A New Method To Detect Blockage in Gas Pipelines

Physical inspection and mathematical-model simulation are used to identify blockages in gas pipelines. Generally, the physical method can result in accurately detecting location and size of a blockage at the expense of production shutdown and high costs. The mathematical simulation detects a blockage through numerical modeling, which could give a quick evaluation at a much lower cost but with higher uncertainties. This paper presents a multirate-test method to detect locations and sizes of blockages in gas pipelines.

Introduction

The consumption of natural gas is next to that of oil and coal according to Energy Information Administration statistics.