Transient modeling of gas flow in pipelines following catastrophic failure

This paper simulates transient compressible adiabatic gas flows in a long pipeline following a catastrophic failure using an implicit high order finite difference scheme as a discretisation technique for convective terms. A rupture is assumed to be occurred accidentally at a distance from the feeding point of a pipeline where the pipeline being divided into two distinct sections, high and low pressure segment. The results show that at early times after the rupture, considerable pressure loss will occur at the breakpoint with a chocked flow at this point. After expansion waves reach the closed end of the pipe, a reversal flow will constitute in the pipe. In the high pressure segment, the gas feeding continues and flow rate reaches a steady state chocked flow. In the low pressure segment, the flow rate decreases towards zero until the entire gas of the low pressure segment be evacuated. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.