Numerical study on the diffusion process of pinhole leakage of natural gas from underground pipelines to the soil
Title
Numerical study on the diffusion process of pinhole leakage of natural gas from underground pipelines to the soil
Subject
Natural gas
Numerical simulation
Leakage and diffusion
Soil
Concentration
Description
World widely, most natural gas pipelines are directly buried underground. Unfortunately, leakages often occur to the natural gas pipelines because of corrosion, external interference, construction defects, etc. As a result of the gas diffusion and accumulation in the soil or adjacent underground space, the potential explosion risk threatens people's lives and properties in case of a fire. Detailed clarification of the diffusion behavior of leaked natural gas from an underground pipe to the soil is essential to shorten the duration of detecting and locating the leak point. In this work, a numerical method is proposed to investigate the pinhole leakage diffusion characteristics of natural gas in the soil. The variations of the gas concentrations under different leak conditions, as well as the effects of the pinhole size, pinhole location, pipe pressure and soil property on the gas diffusion process, are simulated in detail. The simulation results indicate that the risk radius gradually increase with a declining growth rate. The gas concentration along the pipe length shows Gaussian distribution. Leakage with larger pinhole size and higher pipeline pressure leads to a larger amount of leaked gas, consequently resulting in a larger risk area. While, the pinhole location only influences the gas concentration distribution in the vicinity of the leak point. Moreover, the particle diameter and porosity of the soil directly determine the gas concentration distribution in the diffusion.
Publisher
Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering
Date
2021-03-01
Contributor
Wang, Xuemei
Tan, Yufei
Zhang, Tiantian
Xiao, Rong
Yu, Kecheng
Zhang, Jindong
Type
journalArticle
Identifier
X6GCFAWW
1875-5100
10.1016/j.jngse.2020.103792
Collection
Citation
“Numerical study on the diffusion process of pinhole leakage of natural gas from underground pipelines to the soil,” Lamar University Midstream Center Research, accessed May 4, 2024, https://lumc.omeka.net/items/show/2187.