Frictional forces during pigging of multiphase pipelines

Abstract

In this study the frictional force between a pig and the pipe wall is studied by investigating the properties of the sealing disk of the pig. This is done by subjecting the sealing disk to a wall normal force and a frictional force in a lab facility. The experimental results are compared with values obtained by Finite Element Analysis and by a simplified mechanistic model. The obtained results are important for estimating the steady state pig velocity in a pipeline, and thus for the arrival time of the pig. In addition, the results can be used to improve 1D transient pig modelling in a pipeline, where the frictional force is an input parameter.