Transient Pig Motion Through Gas and Liquid Pipelines

Abstract

Simulation of the transient motion of pigs through liquid and gas pipelines is presented. The differential form of the mass and linear momentum equations for compressible liquid and gas flows were solved by a finite difference numerical technique. The fluid flow equations were combined with a linear momentum equation for the pig and a model for bypass flow through the pig. The pig/wall contact forces were simulated by a stick/slip model. The contact forces developed by disk pigs and the pipe wall were predicted by a postbuckling finite element analysis of the discs. Test cases representing typical pigging operations were studied using the numerical model developed. The fluid flow and pig behavior predicted by the model presented a reasonable behavior, and contributed for a better understanding of the pig dynamics through gas and liquid pipelines.

Una Alternativa para la Simulación Numérica del Comportamiento Térmico en Régimen Transitorio de Flujo de Gas en Redes de Ductos

“…donde a=∂P/∂ρ| T es la velocidad del sonido isotérmica, β =(-1/ ρ ) ∂ρ/∂T| P es el coeficiente de expansión térmica y el parámetro ξ es ξ =1+ρ a Nieckele et al (2001). El principio de conservación de cantidad de movimiento lineal es expresado como:…”

“…Nieckele et al (2001), presentaron un modelo para la simulación del movimiento de pigs. Las ecuaciones de conservación fueron combinadas con la ecuación del pig y estas, a su vez, resueltas utilizando el método de diferencias finitas.…”

Dynamic analysis and simulation of long pig in gas pipeline

“…Some other researchers also reported their results of pigging simulation in twophase flow straight pipelines (Minami and Shoham, 1991;Taitel et al, 1989;Scoggins and M. W. 1977;Xiao-Xuan and Gong, 1999). Nieckele et al (2001) presented isothermal transient pigging operation through gas and liquid pipelines. Nguyen et al (2001b) proposed a computational scheme using method of characteristics (MOC) and a regular rectangular grid for estimating the pig dynamics when it flows in natural gas pipeline.…”

Speed Control of Pipeline Pig Using the QFT Method

“…Some other complementary research was also reported for pigging simulation in two-phase flow straight pipelines [5][6][7][8]. Transient pig motion through gas and liquid pipelines was presented by [9]. Modeling and simulation for pig flow control in a natural gas pipeline was studied by [10].…”