Safety Evaluation of Orifice Plate in Natural Gas Pipeline using Computer Aided Engineering (CAE): A Step Towards Food Security

• Sheidu S. ONIMISI

  National Engineering Design Development Institute (NEDDI) Nnewi, Nigeria

  Author

• Usman B. ABDULLAHI

  Department of Petroleum and Gas Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria

  Author

• Hayatudden S. BARAYAIS

  Department of Petroleum and Gas Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria

  Author

• Abubakar M. MUHAMMAD

  Department of Petroleum and Gas Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria

  Author

• Abubakar G. ISAH

  Department of Chemical Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria

  Author

• Abubakar S. MOHAMMED

  Department of Agricultural and Bio-Environmental Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria

  Author

• Mohammed U. GARBA

  Department of Petroleum and Gas Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria

  Author

Understanding the potential causes and consequences of orifice plate failure is essential for maintaining accurate flow measurement and preventing operational disturbances.  In certain cases, Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI) problem is bound to occur overtime due to fluid pressure such as buckling failure can occur in orifice plates, leading to inaccurate flow measurements and potential safety hazards. orifice plates can easily fail leading to partial or complete shutdown of the entire line which in some cases could be a major line, leading to slow output from the industry. Therefore, this study focuses on the evaluation of orifice plate performance and safety in natural gas pipelines utilizing computer-aided engineering (CAE). The orifices were modeled with Solidworks and simulated with Midas NFX using two ways FSI interface of the software. The investigation was conducted for 10,800 seconds in CFD component and 100 seconds for 60 steps in FEA component of the FSI. The buckling load factor of the orifice plates were 1.1317, 0.5056 and 0.200 for 101.6 mm, 127 mm and 152.4 mm orifice plates respectively and a predicted service life of 501 days, 235 days and 195 days for the orifice plates, respectively, The validation with data from the real plant show that the prediction was about 90% accurate.

• FJET_12_57_50

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