Simulation of long-distance pipeline transportation properties of whole-tailings paste with high sliming

Based on Bingham rheological model,a three-dimensional numerical simulation model for long-distance pipeline transportation is established by computational fluid dynamics(CFD)to study the pipeline transportationproperties of high sliming paste from a copper mine in China.Based on the rheological properties test,the pressure and velocity of pipeline and elbow are simulated by CFD under different mass concentrations and different stowing capacities.The results show that the pipeline resistance of whole-tailings paste with high sliming while without pumping agent is much higher than that with high sliming and pumping agent at the same mass concentration,and the pipeline resistance of whole-tailings paste with high sliming while without pumping agent is much higher than that with low sliming while without pumping agent.It is very important to add pumping agent to whole-tailings paste with high sliming,and the resistance changes with mass concentration and stowing capacity at the same cement-to-sand ratio of1:5and tailings-to-waste ratio of6:1.However,the change is just limited,that is to say,the paste transportation system is of good stability.Furthermore,at the elbow,the maximum pressure and velocity transfer to the outside of the pipe from the inside.However,lubricating layer is formed at the pipe wall because of high content of fine particles in whole-tailings paste,which will protect the elbow from abrasion.CFD provides an intuitive and accurate basis for pipeline transportation study,and would have a wider application space in the study of paste rheological properties and resistance reduction methods.

Behavior of transporting pipeline sections without and with hydrogen exposure based on full-scale tests

Pipeline transport of hydrogen is one of today’s economic and environmental challenges.In order to find safe and reliable application of both existing gas and build new pipelines,it is essential to carry out tests on full-scale pipeline section,including the potentially more dangerous places than the main pipe,the girth welds.For the investigations,pipeline sections of P355NH steel with girth welds were prepared and exposed to pure hydrogen at twice the maximum allowable operating pressure for 41 days.Subsequently,full-scale burst tests were carried out and specimens were cut and prepared from the typical locations of the failed pipeline sections for mechanical,and macro-and microstructural investigations.The results obtained were evaluated and compared with data from previous full-scale tests on pipeline sections without hydrogen exposure.The results showed differences in the behavior of pipeline sections loaded in different ways,with different characteristics of the materials and the welded joints,both in the cases without hydrogen exposure and in the cases exposed to hydrogen.

Sacrificial piles as a countermeasure against local scour around underwater pipelines

Local scour around pipelines crossing rivers or in marine environments is a significant concern.It can lead to failure of the pipelines resulting in environmental side effects and economic losses.This study developed an experimental method to reduce local scour around pipelines with a steady flow of clear water by installing cylindrical and cubical sacrificial piles.Three sizes of sacrificial piles were examined in a linear arrangement.Sacrificial piles were installed on the upstream side of the pipeline at three distances.Maximum scour depth reduction rates below the pipeline were computed.The results showed that sacrificial piles could protect a pipeline from local scour.A portion of scoured sediment around the sacrificial piles was deposited beneath the pipeline.This sediment accumulation reduced the scour depth beneath the pipeline.Analysis of the experimental results demonstrated that the size of piles(d),the spacing between piles,and the distance between the pipe and piles(Xp)were the variables that reduced the maximum scour beneath the pipeline with a diameter of D.For the piles with d=0.40D and 0.64D,X_(p)=4OD was the optimal distance to install a group of piles,and cubical piles could mitigate scour more effectively than cylindrical piles under similar conditions.For the piles with d=D,the greatest reduction in scour depth was achieved at X_(p)=50D with any desired spacings between piles,and cylindrical piles in this dimension could protect the pipeline against scour more effectively than cubical piles.

Study on the Technology of Supplying Water Safely by Long-Distance Pipeline

The extensively built long-distance water transmission pipelines have become the main water sources for urban areas. To ensure the reliability and safety of the water supply, from the viewpoint of overall management, it would be necessary to establish a system of information management for the pipeline. The monitoring, calculating and analyzing functions of the system serve to give controlling instructions and safe operating rules to the automatic equipment and technician, making sure the resistance coefficient distribution along the pipeline is reasonable; the hydraulic state transition is smooth when operating conditions change or water supply accidents occur, avoiding the damage of water hammer. This paper covered the composition structures of the information management system of long-distance water transmission pipelines and the functions of the subsystems, and finally elaborated on the approaches and steps of building a mathematics model for the analysis of dynamic hydraulic status.

Criterions and Measures of Route Selection of Shallowly Embedded Long-Distance Oil and Gas Pipeline in Mountain Areas

According to the engineering investigation of long-distance oil and gas pipelines, the criterions and measures of route selection are drawn as follows： the flat landform is the first choice in route alignment. The foot of mountain is the first choice when the route passes by the valley. The route should pass by but the shady and deposited slope and not in sunny and erosive slope as possible as it can. The pipeline should be vertical to contour climbing and descending the mountain except steep slope. Tunnel can be used in crossing foothill. Perpendicularly traversing the river is better than beveling; the worst choice is to put the pipeline along the river. Bypass is the best choice in karsts area. The order of route selection should be pre-choosing, investigation, optimization and adjustment.

THE RISK ASSESSMENT OF THE LONG-DISTANCE OILPIPELINE ENGINEERING

The oilfield construction and long-distance oil pipeline engineering has been developed extensively in China. The risk assessment of oil industry will, however, be an important objective to cope with the development of oil industry , The risk assessment of oil industry has many subjects worthy to be studied.The major purpose of the paper is to research the risk cases of long-distance oil pipeline engineering in Ganshu and Shaanxi provinces.

Water hammer protection for diversion systems in front of pumps in long-distance water supply projects

For a water supply system with long-distance diversion pipelines, in addition to the water hammer problems that occur beyond pumps, the safety of the water diversion pipeline in front of pumps also deserves attention. In this study, a water hammer protection scheme combined with an overflow surge tank and a regulating valve was developed. A mathematical model of the overflow surge tank was developed, and an analytical formula for the height of the overflow surge tank was derived. Furthermore, a practical water supply project was used to evaluate the feasibility of the combined protection scheme and analyze the sensitivity of valve regulation rules. The results showed that the combined protection scheme effectively reduced the height of the surge tank, lessened the difficulties related to construction, and reduced the necessary financial investment for the project. The two-stage closing rule articulated as fast first and then slow could minimize the overflow volume of the surge tank when the power failure occurred, while the two-stage opening rule articulated as slow first and then fast could be more conducive to the safety of the water supply system when the pump started up.

Modeling of Hydrogen Blending on the Leakage and Diffusion of Urban Buried Hydrogen-Enriched Natural Gas Pipeline

With the introduction of various carbon reduction policies around the world,hydrogen energy,as a kind of clean energy with zero carbon emission,has attracted much attention.The safe and economical transportation of hydrogen is of great significance to the development of hydrogen energy industries.Utilizing natural gas pipelines to transport hydrogen is considered to be an efficient and economical way.However,hydrogen has a higher risk of leakage due to its strong diffusion capacity and lower explosive limit than conventional natural gas.Therefore,it is of great significance to study the leakage and diffusion law of hydrogen-enriched natural gas(HENG)pipelines for the safe transportation of hydrogen energy.In this study,the leakage and diffusion characteristics of urban buried HENG pipelines are investigated numerically,and the dangerous degree of leakage is analyzed based on the time and area when the gas concentration reaches the lower explosive limit.The influences of hydrogen blending ratio(HBR),operating pressure,leakage hole size and direction,as well as soil type on the leakage and diffusion law of HENG are analyzed.Results show that the hydrogen mixing is not the key factor in increasing the degree of risk after gas leakage for urban buried HENG pipelines.When the HBR is 5%,10%,15% and 20%,the corresponding first dangerous time is 1053,1041,1019 and 998 s,respectively.Thiswork is expected to provide a valuable reference for the safe operation and risk prevention of HENG pipelines in the future.

Wall slip behavior of cemented paste backfill slurry during pipeline based on noncontact experimental detection

Wall slip is a microscopic phenomenon of cemented paste backfill(CPB)slurry near the pipe wall,which has an important influence on the form of slurry pipe transport flow and velocity distribution.Directly probing the wall slip characteristics using conventional experimental methods is difficult.Therefore,this paper established a noncontact experimental platform for monitoring the microscopic slip layer of CPB pipeline transport independently based on particle image velocimetry(PIV)and analyzed the effects of slurry temperature,pipe diameter,solid concentration,and slurry flow on the wall slip velocity of the CPB slurry,which refined the theory of the effect of wall slip characteristics on pipeline transport.The results showed that the CPB slurry had an extensive slip layer at the pipe wall with significant wall slip.High slurry temperature improved the degree of particle Brownian motion within the slurry and enhanced the wall slip effect.Increasing the pipe diameter was not conducive to the formation of the slurry slip layer and led to a transition in the CPB slurry flow pattern.The increase in the solid concentration raised the interlayer shear effect of CPB slurry flow and the slip velocity.The slip velocity value increased from 0.025 to 0.056 m·s^(-1)when the solid content improved from 55wt%to 65wt%.When slurry flow increased,the CPB slurry flocculation structure changed,which affected the slip velocity,and the best effect of slip layer resistance reduction was achieved when the transported flow rate was 1.01 m^(3)·h^(-1).The results had important theoretical significance for improving the stability and economy of the CPB slurry in the pipeline.

Emulsification of Indian heavy crude oil using a novel surfactant for pipeline transportation

The most economical way to overcome flow assurance problems associated with transportation of heavy crude oil through offshore pipelines is by emulsifying it with water in the presence of a suitable surfactant.In this research,a novel surfactant,tri-triethanolamine monosunflower ester,was synthesized in the laboratory by extracting fatty acids present in sunflower（Helianthus annuus）oil.Synthesized surfactant was used to prepare oil-in-water emulsions of a heavy crude oil from the western oil field of India.After emulsification,a dramatic decrease in pour point as well as viscosity was observed.All the prepared emulsions were found to be flowing even at 1°C.The emulsion developed with 60%oil content and 2wt%surfactant showed a decrease in viscosity of 96%.The stability of the emulsion was investigated at different temperatures,and it was found to be highly stable.The effectiveness of surfactant in emulsifying the heavy oil in water was investigated by measuring the equilibrium interfacial tension（IFT）between the crude oil（diluted）and the aqueous phase along with zeta potential of emulsions.2wt%surfactant decreased IFT by almost nine times that of no surfactant.These results suggested that the synthesized surfactant may be used to prepare a stable oil-in-water emulsion for its transportation through offshore pipelines efficiently.

New application notion of pipeline transport——integrated in industry solid waste innocuous and efficient disposition

In order to solve transport problems of industry solid,firstly,a new applicationnotion of pipeline transport was presented,that is to say,combining pretreatment andtransport with disposal techniques of industry solid waste.Secondly,the integrated dis-posal and transport system for industry solid waste was introduced,in particular,the oper-ating principles,equipment set-up,key technology and technical parameters.Next,thispaper illustrated the application of this integrated system.Such as it can transport coalsludge with sufficiently high solids content(about 72%～77%)and high apparent viscosity(about 1 000～3 000 Pa.s)directly by pipeline having no use for water and addition agent.Generally,the transport distance is about 1 000 m.This system has been successfullyused in innocuous disposition and efficient utilization of other industrial byproducts or solidwastes,such as city sludge and paper making waste.The integrated system causes nopollution to the environment for its complete seal and realizes protecting the environment,conserving the energy,promoting the development of cycling economic.Finally,the paperdiscussed the research works that were needed for studying such pipeline transport sys-tem and narrates the relevant condition and application status.

The Movement of a Mixture of Cotton with an Air Stream during Pneumatic Transport by Pipeline of Variable Cross Section

The article considers the movement of a mixture of air and raw cotton through a pipeline with a variable cross-section as a multi-speed heterogeneous medium. The regularities of the movement of components inside the pipeline, the equation of change in the porosity of cotton, air pressure and component velocities in time and along the transportation line are obtained. It was found that in the initial 20 - 25 m part of the pneumatic transport pipe there is a sharp decrease in pressure and air flow velocity, while the speed of cotton increases rapidly due to which there is a strong deformation of cotton stretching under the influence of aerodynamic force, which occurs due to the difference in the velocities of the components of the mixture, as a result of which the cotton loosens, and its porosity increases intensively.

Study on characteristics of pipeline transportation and sulfur fixing of cleaned coal logs

As special cylindrical briquettes of coal for long distance pipeline transportation and directly cleaned combustion the cleaned coal logs should possess two characteristics of transportation in pipeline and cleaned combustion. In order to make cleaned coal logs a rational technology for manufacturing, cleaned coal logs was designed and compound sulfur fixing binders with high effects of binding and sulfur-fixing was selected and combined. In addition, by means of characteristic experiments of strength, wear, waterproof and sulfur-fixing five different cleaned coal logs made with different compound sulfur fixing binders in different compaction conditions was tested and measured. Experimental results indicated that the manufacturing technology of cleaned coal logs was reasonable and the combination of compound sulfur fixing binders was scientific. Cleaned coal logs made up with the fourth group of coal mixture had high strength, good waterproof property, efficient sulfur-fixing, good characteristic of transportation, and achieved the performance requirement for pipeline transportation and sulfur fixing.

Experiment and mechanism of dynamic drag reduction in pipeline transportation

Based on the analysis of the disadvantages of traditional methods in reducing pipeline resistance, the new conception of dynamic drag reduction in pipeline transportation has been proposed. The experimental results and mechanism of dynamic reduction of pipeline resistance were also discussed in detail. The main conclusion is that the dynamic reduction of resistance exerts forces on the moving materials along both the radial direction and the axial direction. The radial force throws the materials upwards to depart from the pipe wall to reduce the frictional force, while the axial force directly reduces the resistance by providing the force to overcome the drag.

Evaluation of Stress Corrosion Cracking Damage to an API 5L X52 Pipeline Transporting Ammonia: A Case Study

The high number of leak events that took place in recent years at a 25.4 cm (10”)Øpipeline transporting anhydrous liquid ammonia, located in the Southeast of Mexico, was the main reason to carry out a number of field studies and laboratory tests that helped establish not only the failure causes but also mitigation and control solutions. The performed activities included direct evaluation at failure sites, total repair programs, metallographic studies and pipeline flexibility analyses. The obtained results were useful to conclude that the failures obeyed a cracking mechanism by Stress Corrosion Cracking (SCC) which was caused by the combined effect of different factors: high stress resistance, high hardness of the base metal with a microstructure prone to brittleness and residual strains originated during the pipeline construction. From the operative, logistic and financial standpoints, it is not feasible to release the stress of approximately 22 km of pipeline. Therefore, the only viable solution is to install a new pipeline with suitable fabrication, construction and installation specifications aimed at preventing the SCC phenomenon.

Experimental studies on resistance characteristics of high concentration red mud in pipeline transport

Red mud will flow in paste form under high pressure during pipeline transport.It belongs to a two-phase flow of materials with high viscosity and a high concentration of non-sedimentation,homogeneous solid-liquids.In pipeline transport,its resistance char- acteristics will be influenced by such factors as grain size,velocity,concentration,density, grain composition and pipe diameter etc..With the independently developed small-sized tube-type pressure resistance test facility,studied the resistance characteristics of red mud concerning the three influencing factors,paste concentration,velocity and pipe diameter, which attract the most attention in projects.The fine grain size of the red mud is d_(50)= 13.02μm.According to the experimental results,the pressure loss in transport will in- crease along with the increase of velocity and will fall along with the increase of pipe di- ameter.A 1% difference in paste concentration will result in a 50%～100% difference in pipeline resistance loss.These experimental data is hoped to be direct guidance to the design of high concentration and viscous material pipeline transport system.

Natural Gas Gathering and Transporting Pipeline Networks in Sichuan Province

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The development status and the prospect of the pipeline robots in the oil and gas storage and transportation industry

In the process of the constant development of the oil and gas storage and transportation technology, the maintenance of the large pipelines is an important task. At present, China vigorously promotes the use of the pipeline robots, for the maintenance of the oil and gas pipelines by the unique characteristics of the robots. In this paper, the author carries out the detailed analysis on the current situation of the development of the pipeline robots in the oil and gas storage and transportation industry, and compares the different applications of the pipeline robots at home and abroad. Starting from the principles of the operation of the robots, the author analyzes the characteristics of the different types of the robots, and combined with the existing conditions of the oil and gas storage and transportation in our country, the author tries to find the most favorable way of the working of the pipeline robots, to continuously improve the development of the oil and gas storage and transportation industry using the robot technologies.

2013 Production of China's Shale Gas Reaches 200 Million Cubic Meters and the First Transportation Pipeline Constructed

Results of the global shale gas resources show that minable resources of global shale gas are 187 trillion cubic meters （tern）, of which China accounts for 36 tcm （about 20% of the total amount）, which is mainly distributed in the Sichuan Basin, Yangtze Terrace, and Ordos Basin. From 2009 to 2012, China completed an accumulative number of 129 drilling wells related to shale gas, including 46 investigated vertical wells, 55 exploration wells and 28 evaluation wells, with 2012 production ranging from 25 million cubic meters （mcm） to 30 mcm.