I have to say that it is impressive that they're development testing includes that. It's definitely not glamorous, but it is necessary. I have read a lot of case studies on piping designs in which the designers didn't take into account the ID of the pipe reducing over time due to sedement build up, etc...It's very costly to go back and fix something like that.
It sounds like a test I would get stuck doing. I seem to always get the unglamorous tests.Not to derail the thread, but speaking of very unglamorous testing...this reminded me of some tests a dynamics professor I had in college had to do when he was working on the original space shots and sending monkeys up. Hillarious stories.