An unusual method of deducing overall area profiles along long pipelines has been described. The theoretical basis of the method is a relatively simple application of the pressure surge analysis used extensively in, for example, the water industry and the oil and gas industry for design, for monitoring and for leak and blockage detection, etc. The method utilises pressure and flow measurements at one end of a pipeline during and after the introduction of a disturbance just upstream of the measurement location. It may be concluded from the discussion, including results of blind testing, that: (1) Time-domain analysis is well suited to the deduction of overall area profiles even though frequency-domain analysis is usually necessary for detecting and locating local phenomena such as leaks and restrictions. (2) The proposed method has been shown to be able to infer cross-sectional areas close to the measurement locations with good accuracy and areas at successively greater distance with decreased, but nevertheless useful, accuracy - provided that the fluid density and wavespeed can be estimated independently. (3) Reasonable allowance can be made for skin friction even though some of its consequences for pressure:flow behaviour can be similar to those of area variations. (4) The method is insensitive to short lengths of restricted area. This has the advantage of enabling conditions beyond such restrictions to be investigated, but the disadvantage of rendering the method unsuitable for locating features such as sticking valves. (5) Final validation of the method is yet to be achieved. This will be done with the aid of a "virtual pipeline". (6) The method is potentially well suited to use as the basis of automatic assessment algorithms enabling area profiles to be inferred from the measured signals without detailed human intervention. (7) The greatest known limitation of the method is its sensitivity to inaccuracies in assumed wavespeeds. This will be a critical limiting factor in pipelines with liquids containing significant localised quantities of free gas - even proportions a small as, say, 1% by volume.
Use of pressure surge for pipeline condition monitoring
2012
12 Seiten, 4 Bilder, 1 Tabelle, 10 Quellen
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Englisch
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