Modeling and simulation for PIG flow control in natural gas Pipeline

This paper deals with dynamic analysis of Pipeline Inspection Gauge (PIG) flow control in natural gas pipelines. The dynamic behaviour of PIG depends on the pressure differential generated by injected gas flow behind the tail of the PIG and expelled gas flow in front of its nose. To analyze dynamic behaviour characteristics (e.g. gas flow, the PIG position and velocity) mathematical models are derived. Two types of nonlinear hyperbolic partial differential equations are developed for unsteady flow analysis of the PIG driving and expelled gas. Also, a non-homogeneous differential equation for dynamic analysis of the PIG is given. The nonlinear equations are solved by method of characteristics (MOC) with a regular rectangular grid under appropriate initial and boundary conditions. Runge-Kutta method is used for solving the steady flow equations to get the initial flow values and for solving the dynamic equation of the PIG. The upstream and downstream regions are divided into a number of elements of equal length. The sampling time and distance are chosen under Courant-Friedrich-Lewy (CFL) restriction. Simulation is performed with a pipeline segment in the Korea gas corporation (KOGAS) low pressure system, Ueijungboo-Sangye line. The simulation results show that the derived mathematical models and the proposed computational scheme are effective for estimating the position and velocity of the PIG with a given operational condition of pipeline.