Dynamic Modeling of Natural Gas Pipeline Using Electric Circuit Equivalents

In this paper, a method for modeling and simulation of pneumatic transients of natural gas pipelines is proposed. The partial differential equations (PDEs) that describe the dynamics of the gas pipeline are converted to the ordinary differential equations (ODEs) based on the difference approximation. Electrical analogies for pneumatic and thermal quantities are exploited, and the natural gas pipelines are modeled using basic electric circuit elements. The pipeline model can be simulated with any available power-system and circuit simulation tools. Detailed studies are performed to demonstrate the accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed equivalent circuit model.