Leakage detection method based on transient pressure behaviors during pigging process in pipelines

Abstract

Pipelines are the most common way to transport oil and gas due to its convenience. They are facing many threatens such as leakage, which may cause serious pipeline accidents. This paper proposes a leakage detection method coupled with the transient pressure characteristics to recognize leaks in pipeline. A coupled dynamic mesh method was used to achieve the movement of pigging device. The explicit and implicit coupling method has been developed to simulate transient pressures and leak behaviors. Cases has been conducted through the established experimental pipeline system to validate the proposed leakage detection method. The reasonable agreement between the results from these two methods verify that the proposed leakage detection method is accurate enough to simulate transient pressure behaviors in pipelines during the pigging process. Leak volume and location identification methods have been presented and the calculation accuracy is verified in a reasonable range. The proposed leakage detection method in this paper is a supplement to the field of subsea pipeline detection.