Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
! Neutrium
ARTICLES PODCAST CONTACT DONATE
SUMMARY
Due to their large capital expense, pipelines are often utilized for the
transfer of multiple products. During operation of these multi-product
pipelines, the interface between two adjacent products extends (referred
to as interface mixing), resulting in the contamination of each product.
This interface is typically sent to slops collection for reprocessing or
disposal at additional cost to the operator. Therefore the economics of a
pipeline can often be improved through a study of product interfaces
under various operational conditions to aide in the minimization of
interface mixing. This article presents several empirical methods by
which interface mixing can be quantified.
1. DEFINITIONS
Re : Reynolds number
D : Inner diameter of the pipeline (m)
L : Length of the pipeline (m)
https://neutrium.net/fluid_flow/calculating-interface-volumes-for-multi-product-pipelines/ Page 1 of 11
Calculating Interface Volumes for Multi-product Pipelines – Neutrium 22/12/2016, 5:11 pm
2. CALCULATION INPUTS
https://neutrium.net/fluid_flow/calculating-interface-volumes-for-multi-product-pipelines/ Page 2 of 11
Calculating Interface Volumes for Multi-product Pipelines – Neutrium 22/12/2016, 5:11 pm
20281.8 Max(ρa , ρb )
Linterface = D0.4 L0.6 (1.5169 + )( )
Re Min(ρa , ρb )
Linterface = 0.994345L0.482
https://neutrium.net/fluid_flow/calculating-interface-volumes-for-multi-product-pipelines/ Page 3 of 11
Calculating Interface Volumes for Multi-product Pipelines – Neutrium 22/12/2016, 5:11 pm
Linterface = 1.10288L0.529
1075
Linterface = L 0.62
(0.55 + 0.87 )
Re
1
n=
√f
2
2n2 n
Linterface = (1 − (1 − ( ) w ) )L
n
(n + 1) (2n + 1)
Udoetok & Nguyen suggest w = 0.585 based on field data they used to
develop the model, however if the opportunity exists one should calibrate
this model to pipeline specific measurements.
https://neutrium.net/fluid_flow/calculating-interface-volumes-for-multi-product-pipelines/ Page 5 of 11
Calculating Interface Volumes for Multi-product Pipelines – Neutrium 22/12/2016, 5:11 pm
4. INTERFACE VOLUME
The interface volume can be easily calculated using the interface length
and the cross sectional area of the pipeline as shown below.
πD2
Vinterface = Linterface
4
5. COMPARISON OF METHODS
Re = 1000
https://neutrium.net/fluid_flow/calculating-interface-volumes-for-multi-product-pipelines/ Page 6 of 11
Calculating Interface Volumes for Multi-product Pipelines – Neutrium 22/12/2016, 5:11 pm
Re = 4000
https://neutrium.net/fluid_flow/calculating-interface-volumes-for-multi-product-pipelines/ Page 7 of 11
Calculating Interface Volumes for Multi-product Pipelines – Neutrium 22/12/2016, 5:11 pm
Re = 2.5 × 105
https://neutrium.net/fluid_flow/calculating-interface-volumes-for-multi-product-pipelines/ Page 8 of 11
Calculating Interface Volumes for Multi-product Pipelines – Neutrium 22/12/2016, 5:11 pm
https://neutrium.net/fluid_flow/calculating-interface-volumes-for-multi-product-pipelines/ Page 9 of 11
Calculating Interface Volumes for Multi-product Pipelines – Neutrium 22/12/2016, 5:11 pm
6. FURTHER READING
1. Udoetok, E.S and Nguyen, A.N., A disc pig model for estimating the
mixing volumes between product batches in multi-product pipelines, Journal
of Pipeline Engineering, 2009, 8 (3): p. 195-204
3. Kennedy, J. L., Oil and Gas Pipeline Fundamentals , 2nd Edition, 1993,
Pennwell Books.
https://neutrium.net/fluid_flow/calculating-interface-volumes-for-multi-product-pipelines/ Page 10 of 11
Calculating Interface Volumes for Multi-product Pipelines – Neutrium 22/12/2016, 5:11 pm
! " # $
ARTICLE TAGS
https://neutrium.net/fluid_flow/calculating-interface-volumes-for-multi-product-pipelines/ Page 11 of 11