Presenting a Correlation to Obtain Natural Gas Leakage Rate from a Buried High-Pressure Pipeline in a Porous Media

Gas leakage from transmission pipelines waste a large amount of gas and interrupt the gas flow. In addition, it could cause significant loss of life and environmental damage. If the leaks in the pipelines are not restrained, in this way the National Gas Company will pay huge economics losses annually. The subject of this study is numerical simulation of gas leakage from high pressure buried pipelines (up to 1050 psi or 7240 kPa) in the soil and develops correlations for estimating gas leakage from these pipelines. Leakage hole was considered on the upper side of the pipe surface. The working fluid is compressible and the flow are turbulent and steady. Also the soil surrounding the tube was modeled as a homogeneous porous zone. The information required to simulate this problem was provided with the help of the industrial consultant. In this study, parameters affecting on the volume of gas leakage were investigated. The results show that the leakages from damaged cross-sections on high pressure buried pipelines, unlike unburied pipes, happen at low velocities and there is no evidence of choked flow. Finally, the accurate correlations were provided to estimate the leakage from the feed and transmission pipelines that minimum R equal 0.9981.