Causal analysis of natural gas station pipelines vibration and reduction measures

The existing studies on the strong vibration problem of the outbound process pipeline of a natural gas transfer station focus on the pipeline process with a compressor. This work proposes a structural innovation to eliminate the pipeline vibration without compressor by experiment and numerical simulation. A simulation model was established based on the physical dimensions. Hammer test and finite element method validated the proposed model for natural gas stations pipelines. It was found that in branch 1 and 2 occur the first two coupled modes. In addition, three kinds of vibration reduction schemes, such as increasing sleeve and increasing pipe diameter, are proposed to increase the pipe rigidity and reduce the excitation force to control the vibration. It is revealed that adding sleeves to the branch pipes 1 and 2 can better suppress pipe vibration by referring to related evaluation standards. This case shows that performing variable-condition vibration testing and spectrum characteristics analysis of pipelines can easily reveal the main vibration sources and provide solutions for pipeline vibration reduction treatment.