State-space estimation with a Bayesian filter in a coupled PDE system for transient gas flows

The accuracy of the first-principle models describing the evolution of gas dynamics in pipelines is sometimes limited by the lack of understanding of the gas transport phenomena. In this paper, a stochastic filtering approach is proposed based on a sequential Monte Carlo method to provide real-time estimates of the state in gas pipelines. After constructing a state-space model of the compressible single-phase flow based on the laws of conservation of mass and momentum, the optimal sequential importance resampling filter (SIR) is implemented. The state variables are updated with simulated measurements. The two-step Lax-Wendroff method is used for the discretization of the partial differential equations describing the gas model in both space and time to obtain finite-dimensional discrete-time state-space representations. The system states are then combined into an augmented state vector. The resulting nonlinear state-space model is used for the design of the particle filter that provides real-time estimations of the system states. Simulation results for a coupled PDE system describing an unsteady isothermal gas flow demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. A sensitivity analysis is conducted to examine the performance of the filter for different model and observation error covariances and observation intervals.