Experimental study of the effective factors on pig performance in oil pipelines

Due to the importance of pipelines as vital arteries for fuel and energy supply in the world, maintenance, stability, continuity of transmission, supply of refinery feeds and fuel supply to various industries is very important and necessary. The present study was conducted to analyze the performance of pigs and to investigate the effect of factors affecting pigging operation in oil pipelines. In this research, by performing experiments in real and operational conditions, the results of pigging operation in product pipelines in different diameters and lengths have been investigated, so that the effect of fouling of the inner wall of the pipeline on the flow rate, pump required power in pump house and pressure drop in different products with different physical conditions as well as calculation and evaluation of pigging speed in each operation and the effect of pig weight on pigging speed and power required in pump houses are presented. The results of this study show that pigging in a 14-inch oil pipeline with a length of 109 km and a flow rate of 360 cubic meters per hour, equivalent to 54,330 barrels per day, which has 0.4 cm of fouling, prevents a reduction in volumetric flow rate of 23 cubic meters per hour, equivalent to 3460 barrels per day, increases the required power of the pump in the pump house by 35.79 kW and increases the pressure drop by 8.9%. Also, by examining the effect of pipeline slope on the pressure behind the pig, knowing that the pump power in the pump house does not change and the pig speed is the same along the route, it is determined that increasing the height of the pipeline causes the static pressure head converted to a height head, and if the pig enters downhill areas, it will cause the height head converted to pressure behind the pig.