Trailing oil is the tail section of contamination in oil pipelines. It is generated in batch transportation, for which one fluid, such as diesel oil follows another fluid, such as gasoline, and it has an effect on the quality of oil. This paper describes our analysis of the formation mechanism of trailing oil in pipelines and our study of the influence of dead-legs on the formation of trailing oil. We found that the oil replacement rate in a dead-leg is exponentially related to the flow speed, and the length of the dead-leg is exponentially related to the replacement time of the oil. To reduce the amount of mixed oil, the main flow speed should be kept at about 1.6 m/s, and the length of the dead-leg should be less than five times the diameter of the main pipe. In our work, the Reynolds time-averaged method is used to simulate turbulence. To obtain contamination-related experimental data, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software is used to simulate different flow rates and bypass lengths. MATLAB software was used to perform multi-nonlinear regression for the oil substitution time, the length of the bypass, and the flow speed. We determined an equation for calculating the length of the trailing oil contamination produced by the dead-leg. A modified equation for calculating the length of the contamination was obtained by combining the existing equation for calculating the length of the contamination with new factors based on our work. The amounts of contamination predicted by the new equation is closer to the actual contamination amounts than predicted values from other methods suggested by previous scholars.

Transmission mechanics of infectious pathogen in various environments are of great complexity and has always been attracting many researchers' attention. As a cost-effective and powerful method, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) plays an important role in numerically solving environmental fluid mechanics. Besides, with the development of computer science, an increasing number of researchers start to analyze pathogen transmission by using CFD methods. Inspired by the impact of COVID-19, this review summarizes research works of pathogen transmission based on CFD methods with different models and algorithms. Defining the pathogen as the particle or gaseous in CFD simulation is a common method and epidemic models are used in some investigations to rise the authenticity of calculation. Although it is not so difficult to describe the physical characteristics of pathogens, how to describe the biological characteristics of it is still a big challenge in the CFD simulation. A series of investigations which analyzed pathogen transmission in different environments (hospital, teaching building, etc) demonstrated the effect of airflow on pathogen transmission and emphasized the importance of reasonable ventilation. Finally, this review presented three advanced methods: LBM method, Porous Media method, and Web-based forecasting method. Although CFD methods mentioned in this review may not alleviate the current pandemic situation, it helps researchers realize the transmission mechanisms of pathogens like viruses and bacteria and provides guidelines for reducing infection risk in epidemic or pandemic situations.

Manifolds play a role of pressure balance, buffering and rectification for different branch pipelines, the flow noise of manifolds has been a serious problem all this time in natural gas transmission station. By changing the number of outlet pipes of manifolds and the different positions of intake pipes, the distribution of the Sound Pressure Level (SPL) of the manifold flow noise is analyzed based on the Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings (FW-H) acoustic analogy theory and Large Eddy Simulations (LESs). The three-dimensional simulation analysis of the flow field shows that pressure pulsation is the mainly source of manifold noise, as the number of outlet pipe increases, the SPLs of fluid dynamic noise at the end of inlet pipes are significantly reduced by about 10 dB on average, when the inlet and outlet piping are oppositely connected, the SPL is 2 dB~3 dB lower than that in staggered connections. An expansion-chamber muffler is designed with the analysis of its noise reduction effect, the results show that after the muffler is installed, the noise reduction in the low-frequency ranges reaches up to 37.5 dB, which controls the maximum noise to around 82 dB.

Based on the mutual coupling effect among the compressor, the air cooler and pipes in the system of natural gas pipeline, innovatively with the goal of minimum energy consumption, this paper established a combined operation optimization model of the air cooler and compressor through the optimization of the switching scheme of compressors and air coolers, which can greatly reduce the production energy consumption of the pipeline system. Moreover, when the air temperature is taken as an optimization variable, the most proper temperature to start the air cooler of each compressor station can be worked out to guide the optimized operation of the pipeline, which is of high value for promotion and application. The case analysis of west-east natural gas pipeline II showed that among genetic algorithm (GA), particle swarm optimization (PSO), and simulated annealing (SA) algorithm that are used to solve the optimization model, the genetic algorithm is the fastest, and the simulated annealing algorithm the slowest, but the optimization results of the simulated annealing algorithm is the best, in which the reduced production energy consumption accounted for 33.77%, testifying the practicability and creativity of the optimization model. INDEX TERMS Natural gas pipeline, air cooler, compressor, operation optimization, algorithm.

Much less attention has been focused on the particle deposition in rectifying plate though it is a common problem in shale gas pipe systems. The effects of particle parameter and flow field on the deposition and distribution of particle in a new‐type rectifying plate system are investigated. Both the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method and the experiment method are used in order to analyze the particle deposition under various conditions. The accuracy of simulation model is verified with measurements in the experiment and from analyzing, and it is found that the Boltzmann equation can well describe the relationship between gas Reynolds number and particle deposition in the rectifying plate system. It is also found from investigation that the particle deposition is greatly affected by the particle parameter. Deposition rate rises with the increase of the particle diameter; however, it reduces gradually with the decrease of particle shape factor. Moreover, the particle mass concentration is an essential dimension that can give a prediction of where the particle may deposit.

A pipeline operation optimization model with minimum energy consumption as the objective function was established based on the dynamic programming method. The model was applied to a 3840 km gas pipeline whose designed pipeline capacity was 170 3 10 8 t/a. There were 40 stations in the line, including 22 compressor stations and 32 compressors. The solution time was controlled within 60 s to show that the algorithm was fast and effective. The number of startingup compressors in the optimized scheme is two more than that in the actual operation scheme, and the total pressure drop of the pipeline decreased by 3.40 MPa, the average efficiency of the gas turbine units increased by 4.234%, the average efficiency of the electric drive units increased by 4.875%, and the power decreased by 18,720.38 kW, confirming the validity and feasibility of the optimization model.

In view of the complicated heat transfer calculation for air coolers and the difficulty of directly calculating the exit temperature of natural gas in a compressor station, taking the dry air cooler of model GP12 × 3-6-258-13.0S-S-23.4/DR-Ia configured in the West-East Natural Gas Pipeline II as an example, a three-dimensional simplified model of the air cooler is established. The model is used to simulate a temperature flow field of a dry air cooler-finned tube based on Fluent flow field analysis software. This paper studies the cooling effect of the dry air cooler-finned tube on high-temperature and high-pressure natural gas at compressor outlet. By comparing and analyzing the relationships among natural gas mass flow, inlet air temperature, inlet natural gas temperature, and outlet natural gas temperature for an air cooler, the formula of temperature drop of dry air cooler to natural gas is fitted, and the fitting formula is verified by field operation data. The results show that the average error between the fitting results and the actual data is less than 1.5%, which proves the correctness of the fitting formula and greatly simplifies the heat transfer calculation process for air coolers. K E Y W O R D Sdry air coolers, finned tube, optimization, outlet natural gas temperature

The abnormal vibration of natural gas station pipelines seriously threatens the safety of pipeline transportation, and improper handling will cause huge economic losses. For the abnormal vibration of the pipeline, reasonable treatment must be carried out. The Yongchang gas station belongs to the west–east gas pipeline system in China. Since its production, abnormal vibration has often occurred in the west-third outbound pipeline of the Yongchang gas station, and the vibration changes according to the different gas transport volumes. In this paper, the outbound pipeline of the Yongchang pressure station is taken as the research object, and the vibration analysis of the station yard pipeline is carried out. The numerical model of the station yard pipeline is established, and the correctness of the model is verified by the field vibration test. The fluid–solid coupling method is used to analyze pipeline vibration under different working conditions. Then, three kinds of vibration reduction schemes are proposed and verified by simulation. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) The fluid pressure fluctuation in the pipeline is the root cause of abnormal vibration in the station. (2) When the gas transmission volume is large, the vibration of the pipeline system will become more severe. (3) The scheme of increasing pipe diameter and adding appropriate constraints has the best vibration reduction effect.