Pressure Piling

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Pressure Piling is a term used in electrical engineering in hazardous areas. It refers to a situation where, say, two classified electrical enclosures are connected together by a conduit. An explosion of a gas in one of the compartments travels through the conduit into the next enclosure. The pressure of the 'primary' explosion together with the pressure from the 'secondary' explosion in the other compartment produces one huge explosion that the equipment cannot handle. Heat, arcs or sparcs escape from the equipment and ignite any gas or vapour that may be around.

Operators avoid this by not using conduits to join classified equipment together and by using barrier glands on cables going into the enclosure. This ensures that compartments remain separate at all times.