Summary of New Features in PIPEFLO 7

 

Version 7.300

 

·               Twinned/Looped Pipes - A pipe can be one of multiple, identical ‘twinned’ or ‘looped’ pipes with flow equally split to perform the pressure-temperature profile calculations.  This is an approximate procedure that will be handled more rigorously with the future release of the simultaneous solution.

 

·               Flow Map Component - A flow pattern map which also identifies the local flow pattern and gas & liquid superficial velocities can be positioned anywhere in a system of pipes.          

 

·               VMG Equations of State - A new and comprehensive set of up-to-date, compositional, equations of state from Virtual Materials Group is now available as optional VLE calculations.     

 

·               Target Pressure Convergence Search Method - A new binary search algorithm and a hybrid, binary-secant search algorithm have been added to address convergence problems for low pressure systems or systems with high pressure gradients.

 

·               New Plotting Features - Graph control for customizing plots, synchronization of vertical axis grids, and ‘same scale’ for plots with identical vertical axis units.  Plot settings can also be saved to a file together with the plot data for quick recall of an important plot.

 

Version 7.200

 

·               Auto Run - Provides automated and unattended loading and running of sets of case files.    

 

·               Improved Copy - The schematic component copy operation now preserves the geometry and connectivity of groups of copied schematic items.

 

·               Extended Error Messaging - New and extended error messaging including: range check for Cept and Slope, A and B coefficients, zero rate check, over-specified pressures, incomplete emulsion data and required facility data.          

 

·               Neotec Data Schema Import/Export Capability - Compositional fluids and user-defined components can be imported/exported from/to other software packages.  Deliverability curves can be imported from WELLFLO and used in PIPEFLO cases.            

 

·               HYSYS Import - Compositional fluids and components can be imported from HYSYS cases.       

 

·               Pipe Dimension Database Additions - Pipe dimension data for FLEXPIPES Systems, Polytubes and Hydril Advanced Composites have been added to the built-in database.

 

·               Zero-Distance Results - Calculated results are now provided at the zero distance in all plots and reports.          

 

·               New Schematic Print/Print Preview - The schematic print and print preview has new zooming and tiling capability.

 

·               System Localization Conformance - The representation and display of numeric values in PIPEFLO respects the system settings for most West European and Latin languages.          

 

·               Tabular Fluid Properties - Many key fluid properties for Black Oil and Simplified fluid systems can now be entered in tabular form, as an alternative to having them be calculated by the software.            

 

·               Orimulsion® Fluid System - A specialty fluid modeling capability for the Orimulsion400® fluid has been added to the list of available fluid systems.         

 

·               Improved Troubleshooting and Error Diagnostics - PIPEFLO has a new and highly detailed error report with advanced diagnostic content.

 

Version 7.118

 

·               Persistence of Previous Session Results - Results data for flybys and plots is saved to disk and can be accessed and re-displayed in any later session of PIPEFLO 7.

 

·               Locate Facilities - PIPEFLO 7 can automatically locate compressors, pumps, heaters, coolers and UnitX facilities subject to pressure/temperature criteria entered by the user.

 

·               Expanded error messaging - Messages regarding missing or inconsistent data during data entry and solve-time errors have been expanded.  Clicking on the new message will pop up the relevant data entry screen.

 

·               New Component added - Helium has been added to the library of components for both compositional systems and for limited compositional systems.         

 

·               New Multiphase Flow Methods Added - OLGAS 2000 Two-Phase and OLGAS2000 Three-Phase flow models are now available under special license from ScandPower Petroleum Technology Inc.

 

·               Improved Flybys - Colour-coded results flybys indicate solve status - white: input data and results are consistent;  yellow: input data may have changed since the last successful solve;  red: case failed to solve.

 

·               Manipulate Schematic Diagram - Inline facilities (all components on Schematic Diagram other than pipes), can be stretched away from their attachment point(s) to improve display and clarity of pipeline system diagram.  Hold down the CTRL-SHIFT keys together before beginning the drag operation with the mouse.

 

·               Display Entire Schematic Diagram - For large networks or pipeline systems a new overview allows a zoomed-out view of the entire network for printing or centering on the click-point. Press F2 or select View->Entire Network on the main menu.

 

·               Expanded Export to Excel Spreadsheet Format - New capabilities include: “Export All” creates an individual table of user-selectable results for each pipe unit; or “Export Flow Assurance” creates a table of user-selectable results relevant for Flow Assurance or internal corrosion risk analysis, for any user selected path through the network. These functions are available on the Results menu.

 

·               New Corrosion Prediction Module - A new facility provides an internal pipeline corrosion risk assessment based on the work of NeoCorr Engineering Ltd. Enable the fluid source “Corrosion Risk” item.

 

·               Tabular Fluid Property Data Entry - User-defined Pressure-Temperature-Enthalpy tables can be entered for Black Oil fluid systems. Click on the “PTH Table” button on the fluid source “Fluid Properties” item. This will be expanded later to include other user-specified fluid properties.

 

·               New Fluid System - Orimulsion400® developed by PDVSA can now be handled as a specialized fluid. Correlations have been developed by Neotec to automatically model the physical and thermodynamic properties. Click on “Fluid Selection” from the General Case Data settings.

 

·               Oil-Water Emulsion Viscosity Behaviour - Two optional correlations have been added to model simple oil-water emulsions. Click on the “Emulsion” item from the General Case Data settings. Emulsion modeling can be enabled or disabled for individual pipe units.

 

·               Windows 98/ME Incompatibilities Solved - Previous incompatibilities between recent versions of PIPEFLO 7 and Windows 98/Me®, have been eliminated for those still running that operating system.

 

·               Improved Phase Envelope Diagram - A new, more robust algorithm has been developed for the calculation and display of the phase envelope when using an equation of state for a compositional analysis. Also, as an option, the predicted pressure, temperature profile in a pipeline can now be displayed on the phase envelope plot.

 

·               Internal Coatings Supported - PIPEFLO 7 can now handle the specialized heat transfer computation for internally coated pipes which may or may not have multiple coatings. Provision also exists for specifying the resulting absolute roughness of the inner-most surface which affects the predicted frictional pressure loss.

 

·               Miscellaneous Improvements - The thermal expansion model has been expanded to compute hydrocarbon liquid densities below the freezing point of water. A gravity and pressure dependence has been introduced into the prediction of black-oil hydrocarbon liquid enthalpies. The non-compositional gas enthalpy prediction has been expanded to handle pressures from 3000 to 6000 psia. Additional edit functions have been added to the flow relationship for sources.