Simulation of thermal insulation setting of gas pipeline station in cold regions

Stations of gas transportation pipeline are increasing in cold regions, but the thermal insulation setting of gas pipeline stations is not cognized sufficiently and does not get enough attention. In this paper, the setting principles and necessity of thermal insulation in gas pipeline stations were investigated in order to increase operation safety and save operating cost of the stations. The effects of thermal insulation on temperature drop of shutdown pipeline were analyzed to understand how thermal insulation maintains the wall temperature of pipelines. Then, the effects of thermal insulation on heat loss in the station were analyzed to figure out the effect of thermal insulation setting on operation cost saving. It is indicated that setting thermal insulation plays a remarkable role in maintaining pipe wall temperature after shutdown and reducing heat loss of temperature drop in the station. And finally, the principle was proposed to determine whether to set thermal insulation according to the years reaching the design throughput, and it was recommended to take full consideration of the temperature drop in the stations when the types of heating equipments are selected. The research result has been applied to Harbin-Shenyang Gas Pipeline and China-Russia Eastern Gas pipeline in Northeast China. And it can provide the guide for the construction of similar gas pipeline projects in the future.