Evaluation method and system for the flow safety of crude oil pipelines

When the crude oil of high pour point and high viscosity is transported in a pipeline, the pipeline is faced with many flow safety risks during its operation, such as initial gelling, pipeline gelling and wax blocking. Traditional research approaches and field experience neglect the fluctuation of main factors influencing flow safety (e.g. the physical properties and rheology of crude oil, and the parameters in relation to surroundings of pipeline, weather and operation) and calculate the parameters by means of statistical average value, so they cannot comprehensively evaluate and predict the synergistic effect of above mentioned parameters on the pipeline flow safety. In this paper, PetroChina Pipeline R & D Center and China University of Petroleum (Beijing) introduced reliability-based limit state method into the flow safety evaluation on the longdistance land crude oil pipelines of high pour point and high viscosity for the first time, referring to its trials and applications in the other fields and industries. Then they established an evaluation system and developed the corresponding software platform. In this way, the flow safety evaluation on domestic main crude oil pipelines is realized. The research results promote the development of the theories and applications of storage and transportation technologies.