Numerical Analysis of Rapid Gas Decompression in Pure Nitrogen using 1D and 3D Transient Mathematical Models of Gas Flow in Pipes

The paper presents a numerical investigation on the rapid gas decompression in pure nitrogen which is made by using the one-dimensional (1D) and three-dimensional (3D) mathematical models of transient compressible non-isothermal fluid flow in pipes. A 1D transient mathematical model of compressible thermal multicomponent fluid mixture flow in pipes is presented. The set of the mass, momentum and enthalpy conservation equations for gas phase is solved in the model. Thermo-physical properties of multicomponent gas mixture are calculated by solving the Equation of State (EOS) model. The Soave-Redlich-Kwong (SRK-EOS) model is chosen. This model is successfully validated on the experimental data [1] and shows a good agreement with measurements. A 3D transient mathematical model of compressible thermal single-component gas flow in pipes, which is built by using the CFD Fluent code (ANSYS), is presented in the paper. The set of unsteady Reynolds-averaged conservation equations for gas phase is solved. Thermo-physical properties of single-component gas are calculated by solving the Real Gas Equation of State (EOS) model. The simplest case of gas decompression in pure nitrogen is simulated using both 1D and 3D models. The ability of both models to simulate the process of rapid decompression with a high order of agreement with each other is tested. Both, 1D and 3D numerical results show a good agreement between each other. The numerical investigation shows that 3D CFD model is very helpful in order to validate 1D simulation results if the experimental data is absent or limited.

Mathematical Modeling of Non-Isothermal Multi-Component Fluid Flow in Pipes Applying to Rapid Gas Decompression in Rich and Base Gases

The paper presents a one-dimensional transient mathematical model of compressible non-isothermal multicomponent fluid mixture flow in a pipe. The set of the mass, momentum and enthalpy conservation equations for gas phase is solved in the model. Thermo-physical properties of multi-component gas mixture are calculated by solving the Equation of State (EOS) model. The Soave-Redlich-Kwong (SRK-EOS) model is chosen. Gas mixture viscosity is calculated on the basis of the Lee-Gonzales- Eakin (LGE) correlation. Numerical analysis of rapid gas decompression process in rich and base natural gases is made on the basis of the proposed mathematical model. The model is successfully validated on the experimental data [1]. The proposed mathematical model shows a very good agreement with the experimental data [1] in a wide range of pressure values and predicts the decompression in rich and base gas mixtures much better than analytical and mathematical models, which are available from the open source literature.

Numerical Analysis on Rapid Decompression in Conventional Dry Gases using One- Dimensional Mathematical Modeling

The paper presents a one-dimensional transient mathematical model of compressible thermal multi-component gas mixture flows in pipes. The set of the mass, momentum and enthalpy conservation equations for gas phase is solved. Thermo-physical properties of multi-component gas mixture are calculated by solving the Equation of State (EOS) model. The Soave-Redlich-Kwong (SRK-EOS) model is chosen. Gas mixture viscosity is calculated on the basis of the Lee-Gonzales-Eakin (LGE) correlation. Numerical analysis on rapid decompression in conventional dry gases is performed by using the proposed mathematical model. The model is validated on measured values of the decompression wave speed in dry natural gas mixtures. All predictions show excellent agreement with the experimental data at high and low pressure. The presented model predicts the decompression in dry natural gas mixtures much better than GASDECOM and OLGA codes, which are the most frequently-used codes in oil and gas pipeline transport service.