World appl. programming, Vol(4), No (5), May, 2014. pp.

140-145

TI Journals

ISSN:

World Applied Programming

2222-2510

www.tijournals.com

Copyright 2014. All rights reserved for TI Journals.

Pressure drop in the flow of oil products through pipelines - application

for hydraulic calculation
Tudorica Daniela *
Department of Information Technology, Mathematics and Physics, Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti, Romania
*Corresponding author: danatudorica@gmail.com

Keywords

Abstract

Pipeline
Modeling
Transportation
Monitoring
Hydraulic

The transportation process through pipelines, unlike other modes of transport (rail cars, ships), offers large
possibilities for mechanization and automation. Thus, a software application for monitoring ensures
automatic operation more reliable for a pipeline system. An important stage in the realization of such
applications is the modeling and simulation of fluid flow process. In this paper is presented, as a first step to
modeling the flow, the stationary regime - the main process parameters (velocity, pressure, temperature) are
considered constant during time. Under these conditions, the pipeline hydraulic calculation aims to
determine simultaneously pumping pressure and pipe diameter. Of two hydraulic calculation methods
(analytical and graphical) the proposed application, implemented in CBuilder, is using graphical method.

1.

Introduction

In this paper is presented the first stage of realization of a complex application for monitoring the process of transporting oil products through
pipelines. The application simulates the transport in steady flow, in non-stationary isothermal regime and in unsteady non-isothermal regime.
This paper deals with stationary flow and presents an application implemented in CBuilder, for hydraulic calculation of a pipeline. Hydraulic
calculation aims simultaneous determination of pump pressure and diameter of the pipe. Knowing the initial pressure is required for positioning
and sizing of pumping stations, to calculate the resistance of the pipe and investment appraisal.

2.

Hydraulic Calculation for a Pipeline

2.1 General considerations about hydraulic calculation

Modeling pipeline flow uses fundamental equations based on conservation laws of physics: conservation of mass, momentum conservation,
energy conservation. The following sections use the following notation:
- - density of fluid;
- - dynamic viscosity;
- - cinematic viscosity;
- v velocity;
- t time;
- p pressure;
- g gravitational acceleration;
- L length of pipe;
- d interior diameter of pipe;
- - hydraulic resistance coefficient;
- - local loss coefficient;
- Re Reynolds number;
- i hydraulic gradient;
- f friction factor.
In terms of hydraulic, pipe is an area of any shape and size to allow movement of a fluid under pressure. The pipes are classified into three
categories: long pipes (pipelines), medium pipes and short pipes. This classification is based on the following hydraulic terms:

L v2
v2 v2
( )
, ( )
,
d 2g
2g 2g

, where

L
( )
d

is the energy loss, proportional to the length and the other notations have the meanings

described above.
If

L
( )
d

If 0.2 <

> 50 the pipe is long, the last two terms can be neglected.

L
( )
d

< 50 the pipe is medium, the three terms of the relationship above have the same order of size, taking them into account is

mandatory.
If

L
( )
d

< 0.2 the pipes are short, (holes, nozzles) in terms of hydraulic calculations so that only counts local losses.

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Pressure drop in the flow of oil products through pipelines - application for hydraulic calculation
World Applied Programming Vol(4), No (5), May, 2014.

The hydraulic calculation for a pipe takes into account two issues: the design of a new pipeline and the verification of an existing pipeline in
order to improve its operation. At the design stage of new pipes are known: consumers (flow, pressure), shares the route surveying, geography
field (crossing of roads, railways, rivers, valleys, etc..), temperature variation along the route, climatic conditions, degree of aggressiveness of
the soil for sizing cathodic protection etc. In the verification phase of the existing pipeline is primarily aimed possibilities to increase
transmission capacity. Hydraulic calculation can be done by analytical methods, (the fundamental equations of flow are solved analytically) or
graphical methods.
2.2 Hydraulic calculation using the graphical method
The graphical method of hydraulic calculation of a transport system is used for multiple purposes, such as
revealing the degree of injury of the route, to highlight areas where line pressure is higher than the initial pressure,
highlighting the pressure drop along the pipe or determining the location for intermediate pumping stations.
Graphic method for the simple case of a pipe with constant hydraulic gradient involves the following steps [1]:
1. chart scale is chosen usually ordinate/abscissa 1/100;
2. plot the line position (LPoz) and the reference position (LR) as in Figure 1.
3. hydraulic gradient i is determined as follows:
3.1. choose from STAS the appropriate pipe under production, i.e. standardized pipe (D - external diameter, d interior diameter
and e - wall thickness);
3.2. determine the velocity of flow, depending on the diameter of standardized using the equation of continuity;
3.3. assessing the flow regime (Reynolds number), knowing the physical properties of fluid:

Re

vd

(1)

3.4. hydraulic resistance is determined according to the flow regime

f Re,
d

8
Q2

3.5. hydraulic gradient i is calculated with the equation: i

2g
d5

(2)

(3)

- constructing a triangle with base l, of certain size and height il, so that the angle i is the gradient of energy;
- choose the pressure for the beneficiary (in this case p2)

pB

10 m
g

and plot at B(BB);

- from B goes a parallel to the hypotenuse of the triangle, with gradient i, to the point A. Value segment AA
thus determined will be the required pumping pressure (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Determination of pressure pumping [1]

2.3 Hydraulic pressure drop coefficient
The flow process of a fluid through a pipe, a part of the mechanical energy of the fluid is irreversibly dissipated into heat energy, due to the
resistance to fluid flow. In most cases, loss of fluid load is expressed in terms of pressure and it is called pressure loss along the pipe.
At steady isothermal flow, friction forces are determined by the tangential fluid in motion, particularly at the pipe wall, where they are
maximum. In general case, drag the pipe is expressed as follows:

Ri f K c Ac
where f is the friction factor,

Kc v / 2 is the characteristic energy and Ac is the characteristic aria.

For a circular pipe of length L, diameter D, (5) is written:

(4)

Daniela Tudorica *

142

World Applied Programming Vol(4), No (5), May, 2014.

Ri f

v2
D l
2

(5)

Drag Ri can be written in the form:

D 2 p
Ri
4

(6)

From (5) and (6) results the formula for calculating the pressure loss:

l v2
p
D 2

(7)

where 4 f is the hydraulic pressure drop coefficient.

Equation (7) is known as Fanning's equation or Darcy-Weissbach equation and is widely used in practice.

3.

Application for Hydraulic Calculation

It is further presented an application implemented in visual environment CBuilder 6, which allows hydraulic calculation for a pipeline using the
graphical method.
The algorithm consists of the steps outlined in previous section:
- input data are: the fluid properties (viscosity , density ), roughness of the pipe , the diameter and the wall thickness of the pipe. Also,
as input data, is read from a text file the pipe profile information (length sections and elevations);
- calculate the actual velocity and the Reynolds number using the relations:

vd
4Q
, Re
2

- hydraulic resistance coefficient is determined using the formula of Colebrook and White:

1
2.51
1
2 log

3.71 d Re

(8)

For approximate solution of this nonlinear equation is used the method of iterations;
- calculate drop pressure P, using (7) and the hydraulic gradient i, using (3).
The application has a friendly user interface, easy to use. Menu at the top of the window consists of the following: Stationary flow, Nonstationary flow, Non-isothermal Flow and Exit option. For hydraulic calculation, select the first option from the menu, Stationary flow, as shown
in Figure 2.
In the Properties panel, the user can complete information such as transported fluid viscosity and density and roughness of the pipe. Defaults are
proposed, which, however, the user can change.
The user must also enter the diameter (internal and external) and the wall thickness of the pipe, according to STAS.

Figure 2. Graphic user interface and input data

With a click on the Select the pipeline profile button, a dialog appears that let the user to select the text file containing information about the
pipeline. Source files contain numerical values written in two columns. The first column is the length sections and the second column represents

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Pressure drop in the flow of oil products through pipelines - application for hydraulic calculation
World Applied Programming Vol(4), No (5), May, 2014.

the elevation of the pipe. In Figure 3 is shown selecting the file containing a pipeline profile. The pipeline consists of six sections so that text file
content is as follows:
0
1.984
4.831
30.939
33.604
35.606

0
0
1.928
1.984
0
0

Figure 3. Selecting the pipeline profile

As shown in Figure 4, select the file containing the pipeline profile results in completing the first four columns in the table at the bottom of the
window (with information about the number, length and elevation of the pipe sections), and make a graph containing pipe profile.
The Calculate pushbutton has the following effects: (see Figure 5)
- calculating and displaying velocity, Reynolds number, hydraulic resistance coefficient;
- calculation of pressure drop on pipe sections and displaying them in the table;
- drawing hydraulic gradient in the same graph, with pipe profile.

Daniela Tudorica *
World Applied Programming Vol(4), No (5), May, 2014.

Figure 4. Displaying and ploting the pipeline profile

Figure 5. Hydraulic calculation for the pipeline

144

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Pressure drop in the flow of oil products through pipelines - application for hydraulic calculation
World Applied Programming Vol(4), No (5), May, 2014.

4.

Conclusion

The application presented in this paper treats the steady flow in a pipeline. Considering process parameters constant in time, the main problem
that occurs when the flow is stationary is the pressure drop along the pipe.
The hydraulic calculation for a pipeline means simultaneous determination of pump pressure and diameter of the pipe. Application has a userfriendly graphic interface, whose use requires no programming knowledge.
Starting from the input data: the fluid properties (viscosity , density ), roughness of the pipe , the pipelines properties (diameter and the
wall thickness) and the pipeline profile (length sections and elevations), the application calculates the actual velocity, the Reynolds number, the
hydraulic resistance coefficient and the drop pressure.
In a graphic component, there are plotted the pipeline profile, as well as the hydraulic gradient.
Application results can be used further in numerical models for unsteady (non-stationary) flow.

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[11]

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http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com