The Use of Hydraulic transcient Modelling in the Design of Resilient Pipelines
Annual Conference
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Pressure surges during the start up, shut down, or sudden power failure of a pipeline can cause operational problems if a pipeline is not designed properly. The issues of buckling under negative pressure and positive pressure peaks which exceed rated pressures can cause a pipeline and its mechanical components to fail much sooner than necessary. The technical challenges encountered when configuring a pipeline for efficient and resilient operation will be looked at.
A long, large diameter polyethylene pipeline exhibits different behaviour to a shorter thin walled mPVC pipeline. The paper will discuss the Surge Analysis of a range of pipelines, solutions to mitigate large surges in pressure, and the analysis and reduction of fatigue loading to extend asset life.
Modelling of such pipelines will be demonstrated through on screen animations and the results of which will be discussed in depth.
Thus, it will be shown how hydraulic transient modelling can be an effective method in identifying problems and developing solutions to ensure pipelines can be designed with resilience in mind and can extend the life of existing assets, saving considerable expenditure.