpowered back pressure valve.

[Puma]

Dude, get out of my head!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_valve

[TeeBee30]

With clever engineering, it is not needed. Connect a pressure gauge (I don't remember what it's called in-game) to the pipe and feed the pressure info to a pump which is connected to a passive vent outside. Set the logic something like "if pressure is over 55 MPa, activate the pump until it lowers to 50 MPa". The second part is needed only if you don't want it to flicker on/off (which I think you don't).
Edit: I believe pipes will burst at 60 MPa but I wouldn't bet my life (or atmospherics setup) on that.
Edit 2: However, I believe something like "fuse for pipes" could be implemented, such as in case of a pipe burst, it will open and release ALL the pressure in those pipes, but it would save you time to troubleshoot the problem, rather than rebuilding the pipe network. Of course, it isn't as good as the previous solution but it would do in a pinch (or for some who can't be bothered to set up logic)

[Zeff]

Agreed a mechanical version of the pressure regs would be nice, or, have the powered ones so they're more like sensors that can directly drive on/off on a volume pump might be nice since usually pumps come with regulators.

The powered ones currently though do act as if they have a pump inside... they'll let you take the pressure low on the input side in order to build the pressure on the output side. A simple regulator would require the pressure on the input be the target pressure plus spring resistance I think

[Soondead]

Yes, such a simple valve would require pressure from elsewhere, like a pre-filled tank/canister, filter, a/c unit, active vent or powered regulator. I'm not asking for a way to move gases for free :-) Another thing to consider in this context is that realistically, power drain from a pump should scale with the force required; i.e something like volume multiplied by delta pressure.

[Billiarious]

Pressure relief valves are very common in industrial situations. They are usually a spring loaded valve that opens above what ever pressure it's calibrated to and will close again once enought pressure has been released to allow it. Digital valve opening to a passive vent with a bit of logic does this but it should be doable with a simple mechanical device.

[Maireen]

Originally posted by Billiarious:

Pressure relief valves are very common in industrial situations. They are usually a spring loaded valve that opens above what ever pressure it's calibrated to and will close again once enought pressure has been released to allow it.

Its common in housing too, just had it replaced not too long ago in the garage connecting the city line to the house to prevent pipes in the walls bursting from the high pressure outside.