Fluid flow in horizontal pipeline with leakage

Abstract

Transportation of fluids in pipelines requires a keen monitoring in order to detect major malfunction such as leakage. In the petroleum industry, leaks of hydrocarbon products from pipelines will not only represents the loss of natural resources, but it also may potentially cause a serious, dangerous and severe environmental damage or pollution and potential fire disaster, as well as economic loss. In this study, we would like to see the pattern or trend of pressure and fluid velocity in a leakage pipeline. The patterns of selected different parameters on variable pressure and fluid velocity are compared. The selected parameters are friction, pipeline diameter, pipeline length, and pipeline wall thickness. Two governing equations which are continuity and momentum equations are approximated by using characteristic line method. The governing equations are then discretized by using finite difference method and solved numerically. A set of data is collected with the help of MATLAB, the result of the study are plotted in Microsoft Excel and analysed. The study shows parameter pipeline wall thickness is the factor that contributes less effect for fluid flow in pipelines with leakage.