Simulation of transients in natural gas pipelines

Cost-effective design and operations of natural gas pipelines require the evaluation of the dynamics of the transmission system, normally modeled as one-dimensional transient compressible fluid. Rapid changes in the flow conditions are present due to disturbances in the demand and operation of the controlling devices. In this work, an alternative approach for simulating the dynamics of natural gas pipelines is presented. The paper describes a time–space least squares spectral method using a C11 type p–version hierarchical interpolations in space and time. In this formulation, both property space and time are coupled in the least squares minimization procedure. Numerical examples of fast transient cases are discussed.