Process Pop Quiz 11-1--Dynamic Flow in Low Pressure Gas Line

ERIC PARVIN
Founder / Owner / Chief Process Engineer at Parv Process Consulting &
Engineering

Month 11, Quiz #1. NOTE: The original problem statement had a different pic than what is
now shown (the answer). To see the original problem statement, picture and full answers on one
page, see my web page at http://www.parvconsulting.com/pop-quiz.html

So I have a real world problem this month and I truly have only a guess on how to solve it
instead of really knowing how to solve it. Without providing details, this is a very important
issue to solve besides just academically.

I have a 8" sch. 40 line running about 1200 ft. through a pipe rack and injecting gas into a flare
header (call this tee "Node 2"). If the line is not flowing at all, and then I open a valve and
BEGIN to inject gas at 0.05 MMSCFD (million standard cubic feet per day) into this 8" line
1200 ft. away at Node 1, how long before the system starts ejecting gas into the flare header on
the other end? Will it be sudden, or slow ramp up? Linear or s-curve flow vs. time?

Operating Pressure of the line is 14.7 psia before it starts flowing gas into the line. At this
size line and this small of flow rate, the pressure drop at STEADY STATE conditions is only
0.0016 psi drop (negligible, but it's a data point).

You may assume at time = 0 seconds, that the line is already inventoried with the same gas
(methane) that is being injected at Node 1.

So I'm not looking for residence time of the gas in the piping (that's trivial)--but the time it takes
for injection to start at Node 1 before you start seeing steady state flow at Node 2 at low pressure
operation.

Same question--what if the flow is 2 MMSCFD?

I've done some calculations with a friend with some simplifying assumptions and got a really
small number for the 0.05 MMSCFD rate. Considered doing a dynamic simulation using VMG,
but haven't gone there yet. Let me know how you would approach this topic.

UPDATED ON 11/18/16:

ANSWER: So I knew the answer was fast, but was not confident in how fast. I initially did a
calculation on the change in volume on the system as a first pass guesstimate with some help
from Chris Ewasko (to correct my math) and we got about 0.1-0.2 seconds that the flow would
start at Node 2. However, this is a momentum transfer phenomenon and dynamic, and by
posting this topic I was seeking a better answer.

I remembered using VMGSim Dynamics in my previous work (See their Linked in profile at
Virtual Materials Group) and called them up for help. VMGs technical staff walked me through
how to easily set up this problem in VMGSim Dynamics and produced the results in the pictures
shown. We changed the problem up very slightly and assumed we had steam at a small rate
running through the flare header in the 24 line at Node 2. For simplicity we monitored the
heating value of the fluids at Node 2 mixing as verification that flow was entering the flare
header at Node 2. This shows that nearly steady state conditions started within 30 seconds or
starting the operation and average flow results were reaching nearly steady state conditions
within 5-10 seconds--but notice how flow started injection to the flare header almost
immediately (analogous to the 0.2 seconds determined above). Whats far more interesting is the
pressure wave reflections, as youll see negative flow achieved for < 1 second at the early stages
of flow being established, but overall, the flow is positive at Node 2 and sometimes greater than
the flow entering the pipe. The gas is obviously pulsing the system as it starts moving.

A great thing to watch to see this actually occur is flare stacksIve witnessed them pulsing
like this at low flow conditionsyoull see the flame bounce up and down or pulse up and
down the initial moments it starts to flare, and the it lines out after a bit. High flow ratesnot as
noticeable.

I was amazed at how easy it was to set up the VMGSim Dynamics model (Nick and Gerald were
doing it for me)but I have used it before on launching pigs down pipelines models and slug
sizes, and thats why I called them to set something like this up for me. Very informative and
had a TON more options and details available to model that Im not discussing here.

The pictures are worth a 1000 words. Enjoy them and watch next week for another pop quiz.

Legend of colors: Black flat line at bottom represents flow of gas from Node 1 at steady state
conditions into the pipe.

Black wavy line is total mass flow in the 24 header mixing with the steam flow and
represents total flow (steam plus methane in the 24 header).
Green line is the net heating value of the mixture of fluid down the header (also oscillating).

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ERIC PARVIN
Founder / Owner / Chief Process Engineer at Parv Process Consulting &
Engineering

21 articles

John Hinsley
Dynamic Simulation and Flow Assurance Consultant
1. With that tiny steady state pressure drop, the difference in inventory between zero flow and
0.05 MMscfd is less than 1g of gas, (assuming pipe volume of 365m of roughly 200mm ID pipe
= about 11.5m3, gas density at 1 atm about 0.67 kg/m3, constant compressibility, Pss/P0 =
1.00011). 2. 0.05 MMscfd is about 11 g/s. 3. When starting a flow in a pipe the outflow will lag
the inflow, since the pipeline inventory has to increase. However, in this case, with such a small
flow rate and change of inventory, the time constant will be very small. 4. To get an idea of
range of time lag, consider the two extreme (artificial) cases: a. how long to get to steady state
inventory with no out flow? 1g / 11 g/s < 0.1s b. first order lag time assuming pipe acts like a
single volume: dMdt=Fin-Fout, M = P*molwt/R/T*vol, Fout=Fss/dPss*(P-Patm)
molwt/R/T*vol*dPdt = Fin - Fin/dPss*(P-Patm) dPss/Fin*molwt/R/T*vol*dPdt = dPss+Patm - P
Tlag = dPss/Fin*molwt*vol/R/T = 11 Pa / 0.011 kg/s * 16 g/mol * 11.5 m3 / 8314 J/K/(g/mol) /
288 K ~= 0.08s 5. So, answer 4a says you get to steady state in something over 0.1s, 4b says you
get to 63% of steady state out flow in less than 0.08s, 95% of steady flow in less than 0.24s. The
real answer is somewhere between the two, since the real pipe acts more like a lot of small
volumes and resistances in series (giving a high-order response). 6. With such small times and
little difference between max & min estimates, there is probably no need to try this with a
dynamic simulation. As a dynamic simulation specialist, it's rare for me to dissuade people for
using it.

2mo

John Hinsley
Dynamic Simulation and Flow Assurance Consultant

Sorry - missed a couple of bits: these time lag estimates ignore momentum, but are in the same
region as pressure waves travelling 365 m, so there will be an effect there - but still not large or
long; the dynamics may end up being dominated by that of the inlet valve, or the actual geometry
of the flare header.

2mo

Himanshu Mohorikar
Owner, Himgiri Process Solutions

Eric, This is a classic case of packing of line to achieve flow. As flow starts at Node 1, moles of
gas start filling in the and the back pressure starts to increase at Node 1. The back pressure
enables flow at the outlet and as the back pressure keeps increasing, the flow at Node 2 will
increase, to a point that the inlet flow = outlet flow. Increase in outlet flow will be curved due to
change in compressibility of the gas from zero back pressure to fully developed back pressure (at
steady flow) - I think. Ideally a dynamic simulator can solve this problem. However I think you
could do a very simplified calculation in Excel in intervals of 1 second or so. Methodology I
think would be as follows: Assumption: Pressure at the outlet of the pipeline is atmospheric and
will remain constant throughout the process. 1)Time t=1 sec no of moles in the pipeline = x
moles. 2) Work out increase in pressure in line assuming zero flow. This is the average pressure
and could be considered to be at the middle of the line 600 ft. 3) We know that the outlet
pressure is atmospheric, the pressure at the middle of the pipeline is average pressure. To
simplify things a linear pressure profile is assumed and pressure at the inlet is calculated. 4)
Based on the inlet pressure (calculated) and outlet pressure (atmospheric), work out what flow is
resultant at the outlet 5) Work out how many moles have left the pipeline in 1 second. Inlet
moles - Outlet moles = accumulation and work the average pressure of the line corrected for the
outflow. 6) Repeat this for 1 second intervals till the inlet and outlet flows match. I haven't
actually worked out, but think this is workable. Please let me have your views.

2mo

Gavin Fernandes
Managing Director at MG Group

Hi Himanshu Mohorikar - I knew you were clever but not this clever!!

2mo

Jim Stearns
Process Engineer
The sonic velocity of methane is on the order of 1450 ft/s. Given choked flow, the arrival time of
gas in the stack would require close to a second at steady state and with 1200 ft of pipe; thus, a
ramp-up would always be observed regardless of inlet pressure. From experience, simple
transient analysis computations involving water transport are cumbersome, whereas this scenario
presents adiabatic compressible flow which is far more complicated mathematically even with
reasonable assumptions such as ideal gas. I would favor a dynamic transient simulation using an
appropriate software modeling package.

2mo

Bernard Newman
Chemical Process Engineer (retired, seeking contract/consulting work)

For the small flow, there will be the time delay before you see any change in exit flow, as the
pressure wave can't exceed sonic velocity. A first approximation for the time to steady-state
might be the length of the line divided by the steady state velocity. There will be a very small
pressure gradient;. The large flow is a much more complex problem. Again, there will be an
initial delay in the exit velocity changelimited by sonic velocity. The transient effect of injecting
a large gas flow will be to create a large pressure gradient, as well as temperature changes due to
compression of the gas in the line. The steady-state upstream pressure can be calculated at
choked flow, and an approximate inventory in the line at steady-state can be assumed based on a
linear pressure gradient in the line . An approximate time to steady-state would then be the time
required for this change in inventory to flow in. The dynamic simulation would give a more
accurate solution.

2mo

Dheya Al-Gallaf
Sr. Process Engineer at Mustang-HDP

Can you write the Material ballance @ un steady state for the system ( start-up) & define the
missing variables. Then solve it. Since it is gas, write the Energy ballance @un steady state (for
start up)...

2mo

Matt Greer
Contract Facilities Engineer at Caliber Midstream

What you're looking for is the pressure wave, if any, created by the small injection point. It's
doubtful that it would actually be "felt", given the volume you're injecting into. I think the
dynamic VMG simulation would be the best way forward. I wish I could give you a pen-and-
paper method, but I don't recall doing this type of calc in undergrad, or even since. The question
here is, how fast does pressure move?

2mo

Alireza Taheri
Jr. Process engineer, Commissioning, Start up, Operation (CSU)

Hi Eric. I didnt get the exactpoint but as I understand you wanna find out if there is flow at point
2 at exact time you open point1. If its that I think yes you have but at the begining it is very small
and gradually increase like a wave. You have flow rate and cross section area sobyou can
calculate the velocity. But it is like a hypotetical piston moving through the line. Lenght is
known so the time you will receice the gas is found. But the line is not total vacuum. There is
some gas inside which will replace with new gas. I hope this is what you are looking for.