Pipeline Applications Research Articles

Application of underground short-haul freight pipelines to large airports

The Dallas Fort Worth International Airport handles about 600,000 metric tons of cargo annually. These shipments are currently transported by trucks from the airport cargo terminals. An underground freight transportation (UFT) system has the potential to substantially reduce the truck traffic within the DFW Airport area and thus improve safety, efficiency, and air quality. The main reason for designing a UFT system in the DFW Airport is security vulnerability, when trucks drive under or near active runways and taxiways and may have hazardous or explosive cargo. Besides, the proposed UFT system is expected to reduce the number of trucks on airport grounds and the airport access roadways, thus enhancing both the roadway access capacity and safety as well as reducing adverse environmental impacts such as emissions and noise. The objective of this paper is to examine the feasibility of underground short-haul freight pipelines to a large airport such as Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport. The proposed short-haul UFT system transports standard air freight crates between an airport cargo terminal and a distribution center off the secured airport grounds. The DFW Airport UFT system design includes planning level configurations of the tracks, vehicle, propulsion system, end-point terminals, and loading/unloading mechanisms at those terminals. Operational attributes such as speeds, headways, loading/unloading times, and line capacities are also determined.

Experimental investigation on the effect of diameter ratio on two-phase slug flow separation in a T-Junction

T-junctions are often used in offshore platforms to partially separate gas from produced fluids. Poorly designed T-junctions frequently produce very high liquid (oil and/or water) carryovers, causing major issues to the downstream equipment train which is not designed to handle excessive liquid. This paper reports the liquid carryover experiments in T-junctions using five different side to main arm diameter ratios under slug flow regime. The obtained phase separation curves can be divided into two component variables; liquid-carryover threshold and peak liquid carryover. The experiments demonstrate that with a decrease in diameter ratio both of these variables decrease. Yet, for superior multiphase flow separation, a high liquid carryover threshold and a low peak liquid carryover are required. Hence, the generally accepted rule that a reduction in diameter ratio improves the phase separation is revealed to be an over-extrapolated statement. The novel findings of this work are: 1) for optimum flow splitting under slug flow conditions, the diameter ratio should be kept between 1 and 0.67, while the diameter ratio 0.67 was found to be most suitable; 2) two correlations were developed for predicting two-phase slug flow separation in different diameter ratio T-junctions. These correlations offer beneficial guidance and clarifications for a number of oil and gas flowline and pipeline applications.

The Proteomic Landscape in the Vitreous of Patients With Age-Related and Diabetic Retinal Disease.

In contrast to neovascular AMD (nAMD), no treatment option exists for dry AMD. Hence, the identification of specific biomarkers is required to facilitate diagnosis and therapy of dry AMD. The proteome of 34 vitreous humor samples (dry AMD: n = 6; nAMD: n = 10; proliferative diabetic retinopathy [PDR]: n = 9; epiretinal membrane [ERM]: n = 9) was analyzed by liquid chromatography coupled mass spectrometry. Then, label-free relative quantification of dry AMD, nAMD, and PDR relative to ERM, which was defined as the reference group, was performed. Application of a bioinformatics pipeline further analyzed the vitreous proteome by cluster and gene set enrichment analysis. A selection of differentially regulated proteins was validated by ELISA. A total of 677 proteins were identified in the vitreous of the four patient groups and quantified relatively to ERM. Different clusters of regulated proteins for each patient group were identified and showed characteristic enrichment of specific pathways including "oxidative stress" for dry AMD, "focal adhesion" for nAMD, and "complement and coagulation cascade" for PDR patients. We identified cholinesterase (CHLE) to be specifically upregulated in dry AMD and ribonuclease (pancreatic; RNAS1) together with serine carboxypeptidase (probable; CPVL) to be upregulated in both forms of AMD. The described pathways specific for the different patient groups and the identification of characteristic differentially regulated proteins provide a first step toward the definition of biomarkers for dry AMD. The presented data will facilitate the investigation of mechanistic connections of proteins to the respective disease.

Effect of niobium and phase transformation temperature on the microstructure and texture of a novel 0.40% C thermomechanically processed steel

Field emission scanning electron microscopy, electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) have been employed to investigate the effect of niobium and phase transformation temperature on the evolution of microstructure and texture in a novel thermomechanically processed, medium‑carbon, low-alloy steel intended for slurry pipeline applications. Thermomechanical processing consisted of hot-rolling in the austenitic region with deformation both above the recrystallization limit temperature and below the recrystallization stop temperature. Immediately after rolling, specimens were directly quenched in water to two different temperatures of 560 °C and 420 °C and subsequently furnace cooled from those temperatures to simulate the cooling of coiled strip on a hot strip mill. The microstructure of samples quenched to 560 °C mostly comprised of upper bainite, whereas the samples quenched to 420 °C mainly consisted of lath-type lower bainite. The transformation texture of all samples at the mid-thickness position consisted of α, γ and ε-fibers with high intensities close to the transformed copper, transformed brass and rotated cube components. The addition of 0.013 wt% Nb refined the microstructure and sharpened the texture. The texture of the small fraction of retained austenite present in the final microstructures indicated that the main bcc texture components result from the brass and copper components in the parent austenite.

Effect of dispersing time on the prediction equation of drag reduction rate and its application in the short distance oil pipeline

ABSTRACTThe effect of the drag reducer, which is a kind of effective chemical additive for the pipelines, is closely related to its dissolution dispersity in the oil product. In this paper, the effects of oil viscosity, temperature and concentration of the drag reducer on the dispersion rules of drag reducer in crude oil and refined oil are analyzed and the modified Equation for prediction of the drag reduction rate was proposed. For short distance pipeline, a method of drag reducer dispersed beforehand was developed and proved in diesel pipeline, which effectively promotes the application effect of drag reducer in short distance pipeline.

Comparing Powder and Liquid Coatings for Pipeline Applications

Comparing Powder and Liquid Coatings for Pipeline Applications

Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Local Scour Around Submarine Piggyback Pipeline Under Steady Current

As a new type of submarine pipeline, the piggyback pipeline has been gradually adopted in engineering practice to enhance the performance and safety of submarine pipelines. However, limited simulation work and few experimental studies have been published on the scour around the piggyback pipeline under steady current. This study numerically and experimentally investigates the local scour of the piggyback pipe under steady current. The influence of prominent factors such as pipe diameter, inflow Reynolds number, and gap between the main and small pipes, on the maximum scour depth have been examined and discussed in detail. Furthermore, one formula to predict the maximum scour depth under the piggyback pipeline has been derived based on the theoretical analysis of scour equilibrium. The feasibility of the proposed formula has been effectively calibrated by both experimental data and numerical results. The findings drawn from this study are instructive in the future design and application of the piggyback pipeline.

Group-Level EEG-Processing Pipeline for Flexible Single Trial-Based Analyses Including Linear Mixed Models.

Here we present an application of an EEG processing pipeline customizing EEGLAB and FieldTrip functions, specifically optimized to flexibly analyze EEG data based on single trial information. The key component of our approach is to create a comprehensive 3-D EEG data structure including all trials and all participants maintaining the original order of recording. This allows straightforward access to subsets of the data based on any information available in a behavioral data structure matched with the EEG data (experimental conditions, but also performance indicators, such accuracy or RTs of single trials). In the present study we exploit this structure to compute linear mixed models (LMMs, using lmer in R) including random intercepts and slopes for items. This information can easily be read out from the matched behavioral data, whereas it might not be accessible in traditional ERP approaches without substantial effort. We further provide easily adaptable scripts for performing cluster-based permutation tests (as implemented in FieldTrip), as a more robust alternative to traditional omnibus ANOVAs. Our approach is particularly advantageous for data with parametric within-subject covariates (e.g., performance) and/or multiple complex stimuli (such as words, faces or objects) that vary in features affecting cognitive processes and ERPs (such as word frequency, salience or familiarity), which are sometimes hard to control experimentally or might themselves constitute variables of interest. The present dataset was recorded from 40 participants who performed a visual search task on previously unfamiliar objects, presented either visually intact or blurred. MATLAB as well as R scripts are provided that can be adapted to different datasets.

Fracture analysis of axially flawed ring-shaped bending specimen

Application of pipelines is common in process industry and energetic facilities, as parts of storage and transport systems. Structural integrity and fracture resistance of the pipeline elements is typically assessed by testing fracture mechanics specimens, like compact tensile CT or single-edge notched bending, SENB. However, fabrication of these geometries is often not possible for thin-walled pressurized elements, commonly used in structures of process and energetic facilities. Therefore, some proposals for non-standard specimens have been given in the literature, differing by the position of the initial defects, in circumferential or axial direction, and by the degree of complexity of procedures for fabrication and testing.Recently proposed ring-shaped specimen (PRNB - Pipe Ring Notched Bend) is used here to assess the fracture resistance of pressurized cylinders with defects in axial direction, critical for the internal pressure loading. The specimens are simple to fabricate and have the same material history as the actual structure, such as thermo-mechanical treatment, assembly or exploitation conditions. In this work, the ring specimens are cut from the thin-walled non-alloy steel pipes for pressure purposes. Experimental-numerical procedure is applied for prediction of fracture behavior. The methods include material characterization, fracture testing and micromechanical analysis of specimen failure. The results obtained so far lead to conclusion that PRNB specimen is a good option for testing of fracture resistance of pipelines and small-scale vessels.

Design and Optimization of Dynamic Test Samples for Ductile Damage Assessment

The present research aims at assessing and comparing the damage evolution in a structural steel, mainly used in pipeline applications, both under quasi-static and dynamic conditions. Accordingly to the core of the literature related to plastic damage modelling, two key parameters must be controlled in the tests: the stress triaxiality and the Lode angle, both depending on the stress state. Either strongly affect the material strain to failure. Hence, different specimen geometries are needed to test the material in the desired ranges of these parameters. In this work, three kinds of geometries typically used in static tests, i.e. round and notched cylindrical, and thin rectangular, have been considered and adapted to an available Hopkinson bar facility. The shape of the specimens (diameter, fillet/notch radius, thickness, gauge length) and the incident pulse intensity have been studied within a multi-objective optimization scheme, in order to achieve similar strain rates for the three kinds of tests, with nearly constant time histories of strain rate, triaxiality and Lode angle during deformation. More specifically, the adopted solutions permitted to achieve an average strain rate of 3500 s-1, with varying triaxialities from 0.5 to 1.2, Lode angles from 0.5 to 1 and strains to failure from 0.8 to 1.5.

Emptying Operation of Water Supply Networks

Recently, emptying processes have been studied in experimental facilities in pipelines, but there is a lack regarding applications in actual pipelines, which permits establishing the risk of collapse because of sub-atmospheric pressure occurrence. This research presents a mathematical model to simulate the emptying process of water supply networks, and the application to a water emptying pipeline with nominal diameter of 1000 mm and 578 m long which is located on the southern of Cartagena, Bolívar Deparment, Colombia. In the application, both pipes and the air valve data manufacturer were considered. The behavior of all hydraulic and thermodynamic variables is considered. Results show that is crucial to know sub-atmospheric pressure values to prevent the collapse of the pipeline. The application of the mathematical model confirms that the hydraulic system is well designed depending on air valve sizes and maneuvering of drain valve.

Predicting erosion in wet gas pipelines/elbows by mathematical formulations and computational fluid dynamics modeling

Sand erosion has been identified as a potential damage and failure mechanism in pipelines/elbows employed to transport gas from wells to terminals. Erosion can cause localized material loss decreasing the structural integrity of pipelines/elbows leading to failure. As a result, sand erosion has been the object of much research work in the oil and gas industry. The prediction of erosion caused by sand transported by hydrocarbons flow is a difficult task due to the large number of variables involved. At present, a great number of empirical models have been developed to predict sand erosion in smaller diameter pipelines under laboratory conditions. Therefore, such formulations generally present uncertainties for their application in larger diameter pipelines employed to transport oil and gas because there is no fundamental basis showing how the empirical formulations can be extrapolated to large diameters pipelines as most of the models have been developed on the basis of elementary laboratory experiments, which may not represent the real sand erosion conditions. Furthermore, most of the analytical/empirical models were developed for specific pipeline/elbows diameters and cannot be employed to predict erosion in different engineering structures. Hence, in the present work a computational fluid dynamic modeling strategy is proposed, which incorporated fundamental physically erosion parameters to predict erosion in larger diameter pipelines/elbows. The methodology was applied to different elbows/pipelines diameters in order to investigate how pipeline's diameter, sand production rate, and sand particles sizes affect the erosion mechanism and the erosion rate. The results showed the importance of including fluid and flow conditions, sand particles trajectory, and self-particles movement. The computational fluid dynaimcs results were compared with those obtained with the most employed empirical models to predict sand erosion in the oil and gas industry models published in the literature, and it was shown that the proposed modeling strategy can be used to predict erosion in larger diameters pipelines/elbows with good results.

Lipid production in Nannochloropsis gaditana is doubled by decreasing expression of a single transcriptional regulator.

Lipid production in the industrial microalga Nannochloropsis gaditana exceeds that of model algal species and can be maximized by nutrient starvation in batch culture. However, starvation halts growth, thereby decreasing productivity. Efforts to engineer N. gaditana strains that can accumulate biomass and overproduce lipids have previously met with little success. We identified 20 transcription factors as putative negative regulators of lipid production by using RNA-seq analysis of N. gaditana during nitrogen deprivation. Application of a CRISPR-Cas9 reverse-genetics pipeline enabled insertional mutagenesis of 18 of these 20 transcription factors. Knocking out a homolog of fungal Zn(II)2Cys6-encoding genes improved partitioning of total carbon to lipids from 20% (wild type) to 40-55% (mutant) in nutrient-replete conditions. Knockout mutants grew poorly, but attenuation of Zn(II)2Cys6 expression yielded strains producing twice as much lipid (∼5.0 g m-2 d-1) as that in the wild type (∼2.5 g m-2 d-1) under semicontinuous growth conditions and had little effect on growth.

Improvement of UNS S32205 Duplex Welds by GMAW and Controlled Magnetic Field for Offshore Pipelines and Flowlines Applications

Mechanical properties and corrosion resistance of UNS S32205 duplex stainless steel (DSS) welds obtained under the application of controlled magnetic fields were evaluated in the context of offshore pipelines and flowlines applications. Tensile tests, impact toughness, and hardness measurements were performed. Corrosion behavior was evaluated by linear polarization resistance (LPR) and potentiodynamic polarization curves (PCs) using a synthetic seawater solution at different temperatures. An improvement in tensile strength, impact toughness, and corrosion resistance was observed with the application of magnetic fields during welding. This effect is attributed to the refinement in the microstructure of the weld metal along with the suppression of detrimental intermetallic tertiary phases. Applying an axial magnetic field of 3 mT during DSS welding by the gas metal arc welding (GMAW) process is a potential technique for improving the performance of offshore pipeline welds and may be implemented in both, double-sided single pass and single-sided multipass butt joints.

How to Restore Public Trust and Credibility at the National Energy Board

In November 2016 Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr struck an expert panel to conduct a public review of the NEB in an effort to “position the NEB as a modern, efficient, and effective energy regulator” to regain the board’s public credibility and trust that has eroded over the past decade. This Commentary looks at whether the NEB is “broken” by evaluating its performance against six recognized attributes of an effective and efficient regulator, including: independence, conflict-of-interest protection, transparent and inclusive processes, performance management and adaptability, capacity, and enabling factors. As a result, the Commentary makes 23 recommendations intended to assist the NEB, as well as the federal government, in improving the effectiveness and efficiency of federal energy regulation in Canada. Among the key recommendations: The federal government should restore the independence of the NEB’s decisionmaking authority for pipeline applications, eliminating political overrides of NEB decisions except via courts. To keep the review process timely, review participants should be limited to those directly affected or have relevant expertise related to the project under review. However, the federal government should rescind the onesize-fits-all time-limit requirements on NEB reviews and instead require each panel to determine the timeline for each review. NEB hearings are also not the appropriate venue for ongoing engagement with local and Aboriginal communities. The government should implement such a mechanism outside of the formal hearing process. To reduce the perception of a conflict of interest, the NEB should review its staff Code of Conduct to ensure it covers all situations potentially creating a conflict of interest. Ottawa should also make sure that the NEB has the capacity to attract the best candidates for its needs and that it transparently evaluates its overarching regulatory goals. Lastly, the government should more clearly articulate how it defines the broader public interest that the NEB strives to achieve in its regulatory process. It is in the shared interest of all Canadians to have trust in institutions whose decisions will shape the next steps in Canada’s energy future. The work of a regulator such as the NEB is difficult, complex and often thankless. Effective and efficient regulatory institutions are a necessary part of a functioning democracy. While regulators are not elected officials, they do the work delegated to them by elected politicians. Ideally, a policy framework should guide their decisions. For the NEB to function as an effective and efficient regulator, its recommendations and decisions need to be guided by a transparent policy framework for energy development that is reconciled with the many other aspects of the public interest. The path to this framework will not be easy and not everyone will agree on the outcomes. However, the work is necessary to re-establish the NEB as a credible, effective and efficient energy regulator.

A scalable design of experiments framework for optimal sensor placement

We present a scalable design of an experiments framework for sensor placement in systems described by partial differential equations (PDEs). In particular, we aim to compute optimal sensor locations by minimizing the uncertainty of parameters estimated from Bayesian inverse problems. The resulting problem is a computationally intractable mixed-integer nonlinear program constrained by PDEs. We approach this problem with two heuristics used in compressed sensing and optimal control literature: a sparsity-inducing approach and a sum-up rounding approach. We also investigate metrics to guide the design of experiments (the total flow variance and the A-optimal design criterion) and analyze the effect of different noise structures (white and colored). Using an application in natural gas pipelines, we conclude that the sum-up rounding approach gives the best results and produces shrinking gaps with increasing mesh resolution. We also observe that convergence for the white noise measurement error case is slower than for the colored noise case. For A-optimal design, the solution is close to a uniform distribution of sensors along the pipeline while for the flow variance design the distribution is unstructured.

High‐Throughput Natural Products Discovery in Fungi Using FAC‐MS Technology

Ascomycete fungal genomes typically each contain >50 different secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). With an estimated pool of >500,000 ascomycete fungal species on earth, the corresponding chemical potential that could be harnessed for human technological challenges such as disease and agriculture is truly massive. However, the vast majority of fungal-encoded chemical space is uncharted and difficult to access due to difficulties culturing and genetically manipulating most fungi. We report a high-throughput heterologous expression and metabolomic profiling technology using untargeted liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) with ultrahigh mass accuracy to systematically identify the secondary metabolite (SM) products of heterologously expressed fungal BGCs. This platform uses fungal artificial chromosomes (FACs) to capture full-length BGCs derived from unbiased large-insert libraries of genomic DNA of Aspergillus terreus, A. aculeatus, and A. wenti (Fig. A). Host A. nidulans strains transformed with FACs (Fig. B) are then screened by LC-MS (Fig. C), and FAC-encoded products are identified by a robust scoring system to identify spectral features most likely associated with each FAC (Fig. D). Deletions of specific backbone and tailoring genes within FACs (achieved through facile E. coli genetics) then empirically validate assignment of metabolites to BGCs and facilitate analyses of biosynthesis (Fig. E). We use this “FAC-MS” platform to screen 56 FACs and report detection of 15 completely novel secondary metabolites from 56 FACs, a ~27% “hit rate”, including an A. terreus FAC encoding three distinct metabolites identified as a novel macrolactone, a sesterterpenoid, and the orphan benzodiazepine benzomalvin A, which is 300-fold overexpressed by the FAC-strain. Deletants of benzomalvin A backbone and tailoring genes allow us to propose and test the first biosynthetic model for this molecule, as well as demonstrate the readiness with which such studies can be carried out using the FAC-MS technology. Wide application of the FAC-MS pipeline should have a major impact on fungal natural products research in the mid-term future by greatly increasing the scale and rate at which fungal secondary metabolites can be systematically unearthed and introduced into pharmaceutical and agricultural screening campaigns. Support or Funding InformationThis work was supported in part by an SBIR award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health under grant R44AI094885 to C.C.W. at Intact Genomics, Inc. and to J.W.B and N.L.K. N.L.K. also acknowledges AT009143 for partial support of this work. A) Fungal artificial chromosomes (FACs) capture full-length biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) derived from unbiased large-insert libraries of genomic DNA of Aspergillus terreus, A. aculeatus, and A. wenti. B and C) Host A. nidulans strains transformed with FACs are then screened by LC-MS. D) FAC-encoded products are identified by a robust scoring system. E) Deletions of backbone genes in FACs empirically validate assignment of metabolites to BGCs and dissect biosyntheses.

A three-caller pipeline for variant analysis of cancer whole-exome sequencing data.

Rapid advancements in next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies, coupled with the dramatic decrease in cost, have made NGS one of the leading approaches applied in cancer research. In addition, it is increasingly used in clinical practice for cancer diagnosis and treatment. Somatic (cancer-only) single nucleotide variants and small insertions and deletions (indels) are the simplest classes of mutation, however, their identification in whole exome sequencing data is complicated by germline polymorphisms, tumor heterogeneity and errors in sequencing and analysis. An increasing number of software and methodological guidelines are being published for the analysis of sequencing data. Usually, the algorithms of MuTect, VarScan and Genome Analysis Toolkit are applied to identify the variants. However, one of these algorithms alone results in incomplete genomic information. To address this issue, the present study developed a systematic pipeline for analyzing the whole exome sequencing data of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) using a combination of the three algorithms, named the three-caller pipeline. Application of the three-caller pipeline to the whole exome data of HCC, improved the detection of true positive mutations and a total of 75 tumor-specific somatic variants were identified. Functional enrichment analysis revealed the mutations in the genes encoding cell adhesion and regulation of Ras GTPase activity. This pipeline provides an effective approach to identify variants from NGS data for subsequent functional analyses.

Endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspirate-derived preclinical pancreatic cancer models reveal panitumumab sensitivity in KRAS wild-type tumors.

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is largely refractory to existing therapies used in unselected patient trials, thus emphasizing the pressing need for new approaches for patient selection in personalized medicine. KRAS mutations occur in 90% of PC patients and confer resistance to epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors (e.g., panitumumab), suggesting that KRAS wild-type PC patients may benefit from targeted panitumumab therapy. Here, we use tumor tissue procured by endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspirate (EUS-FNA) to compare the in vivo sensitivity in patient-derived xenografts (PDXs) of KRAS wild-type and mutant PC tumors to panitumumab, and to profile the molecular signature of these tumors in patients with metastatic or localized disease. Specifically, RNASeq of EUS-FNA-derived tumor RNA from localized (n = 20) and metastatic (n = 20) PC cases revealed a comparable transcriptome profile. Screening the KRAS mutation status of tumor genomic DNA obtained from EUS-FNAs stratified PC patients into either KRAS wild-type or mutant cohorts, and the engraftment of representative KRAS wild-type and mutant EUS-FNA tumor samples into NOD/SCID mice revealed that the growth of KRAS wild-type, but not mutant, PDXs was selectively suppressed with panitumumab. Furthermore, in silico transcriptome interrogation of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA)-derived KRAS wild-type (n = 38) and mutant (n = 132) PC tumors revealed 391 differentially expressed genes. Taken together, our study validates EUS-FNA for the application of a novel translational pipeline comprising KRAS mutation screening and PDXs, applicable to all PC patients, to evaluate personalized anti-EGFR therapy in patients with KRAS wild-type tumors.

HeDPM: load balancing of linear pipeline applications on heterogeneous systems

This work presents a new algorithm, called Heterogeneous Dynamic Pipeline Mapping, that allows for dynamically improving the performance of pipeline applications running on heterogeneous systems. It is aimed at balancing the application load by determining the best replication (of slow stages) and gathering (of fast stages) combination taking into account processors computation and communication capacities. In addition, the algorithm has been designed with the requirement of keeping complexity low to allow its usage in a dynamic tuning tool. For this reason, it uses an analytical performance model of pipeline applications that addresses hardware heterogeneity and which depends on parameters that can be known in advance or measured at run-time. A wide experimentation is presented, including the comparison with the optimal brute force algorithm, a general comparison with the Binary Search Closest algorithm, and an application example with the Ferret pipeline included in the PARSEC benchmark suite. Results, matching those of the best existing algorithms, show significant performance improvements with lower complexity (O(N^3), where N is the number of pipeline stages).