Pressure and flow variation in gas distribution pipeline for leak detection

Pipeline networks being the most efficient mode of transportation in oil and gas industries, critically demand real time monitoring to assure its reliability. Currently employed manual leak detection methods in industries require a lot of manpower, resources and even obstruct the normal operation of the pipelines. In this study, we try to employ software based methods to detect and locate the position of a leak in a gas pipe. A physical approximated model for a small section of the pipeline is considered to see the effects of leak on transient and steady state pressure and velocity of the town gas. Town gas is widely used for household and industrial applications in Singapore. A systematic CFD simulation study was carried out to analyze different leak scenarios by varying leak diameter and location of leak.