Research on the hydraulic parameters and leak rate of natural gas flow in natural gas pipelines based on the methods of characteristic line and successive approximation

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Hou, Qingmin^a | Xiao, Guanghua^{a; *} | Xu, Fangmin^b | Eddine, Hassan Nasser^c

Affiliations: [a] Architectural Engineering College, Chengdu Vocational & Technical College of Industry, Chengdu, Sichuan, China | [b] Huber Ranner Environment Equipment Co., Ltd, Taicang, Jiangsu, China | [c] Industrial Services Department, Republic of Lebanon Minstry of Industry, Beirut, Lebanon

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author: Guanghua Xiao, Architectural Engineering College, Chengdu Vocational & Technical College of Industry, Chengdu, Sichuan 610218, China. Tel.: +86 18003652784; E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract: Pressure and flow rate are the most important hydraulic parameters in natural gas pipeline flow, and leak rate is the most crucial parameter after a leak accident occurs. The study of these parameters is vital to the safey of natural gas pipelines and risk assessment after accidents. In this research, based on the conservation laws universally applicable to the motion of objects, we establish the fundamental control equation group for natural gas flow. Then, for both normal and leak conditions of pipelines, we use the characteristic line method to derive the corresponding difference equations for the fundamental control equations, thereby providing calculation methods for pressure and flow rate. Finally, we investigate the calculation method of natural gas pipeline leak rate under different leak aperture sizes, and validate the accuracy of this method through simulation examples.

Keywords: Hydraulic parameters, method of characteristic line, normal and leak conditions, leak rate, natural gas pipelines

DOI: 10.3233/JCM-247151

Journal: Journal of Computational Methods in Sciences and Engineering, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 1649-1664, 2024