Gas Flow Rate and Maximum Gas Rate in Pipelines
Designing a long-distance pipeline for transportation of natural gas requires knowledge of flow formulas for calculating capacity and pressure requirements. The friction loss component applies to any type of flow at any pipe angle and causes a pressure drop in the direction of flow.
In gas transportation pipelines, the gas compressibility factor depends on pressure and the friction factor depends on flow rate which affects the pressure drop through the pipeline. Several correlations are developed to estimate gas flow capacity through pipelines considering these effects.
Reference: Petroleum Production Engineering, Boyun Guo, Xinghui Liu, Xuehao Tan
Correlations
- Weymouth (Horizontal and Inclined Pipeline)
- Panhandle-B (Horizontal Pipeline)
Input Parameters
| Name | Input Value - Unit | Converted Value | Validity | Link to Calculation Page | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inlet Pressure | 600 | psi | |||||
| Outlet Pressure | 200 | psi | |||||
| Pipe Length | 200 | Mile | |||||
| Pipe Inside Diameter | 2.06 | in | |||||
| Pipe Inclination (Degrees from Horizontal) | 0 | Degrees | Positive value when pipe outlet elevation is bigger than pipe inlet | ||||
| Gas Specific Gravity (ɣg) | 0.8 | SG | Average Surface Gas Gravity (ɣg) | ||||
| Pipeline Average Temperature | 539.67 | °R | |||||
| Relative Roughness (ε/d) More Details | 0.00005 | - | |||||
| Friction Factor Calculation Method | 1 | ||||||
| N2 Content | 0 | % | |||||
| CO2 Content | 0 | % | |||||
| H2S Content | 0 | % | |||||
| Z-Factor Calculation Method | 3 | ||||||
| Pseudo Properties Calculation Method | 2 | ||||||
| Pseudo Critical Properties Correction Method | 2 | ||||||
| CALCULATE | |||||||
Results | |||||||
| Correlation | Calculated Value | Warnings | Remarks | ||||
| Weymouth (Horizontal and Inclined Pipeline) | |||||||
| Gas Flow Rate | 0.21247 | MMscf/d | Calculations are done depending on the pipeline inclination | ||||
| Maximum Gas Flow Rate | 0.22529 | MMscf/d | The maximum achievable gas rate for given pipe specifications when outlet pressure is assumed to be atmospheric | ||||
| Panhandle-B (Horizontal Pipeline) | |||||||
| Gas Flow Rate | 0.35483 | MMscf/d | Calculations are done considering zero inclination (Horizontal Pipeline) | ||||
| Maximum Gas Flow Rate | 0.37669 | MMscf/d | The maximum achievable gas rate for given pipe specifications when outlet pressure is assumed to be atmospheric | ||||