STEADY STATE FLOW STUDIES OF SECTIONS IN NATURAL GAS PIPELINE NETWORKS
Open Access
- Author:
- Ken-Worgu, Kenneth C.
- Graduate Program:
- Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- None
- Committee Members:
- Dr Adewumi, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Michael Adebola Adewumi, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor - Keywords:
- STEADY STATE FLOW STUDIES OF SECTIONS IN NATURAL
STEADY STATE FLOW STUDIES OF SECTIONS
PIPELINE
NETWORKS
FLOW
NATURAL GAS
STEADY STATE
NATURAL GAS PIPELINE NETWORKS
FLOW STUDIES OF SECTIONS IN NATURAL GAS
STUDIES OF SECTIONS - Abstract:
- Efficient transportation of natural gas is vital to the success of the economy of the US and the world, because of the various uses of natural gas and its components. Pipelines are the main form of transportation, transmission and distribution of natural gas. Pipelines networks are used to efficiently take the gas from the producer and deliver it to the consumer. There is a pressing need to improve the accuracy of the pressure and flow rate predictions in the pipes and at the nodes of these networks. An accurate correlation between the individual loops and sections in these networks would improve the accuracy of predictions and simulations of these networks. The equations used for a loop or section to predict the steady state values in the network has to be determined by a steady state study of the individual loops in the natural gas pipeline network. Using the initial field data of any network, the appropriate friction factor equation capable of accurate predictions of pressures and flow rates can be determined. In this work, the pipeline networks are analyzed. Loops consisting of different numbers of pipes are analyzed to study the accuracy of prediction by any particular friction factor equation for the particular segment of the gas pipeline network. The Newton-Raphson method was utilized for solving the networks. No equation currently available, is able to predict pressures and flow rates accurately for all cases. Over the years, several modifications have been proposed to improve the accuracy of the predictions. This work utilizes different friction factors in different sections in the natural gas pipeline network to increase the accuracy of the predictions. This work also presents the effects of the different friction factor equations on predicted values of pressures and flow rate for several possible network configuration, sections and determines the optimum friction factor equation to use in the individual sections of the network.