Dynamic Modeling of the Two-Phase Leakage Process of Natural Gas Liquid Storage Tanks

Xia Wu, Changjun Li, Yufa He and Wenlong Jia
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Xia Wu: School of Petroleum Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China
Changjun Li: School of Petroleum Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China
Yufa He: China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) Research Institute, Beijing 100028, China
Wenlong Jia: School of Petroleum Engineering, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China

Energies, 2017, vol. 10, issue 9, 1-26

Abstract: The leakage process simulation of a Natural Gas Liquid (NGL) storage tank requires the simultaneous solution of the NGL’s pressure, temperature and phase state in the tank and across the leak hole. The methods available in the literature rarely consider the liquid/vapor phase transition of the NGL during such a process. This paper provides a comprehensive pressure-temperature-phase state method to solve this problem. With this method, the phase state of the NGL is predicted by a thermodynamic model based on the volume translated Peng-Robinson equation of state (VTPR EOS). The tank’s pressure and temperature are simulated according to the pressure-volume-temperature and isenthalpic expansion principles of the NGL. The pressure, temperature, leakage mass flow rate across the leak hole are calculated from an improved Homogeneous Non-Equilibrium Diener-Schmidt (HNE-DS) model and the isentropic expansion principle. In particular, the improved HNE-DS model removes the ideal gas assumption used in the original HNE-DS model by using a new compressibility factor developed from the VTPR EOS to replace the original one derived from the Clausius-Clayperon equation. Finally, a robust procedure of simultaneously solving the tank model and the leak hole model is proposed and the method is validated by experimental data. A variety of leakage cases demonstrates that this method is effective in simulating the dynamic leakage process of NGL tanks under critical and subcritical releasing conditions associated with vapor/liquid phase change.

Keywords: natural gas liquid; tank; leakage; simulation; mathematical model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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