The Optimal Design of Natural Gas Transmission Pipelines

Abstract A mathematical formula has been deduced to be used as an objective function to optimize the design variables of natural gas transmission pipelines, including compressor stations, in order to minimize the total capital cost. The design variables for steel transmission pipelines with different diameters and a compression ratio between 1–1.5 carrying 150–550 million standard cubic feet per day of natural gas have been optimized to select the optimum diameter, number of compressor stations, length between each two compressor stations, suction and discharge pressures at compressor stations. The software computer program Lingo has been used in this work.