Pipe profile is very important

accuracy computing time

Length of pipeline (m)

Inclination of basic pipeline, Deg

Gas Cond Jan 08

Profiles can be simplified

Pipeline 70 km long - 19 ID very hilly terrain
1.5
elevation (Km)

1.25

Real Simplified

0.75 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 horizontal length (Km)

2
Gas Cond Jan 08

For lean gases (high high GOR) the profile is particularly important
field data (not real)
illustration:

calculated
Problem: placing the take- off point in liquid inventory and assessing the consequence of a wrong assumption

510 490 470 450 430 410 390 370 350 3 5 7

Liquid inventory

11

13

Flow rate
3
Gas Cond Jan 08

Tips and Traps Day One

Numerical and model issues

Discretisation of pipes Time step Shut-in Steady state vs transients

Pipeline discretisation
Check sensitivity to sectioning Liquid hold-up Pressure Temperature Use at least 2 segments for any pipe Try to follow the rule:

Li

Li+1
i 5

0.5 Li / Li+1 2 for all

Automatic time step control

Default

CFL: ht < cflfmin( L*section/Ufluid)

Integration time step

Pipeline discretisation and time step

ttotal - total computing time ht - timestep Ndx - total no of pipe sections Nht - total no of time steps;

ttotal ~ Ndx Nht

The timestep is global i.e. on all N dx Normally ht varies between user specified limits with the CFL active i.e. ht min( L*section/Ufluid). Reducing this with a factor 2 by e.g. dividing the L*section by 2, could double Nht and thereby double the computing time ttotal Dividing all sections in 2 could increase computing time with a factor 4 by doubling both Ndx and Nht

Effect of gridding - example

Horizontal pipe , ID = 0.12 m, L = 4000 m sub-divided in PIPE-1 and PIPE-2 ; each 2000 m 4 cases : all with PIPE-1 divided in 5 sections of 400 m

A source pulse was introduced at inlet steady state flow rate of 1200 Bl/day and a maximum of 6600 Bl/day for 2 min

The Grids
3.5

Case 4

2.5

Case 3
NdX Pipe-2 is 5 of eq. length NdX Pipe-2 is 10 of eq. length NdX Pipe-2 is 5;1000, 500,250 and 2x 125 m NdX Pipe-2 is 5 of 300 and 2 of 250 m

2 Axis Title 1.5

Case 2

0.5

Total horizontal length (m)

0

Case 1

800
PIPE-1

1600

2400
PIPE-2

3200

4000

Total liquid volume flow at outlet of PIPE-2

Case-1Case-2Case-3Case-4-

Pressure in the last section at outlet of PIPE-2

Case-1Case-2Case-3Case-4-