international journal of hydrogen energy 33 (2008) 4824–4832

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Transient flow in pipelines of high-pressure

hydrogen–natural gas mixtures

Sami Elaoud*, Ezzeddine Hadj-Taı̈eb

Unit of Applied Fluid Mechanics and Modeling, ENIS, Sokra Road Km 4, P.O. Box W, Sfax 3038, Tunisia

article info abstract

Article history:
Received 28 December 2007
Received in revised form
17 June 2008
Accepted 19 June 2008
Available online 22 August 2008
Keywords:
Hydrogen–natural gas mixtures
Transient flow
Method of characteristics
Finite difference method
The purpose of this study is the numerical modeling of high-pressure transient flow of
hydrogen–natural gas mixtures in rigid pipelines. The governing equations for such flows
are two coupled, non-linear, hyperbolic, partial differential equations. The fluid pressure
and velocity are considered as two principal dependent variables. The fluid is a homoge-
neous hydrogen–natural gas mixture for which the density is defined by an expression
averaging the two gas densities where a polytropic process is admitted for the two compo-
nents. The hydrogen-mixture mass ratio (or quality), assumed to be constant, is used in the
mathematical formulation, instead of the void fraction which varies with pressure. The
problem has been solved by the non-linear method of characteristics and the finite
difference conservative method. To verify their validity, the computed results of the two
numerical methods are compared for different values of the quality. The occurrence of
pressure oscillations in hydrogen–natural gas mixture pipelines was studied as a result
of the compression wave created by a rapid closure of downstream shut-off valve.
ª 2008 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights
reserved.

1. Introduction expensive. To reduce them largely, many petroleum compa-

Today, hydrogen is considered the most abundant and clean
gas. These properties will allow it to play a foreground role
in the future. Hydrogen is endowed with excellent physico-
chemical and thermal properties that confer it the quality of
universal combustible. So that, many researches are focusing
on its production, storage and transportation. Because of its
low volumetric energy content, a high pressure is needed to
transport hydrogen over long distances. Three delivery modes
were compared [1]: compressed gas trucks, cryogenic liquid
trucks and compressed gas pipelines. The latter yields the
lowest delivery costs for dense cities with a large population.
Actually, during the transition period towards a full develop-
ment of hydrogen market, the transmission costs by the
construction of new network pipelines become relatively
nies utilize the existing natural gas pipeline networks to trans-
port hydrogen or hydrogen–natural gas mixtures.
The durability and the mechanical resistance of the exist-
ing pipelines have been investigated for natural gas only,
taking into account the pressure evolution during the perma-
nent regime and mainly the transient regime. As the thermo-
dynamic properties of hydrogen differ significantly from those
of natural gas, the pressure evolution of hydrogen–natural gas
mixtures or hydrogen during the transient regime will not be
the same. In fact, it is not at all possible to simply replace
natural gas by hydrogen in the existing pipelines. Therefore,
the pressure behaviour of hydrogen and mixtures during the
transient regime should be correctly predicted in order not
to exceed the yield strength of the existing natural gas
pipelines.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ216 74276799; fax: þ216 74275595.

E-mail addresses: elaoudsa@yahoo.fr (S. Elaoud), ezed.hadj@enis.rnu.tn (E. Hadj-Taı̈eb).
0360-3199/$ – see front matter ª 2008 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2008.06.032
 international journal of hydrogen energy 33 (2008) 4824–4832 4825

L
t

P
Compressor ACV RCV
C+ C- Fig. 3 – Hydrogen–natural gas mixtures installation.

R S
variations in potential energy may be ignored; the viscous
effects are modeled by considering the pipeline-wall shear
stress. The calculation of the pressure loss is done by analogy
with the permanent flows.
The transient flow is supposed one-dimensional and
x concerns a homogeneous fluid mixture of hydrogen and
natural gas. The hydrogen-fluid mass ratio (or the quality) is
Fig. 1 – Characteristics lines. noted q ¼ [Mh/(Mg þ Mh)] where Mh and Mg represent the
masses of hydrogen and natural gas, respectively. The density
of hydrogen and natural gas evolve according to the following
Several researches have been done to study the transient polytropic laws:
flow in gas pipelines. The transient happens as a result of  1=n
p
sudden events such as the rapid closure of a shut-off valve, rh ¼ rh0 ; (1)
p0
the compressor failure or the pipeline rupture. Unfortunately,
these studies concern the flow of only one gas, mainly natural
gas. Many numerical methods and experimental techniques  1=n0
p
(the method of characteristics [2,3], the finite difference rg ¼ rg0 ; (2)
p0
scheme [4], the finite volume methods [5,6] and the total vari-
ation diminishing (TVD) finite volume method [7,8]) are per- where rh0 is the density of hydrogen at the initial conditions,
formed to study transient compressible flows in pipes. rg0 is the density of natural gas at the initial conditions, p0 is
However, rarely do we find studies interested in the analysis the permanent regime pressure and p is the pressure of the
of the unsteady flow of hydrogen–natural gas mixtures. transient regime.
In this paper, we study the transient flow of high-pressure The pipe is supposed to be rigid, that means that the
hydrogen–natural gas mixtures through a pipeline and section A of the pipe is constant:
observe the influence of the different values of hydrogen pD2
mass fraction on the pressure evolution. The transient regime A¼ ¼ cte; (3)
4
is created by the rapid closure of a downstream shut-off valve.
where D is the diameter of the pipe.
The numerical simulation was performed by solving the
conservation equations using two methods: the characteris-
tics irregular grid method and the finite difference conserva-
3. Mathematical formulation
tive method.

3.1. Equations of motion

2. Assumption
By application of the mass conservation and momentum laws
to an element of fluid between two sections of abscissa x and
The mathematical model considers the following assump-
x þ dx of the pipe, we get the following equations of continuity
tions: the flow is compressible and includes rapid transients;
and motion [9]:
vr vrV
β Δx β Δx þ ¼ 0; (4)
vt vx

k+1

Table 1 – Hydrogen properties in working conditions,

p [ 20 bar and T [ 15 8C
α Δt
Symbol Designation Value Unit
k
Cp Specific heat 14600 J/(Kg K)
i-1 i i+1
at constant pressure
: Prediction step. : Correction step. Cv Specific heat 10440 J/(Kg K)
at constant volume
R Gas constant 4160 J/(Kg K)
Fig. 2 – Finite difference scheme.
4826 international journal of hydrogen energy 33 (2008) 4824–4832

and the finite difference conservative method. The method of

Table 2 – Natural gas properties in working conditions,
p [ 20 bar and T [ 15 8C characteristics [11] is often used to transform the governing
partial differential equations into a system of ordinary differ-
Symbol Designation Value Unit
ential equations that are valid along two sets of characteristic
Cp Specific heat 1497.5 J/(Kg K) lines (Fig. 1). The finite difference conservative method [12] is
at constant pressure used to solve partial differential equations which can be
Cv Specific heat 1056.8 J/(Kg K)
written under the so-called conservative form.
at constant volume
R Gas constant 440,7 J/(Kg K)
4.1. Method of characteristics

The ordinary differential equations, of the governing Eqs. (4)

 
vrV v rV2 þ p lrVjVj and (5), obtained by this method are
þ þ ¼ 0; (5) 
vt vx 2D 1
dV þ rC dp ¼ J dt
Cþ ; (9)
where l is the coefficient of friction and V is the velocity of dx ¼ ðV þ CÞdt
the mixture.
Eqs. (4) and (5) form a system of two non-linear partial  1
differential equations of hyperbolic type in which the pres- dV  rC dp ¼ J dt
C ; (10)
sure p and the velocity V are considered the main variables dx ¼ ðV  CÞdt
of the flow. To solve numerically these equations, we must where J ¼ lVjVj=2D represents the pressure loss by unit of pipe
express the density of the mixture r according to the fluid length.
pressure. These equations can also be written in the following form:
1
3.2. Expression of the mixture density dV  dp  J dt ¼ 0 and dx ¼ ðV  CÞdt: (11)
rC

The expression of the average density of the mixture is The þ is for the waves coming from the upstream end
defined according to the hydrogen mass ratio q [10]: while the  is for the waves coming from the downstream
" #1 "    1=n0 #1 end.
1=n
q 1q q p ð1  qÞ p Eq. (11) determines the evolution of the pressure and the
r¼ þ ¼ þ : (6)
rh rg rh0 p0 rg0 p0 velocity according to the time and the space. They are much
appropriated to be solved numerically on a microcomputer.
The obtained solution constitutes a solution to the original
system of Eqs. (4) and (5).
3.3. Expression of the celerity of pressure waves
The transient flow is generated by a discontinuity of the
initial steady state flow due to a rapid valve closure. This
For a compressible fluid, the celerity of the pressure waves can
discontinuity propagates itself and the displacement is pre-
be defined by the expression:
sented in the plan (x, t) by the characteristic lines. The
 1=2
vr unknown values of (V, p, x, t), at any point P, as shown in
C¼ : (7)
vp Fig. 1, can be determined by knowing their values at the points
R and S lying on the two characteristics passing through P and
Taking into account the relation (Eq. (6)), we obtain
"   by integrating the two simultaneous Eqs. (9) and (10). These
1=n  1=n0 #
q p 1q p equations can be written for the two signs, which results in
C¼ þ
rh0 p0 rg0 p0 four finite difference equations:
" "  1=n  1=n0 ##1=2 Z Z
P P
1 1 q p 1 1q p dp
 þ 0 : (8) ðVP  VR Þ þ þ J dt ¼ 0; (12)
p n rh0 p0 n rg0 p0 R rC R

Z P
ðxP  xR Þ ¼ ðV þ CÞdt; (13)
R
4. Numerical solutions
Z P Z P
To solve numerically the governing Eqs. (4) and (5), two dp
ðVP  VS Þ þ þ J dt ¼ 0; (14)
numerical techniques are used: the method of characteristics R rC R

Z P
Table 3 – Reaction and actuation time of valves ðxP  xS Þ ¼ ðV  CÞdt: (15)
S
Case ACV reaction (s) ACV actuation (s) RCV actuation (s)
As the characteristics are curved on the (x, t) plane due to
1 2 5 0.25
the non-linearity of Eqs. (4) and (5), the integration is achieved
2 0.2 0.5 0.2
by means of an iterative trapezoidal rule. Consequently, we
 international journal of hydrogen energy 33 (2008) 4824–4832 4827

12 12
case 1 case 2
10 10

Discharge (kg/s)
Discharge (kg/s)
8 8
6 6
4 4
2 2
t (s) t (s)
0 0
-2 -2
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20

Fig. 4 – Mass-flow rate as a function of time, for cases 1 and 2 at the (RCV) side.

   
obtain the unknown values tP, xP, VP and pP at the point P: U1 r
U¼ ¼ ; (21)
U2 rV
xS  xR þ FR tR  GS tS
tkP ¼ ; (16) ! !
FR  GS  
W1 r U1
W¼ ¼ ðrVÞ 2 ¼ U22 ; (22)
W2 r
þ pðrÞ U1
þ pðU1 Þ
 
xkP ¼ xR þ FR tkP  tR ; (17)      
S1 0 0
S¼ ¼ lrVjrVj ¼ lU2 jU2 j : (23)
S2 2Dr 2DU1

    
MR pR þ MS pS þ VR  VS þ HR tkP  tR  HS tkP  tS Once written under the conservative form, Eqs. (4) and (5)
pkP ¼ ; (18)
MR þ MS can be solved by two-step finite difference Sab scheme [12].
Indeed, with the notations of Fig. 2, we can write: Uki ¼
    UðiDx; kDtÞ and Wik ¼ WðUki Þ. Moreover, the unknown vector
VPk ¼ VR þ MR pR  pkP þ HR tkP  tR ; (19) U(x,t þ Dt) can be approximated with the first two terms of
where: FR ¼ ðV þ CÞR , GS ¼ ðV  CÞS , MR;S ¼ ð1=rCÞR;S , HR;S ¼ JR;S its Taylor expansion about t, as follows:
for k¼1 and FR ¼ 1=2½ðV þ CÞPk1 þ ðV þ CÞR , GS ¼ vU
1=2½ðV  CÞk1 þ ðV  CÞ MR;S ¼ 1=2½ð1=rCÞk1 Uðx; t þ DtÞ ¼ Uðx; tÞ þ Dt ; (24)
P S , P þ ð1=rCÞR;S , vt
HR;S ¼ 1=2½ðJÞk1
P þ ðJÞR;S  for k ¼ 2,.,j.
In this study, the iteration number is limited to j ¼ 20. The Then, by introducing the physical laws of the transient
determination of the solution in the two extreme sections flow, that is
imposes the introduction of the appropriate boundary
conditions. vU vWðUÞ
¼ þ S; (25)
vt vx
4.2. Finite difference method
we obtain the finite difference form:

The finite difference method is applied only for equations

which can be written in the following conservative form: vW
Uðx; t þ DtÞ ¼ Uðx; tÞ  Dt þ DtS: (26)
vx
vU vWðUÞ
þ ¼ SðUÞ; (20)
vt vx By applying the described two-step finite difference Sab
where U is the vector of dependent variables, W is the flux scheme, the obtained solutions of Eqs. (4) and (5) are as
vector, and S is the source term. follows:
Eqs. (4) and (5) of continuity and motion can be written
under the conservative form (20) where: - First step of prediction (instant(k þ a)Dt)

12 12
case 1 case 2
0 10
θ=0 θ = 1/3
Discharge (kg/s)

Discharge (kg/s)

8 8
θ = 2/3 θ=1 θ=0 θ = 1/3
6 6 θ = 2/3 θ=1

4 4
2 2
t (s) t (s)
0 0
-2 -2
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20

Fig. 5 – Mass-flow rate as a function of time, for cases 1 and 2 at the (ACV) side.
4828 international journal of hydrogen energy 33 (2008) 4824–4832

38 23
θ=0 θ = 1/3 Case 1 Case 2
34 θ = 2/3 θ=1
22

pressure (bar)
pressure (bar)
30
21
26

20
22 θ = 1/3
θ=0
t (s) t (s)
θ = 2/3 θ=1
18 19
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20

Fig. 6 – Pressure as a function of time, for cases 1 and 2 at the (ACV) side, for different values of q.

! The numerical scheme described herein, gives the value of

k k kþ1 kþ1
kþa k k  k k S1iþ1 þ S1i the velocity Vikþ1 ¼ U2 i =U1 i , directly. The Newton–Raphson
U1iþb ¼ ð1  bÞU1i þ bU1iþ1  as W1iþ1  W1i þ aDt ;
2 algorithm [15] is used to compute the pressure pkþ1 i from the
(27) calculated value of rikþ1 by resolving the algebraic equation:
 
r pikþ1  rikþ1 ¼ 0; (32)
k k
!
kþa k k  k k S2iþ1 þ S1i Using Eq. (7), the following iterative algorithm is obtained:
U2iþb ¼ ð1  bÞU2i þ bU2iþ1  as W2iþ1  W2i þ aDt :
2 ( 
pkþ1 ¼ pki
(28)  ikþ1 0       kþ1   ; (33)
pi mþ1
¼ pkþ1
i m
C2 pkþ1
i m
r pi m
 rkþ1
i

where m is the iteration number in the Newton–Raphson

- Second step of correction (instant(k þ 1)Dt) method.
The values of hydraulic parameters at the time corre-
sponding to k ¼ 0, are given by the initial steady conditions.
sh Also the algorithm (33) indicates that the pressure wave speed
Ukþ1
1i ¼ Uk1i  k
ða  bÞW1iþ1 k
þ ð2b  1ÞW1i k
þ ð1  a  bÞW1i1
2a i interferes not only with the stability conditions (31) but also
kþa kþa
þ W1iþb  W1iþb1 þ DtSk1i ; ð29Þ with the finite difference scheme.

sh
Ukþ1
2i ¼ Uk2i  k
ða  bÞW2iþ1 k
þ ð2b  1ÞW2i k
þ ð1  a  bÞW2i1 5. Applications and results
2a i
kþa kþa
þ W2iþb  W2iþb1 þ DtSk2i : ð30Þ
5.1. Description of the system and position of the
In these equations s ¼ Dt/Dx is the grid mesh ratio, and a, problem
b are two parameters of values generally satisfying the condi-
tions 0  a, b  1. Note that the particular values a ¼ 1/2 and To illustrate the dynamic behaviour of high-pressure
b ¼ 1/2 correspond to the two-step Lax–Wendroff method [13]. hydrogen–natural gas mixtures in pipelines, we consider an
The scheme is a three point explicit method of second-order installation (Fig. 3) composed with a compressor pumping
accuracy. It can be shown that the requirement condition for the mixture through an iron pipe of 0.4 m in diameter and
stability is given by Courant–Friedrichs–Lewy condition [14]: 500 m long. In the event of a sudden emergency, we place
a rapid closure valve (RCV) at the downstream end. In this
Dt 1
¼ : (31) case, the pressure in the supply line may reach excessive
Dx ðjVj þ CÞmax
values and may destroy the compressor and the pipeline. To

38 23
θ=0 θ = 1/3 Case 1 Case 2
34 θ = 2/3 θ=1
22
pressure (bar)
pressure (bar)

30
21
26

20
22 θ=0 θ = 1/3
t (s) θ = 2/3 θ=1 t (s)
18 19
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20

Fig. 7 – Pressure as a function of time, for cases 1 and 2 at the middle of the pipe, for different values of q.
 international journal of hydrogen energy 33 (2008) 4824–4832 4829

38 23
θ=0 θ = 1/3 Case 1 Case 2
34 θ = 2/3 θ=1
22
pressure (bar)

pressure (bar)
30
21
26

20
22
θ=0 θ = 1/3
t (s) θ = 2/3 θ=1 t (s)
18 19
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20

Fig. 8 – Pressure as a function of time, for cases 1 and 2 at the (RCV) side, for different values of q.

avoid this, we place an automatic closure valve (ACV) at the makes less time to reach the (ACV) valve when q increases.
immediate discharge side of the compressor. As initial condi- In this case, the reaction time of the (ACV) is largely reduced
tion, we assume a mass flow m0 ¼ 10 Kg/s (398714.400 m3 (n)/ as indicated on Fig. 5.
s), a static temperature T ¼ 15  C and an absolute pressure Figs. 6, 7 and 8, show plots of the numerically obtained
p ¼ 20 bar. The properties of hydrogen and natural gas used results for the pressure distribution, as a function of time,
in the calculations are presented in Tables 1 and 2, for the cases 1 and 2 and for different values of the hydrogen
respectively. mass ratio q. These plots are at the (ACV) side, the middle of
Two parameters were used to characterize the dynamic the pipe and the (RCV) side, respectively.
response of the valves: the reaction time (time taken to start The numerical results clearly show the interaction of the
the valve actuation after sensing a pressure perturbation) pressure wave, generated by the rapid closure of the (RCV),
and the actuation time (time interval between the initial and with the closure time of the (ACV). The results of the numer-
the final positions of the valve). For the RCV we considered ical simulation, plotted in Fig. 6, show that for q ¼ 1 and for
the actuation time only. The Table 3 summarizes these the case 1, the value of the maximum pressure predicted at
closure times. the (ACV) is 33.2 bar, which is reached 7.53 s after the valve
closure. In this example, the increase in mass in the system,
due to delay of the (ACV) closure, generates a pressure
5.2. Results and discussion
increase much higher than that due to the rapid closure of
the (RCV). This over pressure, by mass accumulation, may
Referring to Table 3, we consider a linear variation of the
be lowered by reducing the closure time of the upstream valve
mass flow during the valve transient. Figs. 4 and 5 show
which is represented by the case 2 and for the same value of q.
plots of the numerically obtained results for the mass flow,
In this case, the maximum pressure is reduced to the value of
as function of time, for two sections at the exit side of the
22.8 bar.
(ACV) and immediately upstream end of the (RCV) and for
The results of the numerical simulation, plotted in Fig. 6,
cases 1 and 2. After the rapid closure of the (RCV), a pressure
also show the influence of the hydrogen mass fraction q on
wave front propagates towards the upstream end of the
the pressure evolution. We notice that, for case 1, the
pipeline and makes the (ACV) react and start to close. Since
maximum pressure for natural gas (q ¼ 0) is 21.8 bar. For
the celerity of waves is proportional to the mass fraction q, it
hydrogen–natural gas mixtures, the maximum pressure is
25.8 for q ¼ 1/3 and 29.7 for q ¼ 2/3. For hydrogen (q ¼ 1), the
maximum pressure is 33.2 bar. These results show that for
26
θ = 1/3 the same transient conditions, the pressure increase is
much higher for hydrogen or mixtures than that for natural
24
gas. In fact, the idea of simply replacing natural gas by
hydrogen or hydrogen–natural gas mixtures in the existing
pressure (bar)

pipelines is not at all systematic. The numerical results,

22 obtained, confirm that further studies should be carried out
taking into account, the yield strength of the existing pipe-
lines and the transient pressure distributions, in order to
20 determine to what extent it is possible to mix hydrogen
M.O.C (case 1) F.D.M (case 1) with natural gas.
M.O.C (case 2) F.D.M (case 2) t (s) Further more, researches have been performed by consid-
18 ering a steady state, for the purpose of studying the potential
0 5 10 15 20
risks of hydrogen release from the pipelines [16,17], hydrogen
Fig. 9 – Pressure evolution at the middle of the pipe, for embrittlement and fatigue of pipeline steel [18]. The obtained
cases 1 and 2 and for q [ 1/3. Concordance of the method of results by these researches, consider the pressure as an
characteristics (M.O.C) and the finite difference method important factor to analyze these risks. Nevertheless, while
(F.D.M). transporting hydrogen or hydrogen–natural gas mixtures in
4830 international journal of hydrogen energy 33 (2008) 4824–4832

5 5

4 4

3 3
t (s)

t (s)
2 2

1 1

0 0
0 100 200 300 400 500 0 100 200 300 400 500
θ = 0 (case 1) x (m) θ = 0 (case 2) x (m)

Fig. 10 – Evolution of the characteristic lines, for cases 1 and 2 and for q [ 0.

the existing pipelines, it’s not sufficient to analyze these risks
in the steady state where the pressure remains constant, they
also should be analyzed during the transient situations.
In our study, the numerical results, plotted in Fig. 6, show
that the difference between the steady state pressure and
the transient regime pressure, increases significantly with
the mass fraction q to reach the value of 13.2 bar for q ¼ 1
and for case 1.
In the middle of the pipe (Fig. 7) and at the (RCV) side
(Fig. 8), we notice the same effects on the pressure evolution
of time closure of valves and q.
Fig. 7 also shows the influence of the superposition of the
two waves reflected from the upstream side and the down-
stream side of the pipe. These waves come upon the middle
of the pipe causing a neutralization effect reducing the pres-
sure fluctuations.

5 5

4 4

3 3
t (s)

t (s)

2 2

1 1

0 0
0 100 200 300 400 500 0 100 200 300 400 500
θ = 1 (case 1) x (m) θ = 1 (case 2) x (m)

Fig. 11 – Evolution of the characteristic lines, for cases 1 and 2 and for q [ 1.
 international journal of hydrogen energy 33 (2008) 4824–4832
417
θ=0
Celerity of waves (m/s)
415
413
411
Case 1
409
0 5
Fig. 12 – Celerity of waves as a function of time, for cases 1 and 2, for q [ 0 and q [ 1.
The plots of Fig. 9 show the perfect concordance of the
numerical results obtained by the method of characteristics
(M.O.C) and the finite difference method (F.D.M).
Figs. 10 and 11 show the evolution of the characteristic
lines grid for natural gas (q ¼ 0) and hydrogen (q ¼ 1) and
for cases 1 and 2. If we assume that the value of the velocity
is neglected, the celerity of waves represents the slope of the
characteristic lines as shown in Eqs. (9) and (10). In these
figures, the phenomena of wave propagation along the pipe
and wave reflection at the downstream end and the
upstream end are well represented in the different charac-
teristic lines diagrams. These reflections well explain the
fluctuations observed in the pressure curves of Figs. 6–8.
Fig. 12 shows that the celerity of hydrogen waves is much
higher than that of natural gas waves. In this case, the
hydrogen waves will propagate more rapidly than those of
natural gas. As a result, for the same time interval, the
number of the reflected waves in the case of hydrogen is
three times bigger than that in the case of natural gas as
illustrated on Figs. 10 and 11.
Fig. 12, also shows that the difference of the celerity of
waves between the cases 1 and 2 is much important for
hydrogen (q ¼ 1) than that for natural gas (q ¼ 0). As a result,
the difference of the characteristic lines evolution, between
the case 1 and 2, is significant for hydrogen, Fig. 11. For the
case of natural gas, the characteristic lines evolution is almost
the same for cases 1 and 2, Fig. 10.
6. Conclusion
In this study, the numerical solution of the transient flow in
rigid pipelines of hydrogen–natural gas mixtures has been
presented. This problem is governed by coupled two linear
partial differential equations of hyperbolic type. The numer-
ical methods employed are the method of characteristics
and the finite difference method.
The boundary conditions were imposed by introducing
a linear closure law for the upstream and the downstream
valves.
The occurrence of pressure oscillations in the different
sections of the pipe was analyzed as a result of the compres-
sion wave originated by the rapid closure of downstream
valve (RCV). In this case, the pressure may reach excessive
values due to the mass accumulation effect caused by the
4831
1380
Case 1 θ=1
Celerity of waves (m/s)
Case 2
1340
1300
1260
Case 2 t (s) t (s)
1220
10 15 0 1 2 3 4 5
delay of the upstream valve closure. We have also analyzed
the effect of the different values of hydrogen mass ratio q on
the dynamic behaviour of the pressure.
The obtained results show that the transient pressure
oscillations for hydrogen and hydrogen–natural gas mixtures
are higher compared to natural gas. Therefore, attention
should be paid when mixing hydrogen with natural gas in
the existing pipelines studied for natural gas only.
The plots presented show the perfect concordance of the
numerical results obtained by the method of characteristics
(M.O.C) and the finite difference method (F.D.M).
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[3] Kessal M. Simplified numerical simulation of transients in
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[4] Thorley ARD, Tiley CH. Unsteady and transient flow of
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