Dynamics of a cantilevered pipe conveying fluid and partially subjected to a confined counter-current external axial flow of a different fluid

Abstract

A linear analytical model has been developed for prediction of fluid-elastic instabilities of brine-strings during product retrieval in salt-mined caverns. These caverns are utilized for storage and subsequent retrieval of hydrocarbons, hydrogen gas or compressed air in Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) plants. The retrieval operation involves pumping brine downwards through a long cantilevered pipe (“brine-string”) into the cavern, causing the lighter-than-brine gaseous or liquid “product” stored in the cavern to flow upwards and out of the cavern through a shorter annular passage formed by a concentric casing surrounding the upper portion of the pipe. The presence in the cavern of two different fluids with a variable interface level is taken into account. Employing a Newtonian derivation of the equation of motion solutions were obtained via the Galerkin modal decomposition technique, demonstrating that the brine-string may develop buckling or flutter at high-enough flow rates, depending on the system parameters. Extensive computations investigated the influence of system parameters on the dynamics. It is shown that simplifying the system by considering a single fluid in the cavern, and so for the flows within and around the brine-string, leads to unrealistically high critical flow velocity predictions.