TRaC leads the way in Pipeline Analysis
The demand for increased levels of energy is an international issue, evident in the up-rating of pressure levels in key gas pipelines worldwide.
Whilst new purpose-designed lines and compressor stations are being added, existing lines and installations that may have been in service for many years at a lower pressure have to be shown to be fit for the new, more severe, operating conditions. A key requirement is predicting the behaviour of buried lines in which the soil behaves as a non-linear spring. Accurate simulation is required to enable fatigue damage effects to be determined. This is an area in which TRaC has considerable experience, underpinned by writing and using software routines for the analysis of buried lines on behalf of what was then British Gas well before commercially available packages added this capability.
We have been working on the UK gas grid since 1978. In addition, our engineers are currently analysing a 675 km high pressure line and the installations along its length in Venezuela that crosses deep river gorges in extremely rugged terrain. The work is on behalf of the American based GE Oil and Gas organisation, but involves direct engineer to engineer liaison with the Venezuelan design authorities. Other overseas projects have included assessing the effects of the up-rating of compressor sets in Russia that required advanced analysis methodologies to be justified first hand to engineers from the Russian Academy of Sciences and extending oil refinery pipelines in Nigeria.
