Software for natural gas pipeline design and simulation (gaspisim)

Abstract

There is a sudden increase in demand and utilization of natural gas in Nigeria; this may be attributed to federal government policy on establishment of independent power plants and the rising cost of kerosene and fire wood. This increase in demand for natural gas call for design and construction of pipelines for natural gas transportation from production zones to consuming areas. Natural gas transmission through pipelines is accepted as the best method for high capacities gas transmission. Due to the high capital investment and operating cost required for natural gas pipeline transmission systems, optimum designs become inevitable. Cost of compression form a significant part of the operating cost of natural gas pipeline system and can be reduced by optimum design. This paper focuses on the development of software for optimum design and simulation of natural gas pipeline. General Gas equation coupled with correlations for friction factor, Reynolds number, viscosity of gas mixture, compressibility factor etc were used to developed an algorithm from which the software was developed using VISUAL BASIC 6.0. The effect of different operating variables and pipeline dimensions could be investigated using this software. The software was tested for functionality using a typical design problem from literature. Comparison of the software result and that of literature shows that the software can be use for preliminary design and simulation purposes. Keywords: Pipeline, design, simulation, Natural gas