Applicability of equations for pressure losses in transmission gas pipelines

Abstract

Transmission pipelines for gas have large a diameter and high pressure. Gas pump stations are built along the pipeline and their main task is to increase gas pressure to the technologically and economically justified level. Determining the exact value of pressure drop in the pipeline is the major problem in gas pipeline transport. The drop of pressure is a result of external and internal friction. The pressure can be lowered in the gas pipeline but this depends on the geometric parameters of the latter, i.e. length, inner diameter, full-length profile, quantity and temperature of transmitted gas and its thermodynamic properties. The technical condition of the transmission pipeline and the character of gas flow in the pipeline have a great influence on the pressure variations. A number of mathematical models focus on determining the drop of pressure in a pipeline section. The value of deviations of calculated values from the real data in each model strictly depends on the conditions in the pipeline. The aim of this paper is an analysis of applicability ranges of various equations for pressure losses in transmission pipelines.