SIMULATION AND ANALYSIS OF FLUID FLOW IN A PIPE WITH LEAK

Author: Osih Christopher Okorie*

*Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria

Abstract

Fluid flow in circular and noncircular pipes is commonly encountered in practice; fluid flow

through pipes and ducts is commonly used in heating and cooling application and fluid

distribution network. In this present work, the algorithm that has been followed is the Semi

Implicit Method for Pressure Linked Equation (SIMPLE), also the double double-precision was

used for better accuracy. The methodology used is based on computation fluid dynamics, using a

finite volume- based discretization scheme. A Steady- state, viscous, laminar flow simulation for

a Newtonian fluid was studied in a horizontal pipe model. The pipe model considered is 2.406m

long and has a diameter of 0.1m with leak sizes 6mm, 8mm and 10mm respectively which is 1.2m

away from the inlet, the fluid considered is liquid water. The geometry model used in the ANSYS

FLUENT 15.0 is a 2D model through which fluid was made to pass through and subsequent

analysis analyses were carried out. This work describes fluid flow behaviour in a pipe with

leakages and the interest of this work is to evaluate the influence of leaks in the fluid flow

parameters. In this work, the behaviour of the fluid was analyzed using velocity vectors,

streamlines and pressure fields. It was investigated that the leak region is one zone of low

pressure and high velocity and is affected by leak size.

Keywords: Fluid Flow; Pipe; Leaks; Simulation; Analysis

INTRODUCTION

Fluid flow in circular and noncircular pipes is commonly encountered in practice; fluid flow

through pipes and ducts is commonly used in heating and cooling application and fluid
distribution network. Examples of these are found in, the hot and cold water that we use in our

homes that is pumped through pipes, oil and natural gas that are transported hundreds of miles by

large pipeline, blood that is carried circulated throughout our bodies by arteries and veins, the

cooling water in an engine that is transported by hoses to the pipes in the radiator where it is cold

as it flows, thermal energy in a hydronic space heating system that is transferred to the

circulating water in the boiler and then it is transported to the desired location through pipes.

Fluid flow may be laminar, transitional or turbulent. In laminar flow, the fluid appears to move

by sliding of laminations of infinitesimal thickness over adjacent layer, with the relative motion

of fluid particles occurring at a molecular scale. Turbulent, turbulent flow on the other hand is

characterized by random instabilities in the flow field and the particles in this fluid flow move in

erratic and irregular motions [11]. Fluids especially liquid are transported in circular pipes, this is

because they can withstand large pressure differences between the inside and the outside interior

and exterior parts of the pipes without undergoing significant distortion, but despite the

development in this area, cracks and leakages are detected in the various application industry

sectors in the world. Leakages reduce pressure in the supply system, but while and the option of

raising increasing the pressure to make up for such losses involves increased energy

consumption, and this comes at a cost.

Agbakwuru [12] distributed the causes of pipeline leaks in four main classes: operational,

structural, unintentional, and intentional. The dawn of the twentieth century marked the

beginning of the numerical solution of differential equations in mathematical physics and

engineering for problem problem-solving. Soundalgekar et al [16] Analyzed laminar flow in a

porous circular pipe by perturbation theory, in which flow parameters were considered. Zhao

[22] generated a numerical solution to a laminar forced convection in a heated pipe subjected to a
reciprocating flow, also Zidanski [23] made some findings on numerical simulation of laminar

flow over shallow cavities, and they laminar flow inside cavities of aspect ratios ranging from

9.6 to 28 was simulated. Rajesh [12] worked on laminar flow analysis over a flat plate by

computational fluid dynamics using the finite element method through solving partial differential

equations of the fluid flow. Saheed &and Adewoye [13] worked on analyses and modelling of

laminar flow in pipes using a numerical approach. Kumar [76] investigated the simulation and

flow analysis through different pipe geometry. Sambit [14] researched on the simulation and

fluid analysis through a straight pipe, and the study shows that the more viscous the fluid is the

more frictional coefficient and thus higher the frictional loss. Kumar &and Saha [6] worked on

laminar modelling and simulation on cutting fluid flow through sudden contraction nozzle.,

Similarly, various works were also done by other researchers [54, 67, 78, 15 and 16]. This

present work focuses on the simulation and analysis of a steady steady-state laminar flow, using

the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software package ANSYS in a 2D pipe model

considering leaks of various sizes, with the flowing fluid being water., tThe work aims for a

better understanding of the behaviour of laminar flow in a pipe and to predict the flow properties

of the fluid.

MODEL DEVELOPMENT AND METHODOLOGY

The fundamental laws governing this fluid flow are the law of conservation, momentum

equation and the energy equation. . The fluid that flows inside the pipe is water and the

properties of water used are obtained from the FLUENT database (μ = 0.001003 kg/ms, ρ =

1000 kg/m3). The flow is not affected by gravity, no no-slip condition is given for the side

walls (which this implies that u=0, v=0). However, at the inflow boundary, the velocities in the
x and y direction are specified. The x-component of velocity is equal to the free stream

velocity while the y-component of velocity is zero

Mathematically,

At x=0; u=0 and v=0

At x=L; u=U and v =0

Geometry Modeling

When performing CFD, a good geometric model is the first step to assure a successful

simulation. For the geometry of the fluid flow analysis, one can create geometry in ANSYS

Design modeller, or import the appropriate geometry file, but for this work, the geometry was

created from the scratch in ANSYS Design modeller. The model is a 2D geometry with D =

0.1m, pipe length = 2.406m and leak hole = 6mm, 8mm and 10mm respectively. The schematic

of the pipe is shown in Figure 1.

leak

top_wall_left top_wall_right

inlet outlet

bottom_wall

Figure 1: Simple pipe schematic

Mesh generation

Now that the geometry has being created As a result of the generation of the model, a

computational mesh needs to be created throughout the flow volume. For this work, the ANSYS

meshing application is was used to create a mesh for the CFD analysis. The model is was meshed

to get the properties accurately. Analysis The analysis is was done for every meshed area and the

summation of all the areas shows the total property gradient of the model. The partial differential

equations of fluid flow are not usually amenable to the analytical solution, except for very simple

cases. Therefore, in order to analyze fluid flows, flow domains are split into smaller sub

-domains called elements or cells and the collection of all elements is known as mesh or grid.

The governing equations are solved inside within each of these portions of the domain. Care is

was taken to ensure proper continuity of solution across the approximate, solutions inside within

various portions is are be then put together to give a complete picture of fluid flow in the entire

domain. The equations for momentum transport are nonlinear, which means that the

computational volume must be discretized properly to obtain an accurate numerical solution of

the equations. Accurate The accurate meshing of the computational domain is as important as

defining the physical models, so the quality of the mesh e.g. its aspect ratio and skewness are

used to help for good mesh.

Boundary conditions:

The study domains consist of a pipe with 2.406m of length, with a constant 0.1m diameter, the

pipe has holes 6mm, 8mm and 10mm, located 1.2m away from the inlet of pipe.

A summary of the main assumptions:

I. Flow is laminar.
 II. Flow is isothermal.

III. Flow is not affected by the gravity field.

IV. No No-slip condition is given for the side walls.

V. The fluid is water which is considered incompressible and Newtonian.

Computational modelling:

The second-order upwind interpolation scheme and second-order spatial discretization scheme

were used to reduce numerical errors. The implicit method was employed to in the computational

iteration. Scaled residuals were used for the convergence of the computational solutions for the

continuity, energy, and for the other predicted variables. The setting criterion of the scaled

residuals for the solution convergence was 1×10−6 for all computed residuals. ANSYS Fluent

reports a residual for each of the governing equations being solved.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Pressure Behavior:

The study of the behaviour of pressure within the vicinity of the leak in the pipe was carried out,

and observation of the contour plot depicts that the static pressure decreases along the axial

direction of the pipe from the inlet to the outlet (as shown in Figure 2), but a close up look in the

vicinity of the leak as seen in figure Figure 3 reveals a localized gradient toward the leak, there

is a large drop of pressure at the leak in which it has a contoured pressure same as the outlet of

the pipe. Maximum pressure was observed at the inlet of the pipe while lesser pressure was

observed at the leak and outlet of the pipe.

 Leak

Figure 2: Contour plot of pressure along the pipe

Figure 3: closeClose-up view of leak region for pressure plot

A plot of the pressure along the pipe wall shows a fairly noticeable kink in the leak vicinity as

seen in figure Figure 4 below.

Figure 4: Pressure across the walls and leak

Velocity Behavior:

At the pipe wall, velocity is zero and it increases as one goes away from the wall surface towards

the central axis as can be seen from the colour contour plot velocity in Figure 5., Velocity is

maximum at the axis, but at the leak, there is a disorder in the velocity profile as seen in figure

Figure 6 below.
 Leak

Figure 5: axial Axial velocity colour contour plot

Figure 6: close Close view of the leak region

 6.00E-03

5.00E-03

4.00E-03
velocity [m/s]

3.00E-03
6mm
8mm
2.00E-03 10mm

1.00E-03

0.00E+00
1.20E+00 1.20E+00 1.20E+00 1.20E+00 1.21E+00 1.21E+00 1.21E+00 1.21E+00
X-distance (m)

Figure 7: Variation of velocity with leak size

From the figure above (Fig.7)Figure 7, it could be seen that there is a rapid increase in the

velocity of the flow in the different profiles at an almost constant distance at the starting of the

leak. Also, the leak (10mm) has had a highest velocity of 4.84E-03[m/s], leak 8mm has had a

highest velocity of 4.48E-03[m/s] and the 6mm leak has had a highest velocity of 3.87E-03[m/s].

Hence it can deduce that the Pprofile 10mm leak has the maximum velocity magnitude while

profile 6mm leak has the minimum velocity. This implies that the higher the leak size, the

greater the velocity at the leak.

 3.00E-03

2.50E-03

2.00E-03
outlet velocity [m/s]

1.50E-03
6mm
8mm
1.00E-03 10mm

5.00E-04

0.00E+00
0.00E+00 2.00E-02 4.00E-02 6.00E-02 8.00E-02 1.00E-01 1.20E-01
Y -distance (m)

Figure 8: Variation of outlet velocity profile with leak size

From the figure above (Fig. 8)Figure 8 it can be seen that the size of the leak hole has an effect

on the outlet velocity profile, the smallest leak hole (6mm) has the highest outlet velocity

magnitude of 2.67E-03[m/s], with 8mmm leak having hhas an outlet velocity magnitude of

2.52E-03[m/s] and the leak (10mm) having an outlet velocity magnitude of 2.37E-03[m/s]. It can

be seen that the smallest leak (6mm) has the highest velocity profile and the largest leak (10mm)

has the lowest outlet velocity magnitude. Hence it can be deduced that the larger the leak, the

more the decrease in the outlet velocity profile

Y-direction velocity Behavior:

The vector magnitude of the velocity around the leak was observed with a high gradient toward

the leak plane as can be seen in the result below (Fig. 4.9)shown in Figure 9. Around the leak

vicinity, it can be seen that the velocity magnitude increases relatively as one move towards the

leak and dies away as one move away from the leak along the top wall. The length and colour of

the arrows represent the velocity magnitude and as it can be seen.

 Leak

Figure 9: closeClose-up view of the y-velocity of the leak

Y-velocity at leak
6.00E-03

5.00E-03

4.00E-03
Y-velocity [m/s]

6mm
3.00E-03 8mm
10mm
2.00E-03

1.00E-03

0.00E+00
1.20E+00 1.20E+00 1.20E+00 1.20E+00 1.21E+00 1.21E+00 1.21E+00 1.21E+00
X-distance [m]

Figure 10: Variation of Y-velocity with leak size

From the figure (Fig. 10) aboveFigure 10 it can be seen that the 10mm leak (10mm) has a

maximum y-velocity of 4.84E-03[m/s], 8mm leak has a maximum y-velocity of 4.48E-03[m/s]

and for 6mm leak has a maximum y-velocity of 3.87E-03[m/s]. It can be deduced that the 10mm
leak hole (10mm) has the highest y-velocity and lowest y-velocity was obtained for the 6mm

leak hole (6mm). It can be deduced that Y-direction velocity increases with an increase in the

leak size.

CONCLUSION

Laminar flow in a 2D pipe with leaks has been investigated numerically using a CFD software

package ANSYS fluent. Based on the results, the leakage causes a disturbance on in the fields of

velocity and pressure along the flow. When analyzing pressure and velocity variation diagrams

on the pipe for various leak holes, it was identified that the larger the diameter of a leak hole, the

greater variations of pressure and fluid flow velocity in the pipe at leak was. It was deduced that

the larger the leak, the more the decrease in the outlet velocity profile. Also, it was deduced that

the higher the leak size, the greater the velocity at the leak. It was deduced that the pressure

decreases at the vicinity of the leak as the leak increases in size both before and after the leak. It

was also deduced that the pressure after the leak vicinity is greater than the pressure before the

vicinity for each particular leak hole.

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